Owner brings historic home back to life in Freehold Twp.
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Michael Berman stands outside the Forman home off Route 537, Freehold Township, which he is in the process of renovating.
Michael Berman honored for restoration
work at Forman house
By paul godino
Staff Writer
The Forman house shows its age and the years of neglect it suffered at the hands of vandals before Freehold Township sold it to Michael Berman.
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — The Monmouth County Historical Commission recently honored Michael Berman for an "outstanding contribution to the preservation of important Monmouth County landmarks" in recognition of his dedication to the renovation of the Forman house.
"I have a real love for old houses and historic preservation," Berman said. "It really has to be a labor of love."
The Forman house, which stands in the middle of the Estates at Freehold development, set back from Route 537 near East Freehold Road, is a farmhouse that was originally owned by John Fisher T. Forman Jr. The house is dated circa 1865.
The Formans were Scottish settlers to the Freehold area, the first of which arrived around 1685, according to information provided by the Monmouth County Historic Association.
There is a beam in the carriage house that had been signed. The name is too worn to make out, but it is dated 1895, which Berman said could be when the barn was constructed.
However, there was a board inside the house that Berman said was signed by someone from Holmdel in 1868.
The house stood on nearly 90 acres of farm land which was sold to a developer and subdivided in 1992. Freehold Township Clerk Romeo Cascaes said municipal officials negotiated with the developer to save the Forman house, barn and carriage house.
Shortly after coming into possession of the Forman house, township officials attempted to sell it. The first two auctions ended without bids. Township officials lowered the minimum required bid to $25,000 for a third auction in 1999.
It was then that Berman purchased the Forman house and carriage house, which stand on 1.6 acres, for $55,000, with the understanding that he would renovate the structures and save their structural and architectural integrity.
"The town is to be applauded for stepping in and saving the Forman house," Berman said. "The crime is to knock down houses like this."
Berman said his passion for historic restoration grew out of a project he undertook on his grandmother’s house in Manchester, Vt. The house needed to be sold, but had fallen into disrepair, Berman said. At that time he worked with contractors to renovate the house, keeping it as close to its historic heritage as possible.
Berman jumped at the opportunity to save the Forman house and has even brought in the same contractor who worked with him in Vermont.
Berman said he purchased the house from Freehold Township in November 1999 and began doing the work on the house around December. Among the first things he did was to renovate the carriage house, which had suffered severe damage due to years of neglect. A barn that stood next to the Forman house burned down in a mid-1990s fire, causing some burn damage to the carriage house. The carriage house, now used for storage, also had a 6-foot-deep potato cellar that Berman felt was a hazard.
The carriage house has been completely renovated and the cellar filled in.
Berman then got started on the house. On the outside, Berman repainted the house, patched holes and replaced damaged siding. He also fixed the roof, which had some large leaks. Berman then went on to rebuild the porch and saved the columns that hold up the porch’s cover.
The shutters that were originally on the house were lost or destroyed. New shutters were purchased and they were all fitted to the size of the original shutters. Berman said he used old-fashioned hardware such as hinges and shutter hold-downs to maintain the home’s historic feel.
Berman was able to save the original doors for the main entrance, which are being stripped and repainted.
Inside the Forman house, Berman said, he kept the residence very similar to its original layout. The lower level of the house has remained almost exactly the same, except in the kitchen where Berman opened up a large pantry to create a bigger room. There is a fireplace in the center of the kitchen that was originally used for cooking. Berman realigned the fireplace with the chimney and opened up the back side of it so that the fireplace is now open on two sides. The original brick was in good condition, he said.
The second level of the house is where Berman made most of the changes, although the historic feel and nuances were maintained. The rear staircase led up to a loft area, which Berman believes was used as servants’ quarters.
Originally, the loft area contained a small hallway and two small, informal rooms. Berman made the entire area one large room with a vaulted ceiling. He added a nicer trim to the windows so they are now in tune with the rest of the home’s historic feel.
Toward the front of the house, Berman said, he maintained the bedrooms as close to the original structure as he could. The biggest differences are that he added closets in rooms where there had not been any and he turned a hallway closet area into a full bathroom.
He also added a master bathroom, which will have a standing shower and a clawfoot bathtub.
Even though the rooms have changed a bit structurally, Berman has kept all of the original trim. Some changes were made to the baseboards to bring them into compliance with township building codes.
Much of the inside of the home was gutted before the renovation began, a process which allowed Berman to update the plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems.
"I wanted to keep the flavor of the old house while bringing it to modern standards," he said, adding that whenever possible he kept and reused the original materials. "The whole idea is not to fight with the house, but to work with it. It’s the little details on a house like this that I think make it special."
Unfortunately, this was difficult in a number of areas because the house had been vandalized during the time it was boarded up.
Much of the original stairway railing and fireplace mantels were taken from the house. Berman re-created these with modern materials while maintaining a historic feel.
The basement and attic were kept more or less intact. Some support was added in the basement and a concrete floor was laid where there was originally a dirt floor. The beams, however, which were hand cut, still have the hatchet marks in them from when they were made.
"It’s in the places like basements and attics that you can get a feel for the structure of the house," Berman said.
While the house still has some more work to go inside, Berman said he hopes it will be done by November and he is planning to move in once it is complete.
Cascaes said he saw the Forman house recently and is very pleased with how it has turned out.
"In the future, it will be used as a model for restoring homes," Cascaes said.

