I've lived in New Jersey for more than 40 years, but I'll never be a real New Jersey girl. I grew up in Pennsylvania where there was lots of snow, one traffic light in town, and 90 kids in my grade--from kindergarten through graduation. I didn't know anything about The Shore, or baked ziti, or Chanukah until I came to Jersey. But, I've come to love all of that and much more--especially the history. I now know about the Jersey Dutch, strawberry baskets, railroad suburbs, the bridge that saved a nation, and so much more. I've learned that to tell the local stories about regular people I need to read wills, estate files, census records, pension applications, letters, tombstones, newspapers, and anything else I can find. So, that's some of what I want to share with you!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Peter Debaun House, Emerson, New Jersey

The Peter DeBaun house in Emerson, on Main Street, across from the beautiful Emerson Woods, is up for sale.  





This photo from the 1960's shows the house before it was converted into an American Legion hall, but much of the original fabric of the house is still behind the bushes and under the siding.  Did I say it's on almost two acres of land?  The topography doesn't lend itself to development (it's on a knoll that has been cut away on three sides for an earlier development), but if it is developed the house will be gone.

Amy DeBaun and John Kinabrew are working to save the house.  They have an online petition to sign, they are networking with all the local people with an interest in the house and are brainstorming for a non-profit use and a sustainable "business model." 


Amy writes:  One of the oldest homes remaining in Emerson (first wing built in approximately 1770), New Jersey is for sale and threatened with demolition. ... It is a tangible link to the area’s prerevolutionary and agricultural past and was the homestead of the DeBauns (my family) for five generations.  Contact her at Amy.DeBaun@trincoll.edu

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