Rutherford Health Department Building: 303 N. Church St.

Built by the Commonwealth Fund of New York in 1931, the Rutherford Health Department was the first of its kind in any rural county in the United States. The partnership with the Commonwealth Fund was the idea of Red Cross public health nurse Maud Ferguson (who lived at the nearby Woman’s Club) and began with the establishment of a child health demonstration unit in 1924 that dramatically reduced death rates among mothers and infants. Remarkably influential, the Health Department trained women from throughout the country and abroad, and the building is on the National Register.