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The Stone House by Stone House Brook is listed on both the New
Jersey and the National Registers of Historic Places.
The Stone House is classified as a domestic single-family residence.
The original structure, now a portion of Stone House was a simple,
rural, one and a half story Dutch, vernacular style building
constructed of natural, native stone.
The English navigator, Henry Hudson employed by the Dutch East India
Company explored the coast of New Jersey in 1609.
By 1633 a Dutch settlement was established at Communipaw, now Jersey
City.
By 1641 a land grant was issued to Myndert Mydertson Van der Horst
for the land west of Newark Bay and North to Tappan, this likely
included South Orange.
By 1680 the Old Stone House was in existence, it was referred to as
“Stone House” in the Newark Town Records on September 27, 1680,
making it the oldest datable building in the state of New Jersey.
The 325 plus year existence of the Stone House embraces the history
of the region.
Stone House Brook is the name given to the stream running westward
to the East branch of the Rahway River.
Nathaniel Wheeler is the first recorded owner of the Stone House and
the surrounding acreage.
Wheeler is the first fully recorded European settler in the area.
Wheeler was a Newark founder and signer of the Fundamental Agreement
of the Newark colony.
The original farm encompassed approximately 60 acres, including what
is now Grove Park.
There have been twenty known and recorded owners of Stone House, the
Township of South Orange Village the longest owner
Another prominent early family owned the Stone House, the Pierson
family (Samuel II, Bethuel and Cyrus in succession-c. 1747 thru
1793) during their tenure a large and significant stone addition was
made to the building including a hall and parlor.
Until 1866 Stone House was a working farm, at times encompassing 75
acres of land.
In 1866 William Augustus Brewer Jr. purchased the stone farmhouse
from developer John Gorham Vose, owning the home fifty years until
1916.
Brewer was a successful businessman and civic-minded individual with
numerous public appointments including South Orange Village trustee
and two-term president of the Village of South Orange council.
Brewer is remembered as a pioneer and visionary, helping to
successfully usher the transition of the community from farmlands to
suburbia
Under Brewer’s guidance the stone farmhouse was incorporated into a
Queen Anne Shingle style mansion with Folk Victorian influences.
Brewer essentially built a house in front of the original structure.
These expensive, extensive interior and exterior upgrades and
additions were made to the dwelling in 1877 and again in 1896. The
final residence, a three unit wide and two units deep, side-gabled
building with full front porch was three stories in height.
“Most of the old stone house and (the eighteenth century) addition
can still be traced to the present dwelling.” Two stone walls, east
and west and a portion of the third (portions of the Northern wall)
are visible from the exterior. The forth wall survives but is not
visible from the exterior. Additional parts of the original
farmhouse may still exist concealed, and require further discovery.
The roofline and part of the older floor plan have changed due to
Brewer’s and Pierson’s renovations.
Brewer christened his house “Aldworth”- old mansion. The legend
still remains at the division between the old stone house and the
Victorian frame mansion.
Under the criteria for locality the house nomination was accepted by
the National Register of Historic Places for community planning,
politics / government and education for the period 1866-1916 because
of Brewer’s occupancy.
Stone House is the only standing house associated with the life of
Brewer.
The Stone House “possesses integrity of location, setting, design,
materials, workmanship and association”.
Two significant archeological sites have been identified on the
property contributing to the acceptance to the National Register of
Historic Places.
The two sites; a trash scatter of approximately 400 square feet
dating from the late 1700’s/early 1800’s located adjacent to the
kitchen door and a second site of close to 600 square feet have been
identified. These deposits potentially will contribute information
and insight to areas relating to urbanization, industrialization and
agricultural development as well as “socioeconomic research, trade
pattern analysis, and the economic effects of transportation
improvements in Essex County during this historic period-circa 1747
to 1850”.
A
non-contributing addition was made to the house in approximately
1937, the roof in this area has collapsed, and most of this addition
has been removed except a vault added by the Board of Education in
the 1950’s also non-contributing still stands in this area.
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