Grover House bought the farm, thanks to the actions of Council. On September 3 the West Windsor Town Council authorized the demolition of the Grover Farmstead. I find this to be a deplorable action, and one that could — and should — have been avoided.
When I joined the Grover Homestead Restoration Committee more than a year ago, it was with the goal of saving a piece of West Windsor history. I also thought that it would help unify — at least on this one issue — a community that is badly split on so many other matters. When it became painfully clear that the Grover Homestead Restoration Committee was getting bogged down in various controversies, John Church, Jonathan Word, Ted Grover, and I worked on a progress report that we subsequently shared with council and the public. That 93-page report provided a historical, legal, and economic rationale for saving the homestead. It provided a business plan that would recoup the expense of renovating the Grover house through rental income. Depending on the ultimate expense of the renovation and the rent charged, I figured the project would be cash flow positive from the minute the house was rented out and it would turn into a source of increasing surpluses for the township as time went by.
At the July 8 council meeting I asked the council members to judge this project on its merits. First, is it worth saving a structure that has been in existence since the mid-1800s, parts of which may go back to the early 1800s? Second, does it matter that this was the boyhood home of Thomas Roy Grover, a decorated war hero who gave his life for this country in the Vietnam War at the age of 22? Should we let it continue to stand in honor of him?
Third, does it matter that concerned citizens have provided a business plan for the project, a plan with income and expense projections under different scenarios, all of which show that the reconstruction will pay for itself and will not be a drain on the township’s finances? Fourth, even if a decision is made not to renovate at this time, does it make sense to spend $53,000 to replace the windows and doors and fix the roof to prevent further deterioration? That expense almost matches the cost to demolish the homestead and amounts to only 1.1 percent of the estimated cost of renovating the Town Hall. Is that such a high price to pay to maintain a highly visible icon of West Windsor’s farming history?
Unfortunately, three of the five Council members — Kamal Khanna, George Borek, and Linda Geevers — chose political expediency and slavish adherence to Mayor Hsueh’s desires to knock down the house. Bryan Maher and Kristina Samonte laudably voted in favor of saving the Grover home from the bulldozer.
The mayor now wants to act with undue haste to demolish the structure. I can see why: It’s better for him to have the house out of sight and out of mind before the November elections. After all, the Grover House was a monument to his incompetent management of the town’s assets and the inappropriate and undocumented transfer of items from the house to the West Windsor Historical Society and Restoration Technologies, an antique dealer and restoration contractor. Whether you believe that the Grover house was worth saving, it’s certainly worthwhile to think about how township property was improperly destroyed.
Jim Solloway
Monroe Drive, West Windsor
