With bid specifications just sent out for work on “winterizing” the structures at the historical Schenck Farmstead site, West Windsor officials hope to reach a memorandum of agreement with the township’s historical society at the end of the month regarding the Southfield Road site.##M:[more]##
During a special council meeting held October 22, council members met with the West Windsor Historical Society to recap where the project stands now and to hash out the rest of the details.
The two biggest issues that remain are where to locate modern bathrooms on the site and how the structures should be situated.
According to Division of Land Use manager Sam Surtees, the administration and council seem to be on board with an idea proposed by Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman that would provide an estimate on what the cost would be to have a full site plan and topographic survey of the five-acre site — including the house and farm buildings — and take a look at the location of the school house. And rather than demolishing the foundation of the school house, Kleinman proposes building bathrooms there and disguising the exterior as another type of farm structure that would have been present at the time.
“From the outside, it would look just like some type of farm building,” Surtees said. “Actually, it would be restrooms.”
Kleinman said since the school house will be disassembled to be relocated, the foundation should be used to build another building that would be in keeping with the way a farm would be organized. Said Kleinman: “It can be a one-story building that would simulate worker housing. Since we already own the foundation and floor structure, we could put the bathrooms in there.”
Originally, the bathrooms were to be located in the shed portion of the barn, but “I just feel like that’s the building that is the most authentic of all of the structures. Putting the bathrooms in there would be inappropriate,” said Kleinman.
The second issue is regarding the way the rest of the farm’s structures — including those that may be added to the site in the future to replicate a real farmstead of the time — are situated on site.
Officials want groups to move easily from one part of the site to the next, but it may mean the historical accuracy of the farm’s layout could be compromised. He said the consensus seems to be, however, that officials prefer historical accuracy, even if it means field trips are longer.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers approached the WW-P school board with the issue on October 23. She said officials are considering moving the school house closer to Southfield Road because that is traditionally where an old school house would be located — at the road, and not next to the barn or house. But officials are worried that if they do so, it would add 10 to 15 minutes to the tours and students would be rushed .
Board members said they had no objections to the request.
Anklowitz said the council was planning on meeting again with the historical society on Thursday, November 29, to see if a memorandum of agreement outlining what needs to be done on the property and an understanding of what is to occur there, can be adopted.
Meanwhile, the bid specs have gone out so that minor work to stabilize the site’s carriage house — built around 1910 — and safeguard it against the weather, while looking for another carriage house for the site instead..
The bid specs also include the dismantling of the school house, which dates back to the Civil war era. Officials are looking to create a replica using some of the original material.
The October 22 meeting “really pounded home what a beautiful house it is, how historical it is, and what a gem it is to our township,” Anklowitz said.
The 1740s Dutch-English barn at the site, which was recently dissembled, has been given a new foundation, new siding and a new roof. The barn’s old timbers were also furbished and restored, and construction on its shed is expected to start after the new year. Bids for that will open Tuesday, November 20.
Some of the work on the school house may also be aided by the recent council approval of a $70,”000 contract with Grinell Recycling Inc. for the demolition of four township structures, including the Nierenberg House — which dates back to the 1850s but isn’t structurally sound, according to township officials.
The Nierenberg House is located on the site of a former 1930s-1940s dairy farm that encompassed what is now Community Park. The township purchased the property 15 years ago, and rented out the house up until about eight years ago, said Zoning Officer Sam Surtees. Since then, no time or money has gone into maintaining the structure, which is now dilapidated. The house has a leak in the roof, and its front porch is falling off, Surtees said.
Before demolition, Grinell will remove various items from the house, including some mantles, baseboards, door locks and doors, that it will bring to its warehouse (the company works with restoration projects and could find the material useful in the future). In exchange, Grinell will be checking its warehouse for material to be used at the Schenck Farmstead restoration project, particularly the school house.
In addition, the township will demolish a 1920s three-story barn with an English basement off Old Trenton Road; a metal shed and pump house off Cubberly Road; and the 60-year-old, one-story Crawford Woods House located on Montgomery Street.
Surtees said the township is also heading out to bid for demolition of a fifth three-story structure on the same Cubberly Road property, which formerly served as a processing facility for potatoes. The building has since fallen in, and a maple tree recently fell on top of it.
