Photo by Daniel Jackovino Former Councilman Rich Rockwell is on the outside looking in on township efforts he once spearheaded.
Former Councilman Rich Rockwell is on the outside looking in on township efforts he once spearheaded.
Rich Rockwell, Bloomfield historian and former councilman, will no longer be guiding two popular historic tours or be part of the continued rehabilitation of an historic site.
Rockwell led Morris Canal and Bloomfield Historic District tours and has been key in a make-over of the 18th-century Collins House, from a haven for feral cats to what promises to be a family destination.
The Collins House, formerly the dwelling of a Morris Canal engineer, is located in a wooded area between Broad Street and JFK Parkway and is fenced off. According to Rockwell, the tours have been discontinued.
“I started the Morris Canal tour in 2012,” he said recently. “The Bloomfield Recreation Department provided a bus and gave me keys to restrooms along the way. I’ve been doing the tour for 12 years, twice a year.”
The history walks began in 2023.
“That was partly because I spoke at an historic preservation event at The Church on the Green. I wanted to show people that Bloomfield was walkable. I had a key to the Oakside Cultural Center. The walk started and ended there and there was a tour of the house. It was a two-hour tour with convenient parking.”
The Morris Canal tours were a little longer.
“They were four to four-and-a-half hours,” he said. “A bus took us back and it was limited to 20 people. There was usually a waiting list.”
The tours were initially free, but then cost $20. The price included a tour book and a stop at the Collins House.
“I’ve had keys to the fence lock since 2010,” he said. “And in 2011, we created ‘Friends of Morris Canal Greenway.’ I’m still an officer.”
“I started doing the canal tour as a private citizen,” he said. “The township created a canal committee in 2015. I wasn’t a councilman yet. I became one in 2018 and the liaison to the Morris Canal Greenway Committee. I had multiple roles over the years. I never really thought about why I was doing it — as an officer of ‘Friends,’ as a liaison to the township greenway committee, as a councilman or just a private citizen.”
The Bloomfield Historic District tours were monthly, stopping for the winter and commencing March or April. The canal tour would be in April or May.
Rockwell was first appointed as a councilman. He resigned Nov. 19, 2024. But there were a number of things he did before political office including advocating for way-finder canal signs, interpretive canal signs and bollards on the Lenapi Trail.
“I was also very involved with the Collins House as a private citizen, he said. “The ‘Friends’ got the Collins House on the 2013 endangered property list of Preservation NJ. We were a success story. The ‘Friends’ rescued the Collins House.”
The Collins House was unanimously approved by the New Jersey State Review Board of Historic Places in November of 2015. At the time, former Councilman Carlos Pomares was council liaison to the Greenway Committee. Acceptance by the board was a result of a collaborative effort by committee members Mimi Michalski, Andrew Kollar, Pomares and Rockwell. All four worked on the application submitted to the board. Rockwell, Michalski, Pomares and Corielle Vogel, a Glen Ridge resident and a descendant of the Collins family, attended the review board meeting in Trenton. Pomares is now an Essex County commissioner.
As a councilman, Rockwell said the “Friends” provided a township grant writer with information for a $450,000 grant.
“The ‘Friends’ also received a $40,000 grant from the Morris Canal Society of NJ,” he said. “The canal society was going to help us furnish a room at the Collins House into a small museum. I’ve been working on this house since 2010. The $450,000 grant was matched by the town. That $900,000 and $40,000 are at work restoring the place.
There had been hope, he said, that the canal society might help staff a museum when the restoration is completed.
“It was logical to have the society do this,” he said. “It was my vision. But now I’ve been excluded from the twice-monthly meetings between the architect and contractor.”
When he attended his last Collins House meeting, on March 11, he said he was told by a representative to not attend anymore meetings or enter the property. He also had to relinquish any keys he had. Rockwell said he understands.
“The town is strictly following the rules,” he said, “but overlooking the fact that I’ve been involved with the house for 15 years and started as a private citizen. But we were more informal back then. The ‘Friends’ should have defined a formal agreement with the town, but we just figured we were going to keep doing what we were doing. I’m still an officer of ‘Friends,’ but we have no standing with the town.”
His concerns now are that without the tours, educational opportunities would be lost. As for the Collins House, he did not know who was going to continue a vision of restoration.
“I’m one of the most knowledgeable people in Bloomfield about it,” he said. “I got the $40,000 grant and it’s been my vision. I never stopped to think if I was doing it because I was a councilman or a member of ‘Friends.’ I did it because I’m passionate about history and want to share this. Something could have been worked out so that I remain involved with the project, either an appointment to the Morris Canal Greenway Committee or recognition of ‘Friends’ having standing with the town.”
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