Family of Elric Johnston Endersby Establishes Endowment at the Princeton Area Community Foundation to Support Historical Society of Princeton Internships
Endowment at Princeton Area Community Foundation to Fund Annual Internship in Perpetuity; Signing Ceremony Held at Updike Farm
The memory of a devoted local historian and preservation expert will be honored through a Princeton Area Community Foundation fund that will support an annual internship at the Historical Society of Princeton.
The Endersby and Gwazda family has established the Elric Johnston Endersby Internship in Public History Endowment at the Community Foundation to honor the life and legacy of Elric Johnston Endersby, who passed away on Oct. 13 at his home in Ewing. He was 79.
The endowed fund will support a paid summer internship program that will celebrate Endersby’s contributions to local history and architectural preservation and his longstanding commitment to mentor the young people with whom he worked.
“Elric understood that the next generation needs to be aware of the value of preservation, so he encouraged students to appreciate the old ways and appearances,” said his sister, Deborah Endersby Gwazda. “The Historical Society of Princeton (HSP) is an ideal home for his internship, and we are grateful for the enthusiasm they have shown for honoring his legacy.”
Left to right: Douglas Chia, HSP Board President; Mathieu Nelessen, President & CEO, Community Foundation; Edward Gwazda; Deborah Endersby Gwazdan
Endersby grew up in Princeton, graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut, and studied preservation architecture at the Cooperstown Graduate Program at SUNY Oneonta.
In 1975, he founded The Princeton Recollector, an oral history journal. The digitized archives of the journal and the voices it preserved are now available at HSP and the Princeton University Library.
Some years later, he and his business partner created the New Jersey Barn Company in Ringoes, which over the next 40 years restored historic homes and barns across the state and the Mid-Atlantic region, including the 18th-century Edmund Burroughs House in Princeton. Architectural Digest once featured the company as its cover story.
He was also a co-author of Barn: The Art of a Working Building, published in 1992, and Barn: Preservation and Adaptation, published in 2014.
“My uncle was a prolific documenter of timber-frame buildings,” said Farley Gwazda, Endersby’s nephew, who worked closely with him to organize and preserve his drawings, photographs, and archival materials. “His meticulously measured drawings of over 700 structures constitute the most comprehensive record of barns in the Mid-Atlantic region. The work we undertook together has helped ensure that these historically invaluable materials will be preserved and made accessible as a living archive.”
Endersby was a member of the Timber Framers Guild and the Historic Preservation Commission of Princeton, and a HSP board member.
“The internship offers students and recent graduates a hands-on introduction to public history by having them work directly alongside HSP staff on active projects. While specific responsibilities will be shaped by the intern’s interests and our current priorities, projects may include working with historical collections, developing educational programming, supporting oral history initiatives, and contributing to research and interpretation,” said Elizabeth Monroe, HSP Executive Director. “As this is the first year of the internship, we are especially excited to create an opportunity for students to see how an interest in history can translate into a range of career paths.”
The internship will initially be funded through memorial gifts made to HSP upon his passing, and then it will be sustained through the endowed fund created by his family at the Community Foundation.
“The outpouring of memorial tributes to Elric reflects the wide range of people that he touched personally,” said his brother-in-law, Edward Gwazda. “More than 90 gifts totaling almost $24,000 have been received by the Historical Society from preservationists, historians, friends, and colleagues. The family is happy to initiate funding for this Endowment at the Princeton Area Community Foundation, whose commitment to meeting our family’s legacy intent gives us confidence in a promising future for the Internship.”
The endowment paperwork was formally signed at a ceremony held at Updike Farm, the home of HSP. Attendees included Monroe, Douglas Chia, HSP Board President, Mathieu Nelessen, Community Foundation President & CEO, and Steven Spinner, Community Foundation Chief Philanthropy Officer, along with Edward Gwazda and Deborah Endersby Gwazda.
Those wishing to make a gift to the Elric Johnston Endersby Internship in Public History Endowment may do so by contacting Spinner at sspinner@pacf.org or (609) 219-1800.
About the Historical Society of Princeton
Founded in 1938, the Historical Society of Princeton is a museum, research center, and public programming site dedicated to bringing the remarkable history of Princeton, NJ to life for diverse audiences. Located at Updike Farm in Princeton, New Jersey, HSP preserves and shares the history of Princeton and the surrounding region through its archives, collections, oral histories, and public programs. For more information, visit www.princetonhistory.org.
About the Princeton Area Community Foundation
The Princeton Area Community Foundation promotes lasting philanthropy and builds community across Mercer County and central New Jersey. As a community convener, philanthropic resource and manager of charitable funds, it helps people and companies make effective charitable gifts and awards grants to nonprofits. Since its founding in 1991, the Community Foundation has made grants of more than $262 million and provided an additional $58 million in support to our nonprofit fundholders. With over 440 charitable funds, in 2025, the Community Foundation awarded more than $21.8 million in grants to support the critical work of nonprofits in making the communities they serve more responsive to the needs of their residents. Learn more at www.pacf.org.
