Historic restoration in Mercer

Mercer Business, May 01, 1998

Mercer County will be $2 million richer this fall when money from the New Jersey Historic Trust is released to help restore four, local Revolutionary War-era buildings.

The four sites are Morven ($1,078,274) in Princeton, the former Governor's residence; the Trent House ($683,258) in Trenton, the former residence of the state capital's namesake; the 1761 Brearley House ($361,643) and the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church ($196,225), both in Lawrence Township.

But, according to Harriette Hawkins, executive director of the New Jersey Historic Trust, the $2 million outlay will just be a drop in the preservationist bucket that will start a financial ripple when architects, sub-contractors, and eventually tourists see the effect of the new Trust money landing in Mercer County.

"You'll see new revenue from the wage taxes paid out by all the workers that have to be hired to do the restoration work, and the sales tax the contractors will be paying on the materials purchased for each site. Morven, for instance, will be using four different consultants to complete their work" Hawkins explained.

The mission of the New Jersey Historic Trust is to advance the preservation of the state's historic properties through financial, educational and stewardship programs. Here is an overview of the four Mercer County historic sites that were awarded grants in December of 1997:

"It may look quaint from the sidewalk below, but the cupola atop (the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church ) is slowly collapsing in," described parishioner Ruth Barringer of Lawrenceville.

Lawrenceville Presbyterian was one of seven churches (Roman Catholic, Episcopal, African Methodist, as well as Presbyterian) to receive state funding for restoration work.

New Jersey Historic Trust money will be used to repair only the facade of a house of worship, not a sacred area such as a wooden pulpit or marble altar. And if you're wondering how your taxpayer dollars can help someone else's religion, the separation of church and state is kept intact because all of the buildings are listed or eligible for listing under the New Jersey Historic Registrar. In other words, the Old North Church in Boston is significant for what happened there one cold, April night over 200 years ago, not for its serving as an Episcopal church. In addition to having its cupola rescued, the 1764 Lawrenceville Presbyterian will get its slate roof repaired, built-in gutters fixed and its heavy timber roof framing will be maintained.

The architect is Margaret Westfield of Westfield Architects and Preservation Consultants of Haddon Heights in Camden County.

"The Breley House reminds me of something you might see in Mississippi--a historic house at the end of a dirt road, just standing there, all alone in a field," commented Anne Weber, senior associate with the Princeton architectural firm of Ford Farewell Mills and Gatsch. Her firm, well-known for its preservation work, will design for the Brearley House a kitchen addition that is on top of the foundation of an earlier kitchen that was unearthed in an archeological dig held in November of 1996. You'll always remember how old the Brearley House is because its owner, John Brearley, paid extra for bricks to be glazed in England and placed just so amongst the New Jersey bricks that you can read "1761" from your horse as you pass through Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville). The two-story farmhouse, which once housed two slaves who worked in the kitchen for the well-to-do Brearley family , will be completely restored as it has been inhabitable for decades (a squatter once even had his 800 pound pig dine in the parlor).

Morven, on Rt. 206 in Princeton, was last used as a governor's home for Brendan Byrne and his large family. Now gardeners will be delighted when its Colonial Revival era gardens, established by former owner Helen Hamilton Stockton, are in bloom once again under the direction of Lucinda Brockway, a landscape historian hired as one of Morven's consultants. According to Emily Croll, director of Historic Morven, Inc., the other consultants hired to complete Morven's restoration campaign are Annabelle Radcliffe-Trenner, preservation consultant, and the Trenton architectural firm of Clarke, Caton and Hintz. Morven, which was built by a Declaration of Independence signer, Richard Stockton, will also get new slate roofs, receive a barrier-free access and be prepared to house New Jersey decorative arts as an auxiliary space for the State Museum in Trenton.

The Trent House restoration will be so pervasive that it will not be completed this century. Of course, that's just two years away, but Trent House museum director Ann Hermann relates that, because the building is owned by the city of Trenton, it will take five times longer to prepare a municipality bid package.

"We have so many levels of bureaucracy to go through, that I don't see the bidding going out until the end of 1998 and then we'll have at least two years of construction," she said.

All fourth grade Trenton public school children--1300 students with 2600 active feet--tour the Trent House every year, and so the city will try to choose a quieter time on the calendar for the Trent House to be closed down due to construction.