The former executive director of the Camden County Historical Society (CCHS) gazes across the same territory and sees a vanished landscape of screaming steam valves and dusty work sheds, soot-smudged smoke stacks and metal-stamping machines, trolley cars and brass cash registers. To Schopp, history is about business and engineering infrastructure.

Appointed Society Historian

Schopp has just been appointed the first official historian the 101-year-old Camden County Historical Society has ever had, in part because of his National Register successes.

"Paul's understanding of the industrial matrix that underlies virtually all the history of this area is as extraordinary as his ability to get three local industrial sites into the National Register," said CCHS president David Munn. "His in-depth knowledge of this specialized field is a major asset to the people of Camden County as well as the Society, and this appointment is designed to publicly recognize that."

Schopp, who has twice been appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to sit on the state Historic Records Advisory Board, admits that a large part of the public doesn't really think about old factories and work yards as historic sites. But, he suggests, people have only to look as far as their own neighborhoods to understand the true importance of yesteryear's industries to their families and society as a whole.