On Monday, August 18th, Hunterdon County Historian Stephanie Stevens wrote a letter regarding the significance of the Vought House to Interim Superintendent Fyffe. 

I’ve linked her letter here: voughtstevens.doc   I’ve linked his response here: voughthouseltrfyffe.pdf

Below is my open letter to Superintendent Fyffe.  (Also available here: dearmrfyffe.doc )

_______________________

August 22, 2008

Dear Superintendent Fyffe,

I’ve been closely involved with the Vought House ever since my service on the Citizens Advisory Committee which recommended building the new middle school, as vice chair of the township historic preservation commission, and now as president of The 1759 House, A Revolutionary War Loyalist Homestead, a non-profit public charity.  I welcomed your quick response to Stephanie Steven’s letter but am distressed that the district’s current policy is to dispose of the Vought house only after resolving the district’s possible DEP and SHPO fines. 

The Vought house is Hunterdon County’s most important historic artifact.  Its fate should not remain at risk as a political football or bargaining chip.  After more than three years of inaction, this property remains a vacant and neglected eyesore at the entrance to our beautiful new Clinton Township Middle School:

• The district’s failure to mothball this house by November 2005 led to a Notice of Violation from the D.E.P. and accumulated fines of over a million dollars, although they will probably negotiate a settlement for several tens of thousands of local taxpayer dollars. 
• The district’s long inaction allowed the unique ceilings, which are eligible for national register status, to be damaged.  Well after the November deadline passed, in June 2006, a portion of one ceiling collapsed.  Its repair will cost over $50,000.  Three other ceilings are also in dire need of stabilization.  Finally mothballed in December 2006, this house slowly deteriorates.  Another leak in the roof further endangers these ceilings.

County Superintendent Dr. Vernotica conveyed to me that the board now imagines selling this property for “a considerable amount of money” to provide welcome taxpayer relief.  This imagined relief is unrealistic, since the property has little or no market value, and misguided, since this remarkable cultural resource should not be held privately.  Severe limitations on the property already nullify its market value:

• The house sits within the 150-ft. C-1 stream’s environmental buffer. 
• Recorded archaeological restrictions also limit use of the grounds.
• There can be little or no car parking, due to the above.
• Also, it’s not clear how one could add utilities: water, sewer, and heat. 
• In a September 19, 2007 letter, SHPO Administrator Dorothy Guzzo quoted N.J.A.C. Section 7:4-7,4(b)3 requiring review of any sale to assure “adequate restrictions or conditions are included to ensure preservation of the property’s historic features.”  In short, any title deed must include an approved historic preservation easement which will further diminish possible residential or commercial utility of this property. 

This dilapidated property has little or no value in today’s real estate market.  It cannot ever serve as a viable commercial site or private residence given the restoration costs, the inability to mow, dig, or disturb the grounds, the requisite “preservation of the property’s historic features” such as the fragile ceilings etc., and the costs of connecting to a sewer line, which with a substation pump to reach the Deer Meadow development would cost in excess of $40,000, etc.

As a derelict structure owned by the school district, this remains a financial drain and liability to district taxpayers, yet as the most significant 18th Century cultural artifact, quite simply the most important historic site in Hunterdon County, it has the potential to become an unusual museum drawing more visitors to Hunterdon and maybe even a modest financial asset for Clinton Township.  It meets all four state categories, any one of which would qualify it for inclusion on the state register and the unique ceilings are eligible for inclusion on the National Register.  The 1759 Vought House must be open to the public because it is a public treasure!

We ask the new school board’s facilities committee to become educated on current and future restrictions and to seek the advice of appraisal professionals.  We ask that they finally have the historic preservation easements required by the state written and move forward with the subdivision.

Now that we’ve learned DOE regulations do not prevent them from doing so, the school board should give this to a non-profit such as The 1759 Vought House, Inc., a 501 C 3 public charity which can raise private donations and grants to restore and maintain a public museum.  Such a solution does justice to the property and provides the only practicable taxpayer relief possible with such a severely restricted and already damaged historic treasure.

The non-profit 1759 Vought House Inc. will continue to garner private donations and public grants with the goal of restoring this property and holding it open as a museum available for researchers and visitors and an exciting adjunct to local classroom instruction on the American Revolution.  (Please visit 1759House.org for more information.)

Until the district decides on its future, public access to Hunterdon County’s most important historic site is at risk.  And there are no public benefits to offset this risk.  Like amnesia, a loss of history impairs our integrity as a community, our own and our children’s sense of self and imagined future.  Please act now.

Yours,
Donald Sherblom, Ph.D.
President, The 1759 Vought House, A Revolutionary War Loyalist Homestead. 

cc:
CTSD Board of Education
Daria Wasserbach
Walter Wilson, Esq.
Mayor Nick Corcodilos
Stephanie Stevens, County Historian
Terry Karschner, Historic Preservation Office
Dorothy Guzzo, NJ Historic Trust