Three years ago, Sarah Tambussi, the administrator of the Historical Society of Haddonfield, suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm and stroke. That life-altering event reinforced her connection with her family, her friends, and her community — and reaffirmed her desire to give back to those around her. A decade ago, she started in her role at the Historical Society, where she supports the board of trustees and does a little bit of everything, from bookkeeping and grant writing to marketing and giving tours — whatever needs to be done.
She has long been an active volunteer. One of her earliest memories from around age 4 is being with her mother who was volunteering at a horse show benefiting Bryn Mawr Hospital. Previously, she was on the board of the Haddonfield Educational Trust and the Haddonfield Fortnightly Juniors. Currently, she’s on the board of Impact100 South Jersey.
How does she feel about promoting her community and its history? “It’s a passion,” she says.
I’ve always loved history. I come from an old Philadelphia family and have a great grandmother who traced our family all the way back to the Mayflower. My family has been in Philadelphia for hundreds of years and owned a saw manufacturing plant in northeast Philly. I grew up hearing all these cool stories from my parents.
One of my earliest memories is my mom taking me to a house that was being torn down somewhere on the Main Line. It was this beautiful old stone house. I was probably six or seven, and I was just fascinated by the history behind this old building. I wanted to go up to the homeowner or whoever was demolishing this building and yell, “Please stop!”
I come from a marketing and retail background. I ran a store in Philadelphia called Laura Ashley, but I was that person who would always be digging in the basement, going “What is this?” I am the one who kept Grandmom’s china, and the chair my great grandmom always sat in when I was a kid. I live in a 115-year-old house in Haddonfield. I just love history, reading about it, studying it, promoting it, and honestly, I hope residents realize how lucky they are to live in such an amazing town with such a fascinating history.
The Historical Society is a 112-year-old nonprofit that was founded in 1914 by a group of residents who had just organized the town’s 200-year celebration and realized there were some very important historic items — and a very important history — that should be kept safe for future generations. We have a group of wonderful, passionate volunteers. Our mission is to collect and preserve the history of Haddonfield but also to educate our community about this history. Our role as an educational organization is so important. We promote history, so that people will value it more.
Haddonfield was founded by Elizabeth Haddon. She came here from England by herself to claim this land for her father when she was very young, 20 or 21. She married John Estaugh in 1702 and together they helped establish the Friends Meeting. Her farm was called New Haddonfield Plantation. We have school tours for Haddonfield second graders who come every year and honestly, the kids love the story of Elizabeth Haddon. She was such a strong woman and she had so much influence over the future of this community.
We hold several significant books, documents, maps and old photos in our archives, the Patricia Lennon Archives Center, constructed in 2021. There are many amazing artifacts held in our Collections, which are housed in Greenfield Hall. It was built in 1841 by John Gill IV. And every room has a piece of Haddonfield’s past to see. We have a table and mirror that belonged to Elizabeth Haddon. I can imagine her standing in front of it. There is a sports room upstairs. Take a look at the boneshaker, a very old bike!
We really are so lucky to have been gifted many amazing historic items over the years. Our Collections chair, Dianne Snodgrass and her committee, including tool curator Josh Ottenberg, work so hard to manage and safeguard our museum collection. And our archivist, Dr. David Platt, along with his volunteers, constantly fields reference questions as well as managing all the records within the archives.
One of my favorite exhibits in Greenfield Hall is our Don Wallace Tool Cellar. We have over 3,000 tools in the basement of Greenfield Hall. They are displayed by industry. We have everything down there: from an ice saw, blacksmith tools, vintage doctors’ tools, farm equipment, a cobbler’s tools, and old kitchen gadgets. We even have a horseshoe that was found nearby that belonged to a Hessian pony from when the Hessian soldiers occupied the area in 1777 before the Battle of Red Bank.
Haddonfield has the second oldest volunteer fire company in the U.S. Haddonfield’s Friendship Fire Company was started in 1764. Think about it: That was before the Revolutionary War had even started, and there were maybe 600 people in town. We have several leather fire buckets. Each volunteer had to have two buckets, in case they lost one. They were painted with the owner’s name on them. We have Sarah Hopkins’s bucket. (Women could volunteer too!) They are actually beautiful, and what a reminder of how important it was to be part of an active community that volunteered to support each other.
We also have a third building on our campus, the Samuel Mickle House, circa 1730s, and the oldest wood- framed house in Camden County. At one point it was owned by Elizabeth Haddon and was located next to Indian King Tavern. Eventually, it was moved to Ellis Street. It was later brought to our property in the 1960s.
We’re part of the Camden County History Alliance. We meet at other historic properties throughout Camden County and I’ve seen some beautiful old buildings and locations. The last meeting was held on the USS New Jersey Battleship — and wow, that was fun! We work with many local historical organizations: Lawnside, Haddon Township, Audubon, Haddon Heights, Merchantville, and the Black Haddonfield History Project.
As a resident of this town, I feel like keeping our connection to the community vibrant is one of the most important parts of my job. We really try to promote and work with other organizations in town too.
My mom had a small gift shop in Media, Pennsylvania for almost 40 years, and I worked there almost every Saturday for many years, starting as a teenager. I loved knowing the other store owners and their families. And that experience definitely made me realize how important it is to support small businesses — and I want to do that for Haddonfield. I love shopping downtown. The Historical Society of Haddonfield has published several books over the years and in addition to selling them in Greenfield Hall, they can be found at Inkwood Books.
A favorite project that’s coming up on March 15 is called “A Stitch in Time.” The Historical Society has about 20-25 samplers from 1700 up until 1850. These cross-stitch samplers were created by young ladies from Haddonfield. They would stitch numbers, letters, add their name, and sometimes their family members’ names. Many of these girls did not go to formal schools in the 18th and early 19th century, so this needlework was an educational tool and their way of learning how to sew in a time when everything was made by hand.
One of the samplers in our collection was created by Letitia Matlack in 1734. Her half-brother, Timothy Matlack, was the scribe for the Declaration of Independence. He grew up on the property that is now Indian King Tavern Museum and later moved to Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War.
We will be having numerous speakers in the spring, starting with Will Krakower from the Princeton Battlefield on April 8 at Tavistock Country Club. On May 21, we will have a speaker who wrote a book about the Declaration of Independence. And in June, we are partnering with Indian King Tavern for a speaker on the New Jersey Constitution. And of course we cannot forget about the Haddonfield Skirmish on June 6. It will be great this year!
I love our Haunted Haddonfield tours. We’ve run them in the fall for over 20 years. The tours are based on two books by Bill Meehan, Jr., “Haunted Haddonfield” I and II. The most recent book we published was the Samuel Nicholson Rhoads book that was written by Kim Custer, along with several middle school students. Mr. Rhoads was an ornithologist and grew up in Boxwood Hall, the old historic building across from the library. We should have a new book by Garry Wheeler Stone published next year.
We’re about to launch a house plaque program after many months of planning and coordination. For a fee, we will research a Haddonfield property and then provide a report and a customized plaque that can be hung on the outside of the house. Last week I was at the Camden Maritime Museum, which is run by Urban Promise, to see if they will cut the plaques for us. We had to get the Historic Preservation Commission to approve the plaque because they need to review any signage on a town building, whether it’s a historic building or not. We will be creating these for anyone within the zip code 08033, for any age property. The plaques will indicate when a property is in the historic district.
The Historical Society has many records, but we don’t have all the records for Haddonfield properties. Some of them are in Camden at Camden City Hall, some are at the Camden County Historical Society, and some are in digital Philadelphia records. It’s amazing what you can find! I love doing research, but that’s my history nerd side showing. This is a big endeavor for us, but it helps us provide a historical education for the community. It’s also a great conversation starter.
