Immerse yourself in Swedesboro’s rich history by visiting any of the following locations listed on the National & State Registers of Historic Places. Four of the eight local sites listed on The National and/or State Registers of Historic Places are located within the Borough, while four additional sites are located in neighboring Woolwich Township. Click here to learn more about our walking tours, which highlight local, state and national historic locations along the way.
The following sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (published by the National Park Service in Washington, DC) and/or the New Jersey Register of Historic Places (published by New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Historic Preservation Office in Trenton, NJ.) Specific sites hold State Historic Preservation Officer’s Opinions of Eligibility or Certificates of Eligibility. For details, see key below.
Borough Hall
Kings Highway & Lake Avenue in Swedesboro
SHPO Opinion: September 8, 1977
Built in 1915, Borough Hall housed Swedesboro’s municipal offices as well as the Woolwich Township Fire Company until 1977. Borough Hall’s original clock, refurbished in 2007, is wound every week by hand.
John C. Rulon House
1428 Kings Highway in Swedesboro
NR: November 22, 2000; SR: October 12, 2000
Originally a two room house built circa 1813, this home belonged to John C. Rulon, who founded the first bank in the Borough, and was responsible for bringing water and sewer into Swedesboro and building Lake Park Cemetery. Expanded in 1820, then again in the 1840s and 1880s, the home still retains its original hardwood floors, pocket doors, and ornate Italianate porch railing as installed by John C. Rulon himself.
Mortenson/Van Leer Log Cabin
SR: March 30, 1972
One of the oldest surviving cabins in the nation, the Mortenson/Van Leer Log Cabin is an example of the Swedish-Finnish cabin structure brought to America when the area was originally settled. The cabin served as an Underground Railroad station along Raccoon Creek. Formerly located at the Grand Sprute Plantation (home of Morton Mortenson, whose great-grandson, John Morton, signed the Declaration of Independence) along Raccoon Creek, the cabin was moved to its present site in 1989.
Richardson Avenue School
Richardson Avenue & Second Street in Swedesboro
NR: June 18, 1998; SR: April 24, 1998
Formerly a Masonic Hall, the Richardson Avenue School opened as a “separate but equal” three classroom school for African American children in 1931. It remained open until 1942, and is recognized today as the only remaining segregated school in the state.
Trinity “Old Swedes” Church
Corner of Church Street & Kings Highway in Swedesboro
NR: January 25, 1973; SR: May 1, 1972
Trinity “Old Swedes” Church is the first Swedish Church in the state and the third in the nation. Founded as a Swedish Lutheran Church in 1703, the present building seats 300, dates back to 1784 and retains most of its original architectural details. The bell tower, added in 1839, has an interior identical to that of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Adams Methodist Episcopal Church
Stone Meetinghouse Road in Woolwich Township
COE: January 10, 1990
Called “The Mother of Methodism,” this church is perhaps the oldest surviving Methodist church in South Jersey still in its original building. Constructed in 1793, it is a rare and fine example of an 18th Century brownstone structure.
Moravian Church
Swedesboro-Sharptown Road in Woolwich Township
NR: April 3, 1973; SR: May 1, 1972
Built in 1786, Woolwich Township’s Moravian Church is the oldest of any established Moravian Church in the state. Services ceased around 1803 and the church continued being used by Methodists and Episcopalians. In 1836, the building was deeded to the Episcopal Church. It was acquired by the Gloucester County Historical Society in 1948, and is open for special tours.
Mount Zion AME Church & Cemetery
172 Garwin Road in Woolwich Township
NR: July 25, 2001; SR: June 11, 2001
Built in 1834 in the settlement of Small Gloucester, this church represents the development of the local African American community and the evolution of the African Methodist Episcopal congregations in South Jersey. Mount Zion AME Church served to educate and provide a social center for the community, as well as promote the suffrage rights of African Americans. Inside the church, a trap door still exists where the congregation would hide runaway slaves. The adjoining cemetery, the first formal cemetery available to Small Gloucester’s inhabitants, has tombstones dating back to 1861.
Stratton Hall (Governor Charles Stratton House)
538 Kings Highway in Woolwich Township
NR: January 29, 1973; SR: May 1, 1972
Built circa 1794, this home originally belonged to Dr. James Stratton, father of Governor Charles Stratton (the first popularly-elected governor of New Jersey under the New State Constitution of 1844.) Governor Charles Stratton was born, lived, and died at his home in 1859. He is spending eternity in Swedesboro at Trinity Church’s New Cemetery.
West Branch Church Run Archaeological Site
SHPO Opinion: May 4, 2011
An archaeological site for Native American artifacts along a branch of Raccoon Creek.
Key
NR: Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
SR: Site is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places
SHPO Opinion: State Historic Preservation Officer’s Opinion of Eligibility
COE: Certificate of Eligibility