Historic Grover House of Middletown Receives $10,000 Grant for "Facelift" from 1772 Foundation

Photo credit: the Navesink Maritime Heritage Association homepage

The historic Grover House, a rare local example of Dutch architecture, will get a facelift thanks to a $10,000 matching grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust’s 1772 Foundation.

“This grant will help breathe new life into one of our most historic landmarks,” said Mayor Stephanie Murray. “I’m looking forward to seeing the Grover House become a vital part of the community again, filled with energy and activity.”

The project will include rehabilitation of the roof line, porch, shutters, and downspouts. The work is part of larger restoration plan that includes repairing and restoring the exterior and interior utilities of the Grover House. In 2014, Middletown Township, the owners of the historic property, granted a 10-year lease to the Navesink Maritime Heritage Association (NMHA), a not-for-profit organization formed to preserve and provide education to residents on Monmouth County’s maritime heritage and history. The NMHA plans to use the historic home as its headquarters for offices and meeting rooms, as well as the association’s maritime and historical programs and activities.

Middletown and the NMHA will remain partners in the house’s upkeep, said Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante.

Over the next three years, the NMHA expects to embark on a staged development project, beginning with the basement, followed by the first and second floors of the residential building. The non-profit also plans to erect a 1,600 square foot maritime activity center that would be used to teach adults and youth about small boat building. It would be a one-story post-and-beam type building that matches the aesthetics of the Grover House, he said. The NMHA will be seeking additional grant funding.

This is the second grant received for the Grover House from the New Jersey Historic Trust. In 2002, the township received $300,000 in funding to complete the exterior work, Mercantante said.

The Grover House is a rare surviving example of two-story, Dutch timber framing and the use of round-butt shingles as cladding. The house was constructed in the early 1700’s by the descendants of James Grover, one of the original 12 patentees of the Monmouth Patent.

On April 8, 1665, James Grover, an emigrant from England, received lot #16 in Middletown. His descendant, who was also named James Grover, built the Grover House around 1730. It was expanded between 1820 and 1840, but retained the original construction method and style, making Grover House such a rare and historic home, and is one of the few surviving farmhouses left in Monmouth County.

The house remained in the family until the death of the last descendant, Anna Lum, in 1983. It was first moved in 1953 to make way for the Garden State Parkway and a second time in 1996 when a suburban subdivision threatened its demolition. The house now rests off West Front Street at Stevenson Park.

The house now sits on a new foundation with a deep basement, has a new traditional roof, but requires extensive outside and inside renovation, which NMHA states will be ”in keeping with the overall character of the original farmhouse”.

Grants and capital fundraising efforts will start in early 2015.

To see more, go to: http://www.navesinkmaritime.org/page-1854096