Community Corner
Presidential Birthplace Breaks Ground on Visitor's Center
Community invited to celebrate milestone at Grover Cleveland Presidential Birthplace in Caldwell.
If you have ever come around the bend on Bloomfield Avenue heading west from Verona, the first house on your right is a Presidential Birthplace, home of the only U.S. President born in New Jersey, Grover Cleveland.
Many locals have taken this site for granted in the past…Grover who? This is all to change over the next few years. On Sunday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m., a “Shovel in the Ground” ceremony will launch the construction phase of a Visitor’s Center on the grounds of President Grover Cleveland’s birthplace in Caldwell.
State, county and local dignitaries have been invited to participate, as well as local service groups. The event is free and open to the public.
The Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association, GCBMA for short, is well-known locally for hosting its annual July 4th Ice Cream Social, with upwards to 1,000 people attending annually.
With the building of a Visitor’s Center, the GCBMA is attempting to create higher visibility for the 22nd and 24th POTUS.
The GCBMA has finished the legwork involved with archeological studies and building plans, and has received the support of the NJDEP for the project.
About President Cleveland
President Grover Cleveland was born in 1837 as Stephen Grover Cleveland. The future president was born and lived in Caldwell for four years, leaving when his father, Richard Falley Cleveland, minister at the First Presbyterian Church received a calling from Fayetteville, N.Y.Although the would-be president was born at 207 Bloomfield Ave., known as the turnpike back then, the Birthplace has remained open as the only Presidential site dedicated to the legacy of President Grover Cleveland in the United States, let alone New Jersey.
On Sept. 29, a group of acting students from James Caldwell High School will put on vignettes from the life of Grover Cleveland, written by them and under the direction of their teacher, Jensen Madero. The play will take the onlooker back in time to meet various key players in President Cleveland’s life.
Pledges will be taken to help defray the cost of building the Visitor’s Center.
If you plan to attend, contact the Grover Cleveland Birthplace at 973-226-0001, email gcbmainc@gmail.com or visit www.Clevelandbirthplace.org.
This article was contributed by the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association.
Did You Know?
President Grover Cleveland will be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the Izod Center planned for Oct. 21.Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
