Paint job restores look of
house on battlefield land
DAVE BENJAMIN Exterior painting has been completed at the Conover-Perrine 1832 farmhouse, Route 522, Manalapan, which will serve as the new administrative offices for Monmouth Battlefield State Park.
MANALAPAN — There will be a new look to an old farmhouse that stands in the area of Monmouth Battlefield State Park and that will serve as the park’s new administrative offices.
The Conover-Perrine home, an 1832 farmhouse on Freehold-Englishtown Road (Route 522) adjacent to the Old Tennent Church cemetery, is being repainted yellow-ocher with brown trim and dark reddish-brown for the window sash, in the Victorian tradition.
During most of the 20th century, the home was painted in Colonial Revival colors, white with green shutters, according to Garry Stone, the park’s historian.
The Victorian colors were identified by Frank Welsh, an architectural color researcher from Bryn Mawr, Pa., who used a microscope to decipher the entire paint color history of the building.
Historically, the structure marks the site of Henry Perrine’s 18th century home.
During the afternoon of the June 28, 1778 Battle of Monmouth, the Continental Army took up positions on the north-south ridge just east of the farmhouse. Perrine’s descendants remember that the battle was fought in their ancestors’ rye field and that British cannonballs punched several holes in the house and cut down a dozen trees in the adjacent orchard.
Four doors from the 18th-century house were reused in the 1832 dwelling. Perrine’s children sold the 514-acre farm to John I. Conover in 1818. Sheriff John M. Perrine repurchased the property in 1844 and it remained in the Perrine family until 1892.
In more recent times, the building was used as a residence for two park rangers.
Eric Doeler, painting contractor with Spectra Painting Inc., Hazlet, completed the makeover. His team of painters gave the outside of the building a power wash, a scraping to remove the old flaking paint and a sanding to smooth out the wrinkles. Three coats of paint were applied to the outside of the building, and windows were recalked. Doeler and his crew of three completed the job last weekend.
"We’ve graveled the parking lot behind the building, and we’re constructing a handicapped access ramp," said Stone. "(Inside), we will only be using the downstairs at this time because of code problems with the second floor."
Stone said the first floor of the former residence will have an administrative support office, the front parlor will contain the superintendent’s office, the dining room will be the chief ranger’s office and the kitchen will be the staff lounge.
"The most important (renovation) will be the mid-20th century mud room on the back of the building, which is being rebuilt as restrooms for staff and for the public," said Stone. "There will be a separate entrance for the public."
Stone explained that the new public restroom facility will be the first in that portion of the park.
"Personally, I’m just delighted to see the building used again and rehabilitated," said Stone. "I’m pleased with all the hard work my co-workers have put in."
In addition to the exterior work on the farmhouse, Stone said the park staff did a lot of work restoring and painting the ground floor interior.
The historian praised the efforts of the staff of Monmouth Battlefield State Park and several of his friends with whom he works.
"The Friends of Monmouth Battlefield are very pleased to see the early 19th-century building being restored and rehabilitated for use as the park’s administrative office," said Rich Walling, historian and spokesman for the Friends.
"By adaptively reusing historic buildings, they remain useful and alive," he added. "All too often, old buildings are neglected, which in turn leads to eventual demolition, because costs for repair become too prohibitive. In this case, the Conover-Perrine House will be given a new use and will remain a vital part of the battlefield landscape."

