Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Thornton Wilder hung his hat in two of the four houses that will be on the Home and Garden Tour Sunday in Lawrenceville.
By: Lea Kahn
The ghost of Thornton Wilder may be looking over the shoulder of visitors to some of the houses on Sunday’s Home and Garden Tour, hosted by Lawrenceville Main Street.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and novelist lived in the Old Davis House in the 1920s, and he was a frequent visitor to Greymont, another house on the semiannual tour.
Wilder lived in the Old Davis House at 2868 Main St. while he taught French at The Lawrenceville School. The Lawrenceville School had leased the house from its owner for use as a dormitory.
Wilder, who was studying for a master’s degree in French at Princeton University, wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Bridge Of San Luis Rey" while he was living in the Old Davis House.
Legend has it that Mr. Wilder celebrated the news of his Pulitzer Prize award in the living room at Greymont at 39 Manning Lane. The house was the site of literary teas, play readings and wildflower and garden tours during the 1920s and 1930s.
Wilder also won two more Pulitzer Prize awards for drama for "The Skin of Our Teeth" and "Our Town," the play he is most remembered for. He is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prize awards for drama and fiction, according to the Thornton Wilder Society Web site.
Also on Sunday afternoon’s house tour are the farmhouse at Cherry Grove Farm, located at 1 Carter Road, and Whitemarsh Hill at 6 Edgewood Ave. The theme of this year’s tour is "Four Big Beauties."
Though all the houses boast long histories, the four stops on the tour were chosen because they are the largest houses in town, according to Marge Dwyer, chairwoman of the Home and Garden Tour.
The houses were selected by the group’s Landscape Committee. The committee originally wanted to focus on historic houses that appear in the book "Old Lawrenceville: Early Houses and People" for this year’s tour, but it could not find enough historic homes, said Mrs. Dwyer.
The committee shifted gears and settled on four of the largest houses in Lawrence, Mrs. Dwyer said. While the four houses are not all historic, they offer a nice mix, she said. The houses date from the 1700s, the 1800s and the 1920s.
The house and garden tour is a fund-raiser for Lawrenceville Main Street, which was organized 1995 to revitalize the village of Lawrenceville. The first tour took place in 2000.
"The first house tour was so successful we decided we had to do it again," said Ann Garwig, executive director of Lawrenceville Main Street. "We can’t hold it every year, so we decided to do it every other year. The people make enhancements to their homes, and they need time to do it.
"The house tour is an image-building thing for Lawrenceville Main Street. It calls more attention to the village of Lawrenceville. It helps to build pride in the community."
The money raised by the house tour will be used for enhancements to the village, Mrs. Garwig said.
The house where Wilder slept was built in 1834 by James Harvey Porter, who started the Lawrenceville Female Seminary. He died Nov. 10, 1834 the day the school was scheduled to open.
Old Davis was purchased in 1850 by the Rev. Charles William Nassau, former president of Lafayette College and the father of medical missionary Robert Hamill Nassau. In 1883, The Lawrenceville School leased the property from Dr. Nassau’s nephew, Robert Hamill Davis, and used the Davis House as a dormitory.
The Old Davis House changed hands several times. It is now owned by Jack and Harriet Huston, who live there with their five children. They purchased the house in 1994.
Greymont, located at the end of Manning Lane, was built in 1909 by Alfred Gaskill, a Scotsman and gentleman farmer. Robert C. Manning and his wife, the former Frances Whitney Cheirs, bought the estate in 1922. Mrs. Manning was a direct descendant of inventor Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin.
The Mannings raised six daughters in the house, at a time when it was not uncommon for a horse and carriage to be sent to the house to take the Manning girls to a tea dance at The Lawrenceville School. Four of the six daughters married. The two remaining sisters, Margaret and Helen, continued to live in the house until their deaths. Helen Manning died in 1999.
In 2000, the house was sold to the Jemison family. The new owners have made extensive renovations to the house, including an updated kitchen and bathrooms. They built an addition to the house and also designed an attractive four-car garage and artist’s studio.
The mansion at Cherry Grove, at the corner of Carter Road and Route 206, was built by John Dagworthy Sr. in 1720. Mr. Dagworthy was the Justice of the Courts and also High Sheriff of the Separate Government (the colony of West Jersey) in 1728.
In 1755, John Dagworthy Jr., a captain in the Provincial Army, sold the house to Jonathan Sergeant, who was the treasurer of the College of New Jersey now Princeton University.
Upon Mr. Sergeant’s death in 1776, the house went to his nephew by marriage, George Green. Mr. Green was a descendant of William Green, progenitor of the Green family in Lawrence. Cherry Grove remained in the Green family until 1851, when it was sold to William Scudder.
Cherry Grove returned to Green family ownership in 1910, when it was purchased by Samuel McClintock Hamill Jr. and his wife, Maria Baldwin. Mr. Hamill was a Green family descendant. Mr. and Mrs. Hamill extended the gardens, added a terrace and a room at the side. Beatrix Ferrand, the noted landscape architect, created the garden.
Cherry Grove remained in the family until 1999, when it was purchased by present owners Bob and Maureen Baus. The name Cherry Grove comes from the avenue formed by two rows of cherry trees, that led across the meadows on the property.
Only the bride remains of the "bride and groom" tulip poplar trees which bordered the gate on Route 206.
Whitemarsh Hill, at 6 Edgewood Ave., was built by Rudolph G. Kuser in 1922 as a wedding present for his bride, Mary Kerney. She was the daughter of Judge James Kerney, editor and publisher of the Trenton Times.
The foundation of the house was laid when a bricklayer’s strike made a change in plans necessary. Italian stonecutters and masons were working on Gothic style buildings at Princeton University. They were hired by Mr. Kuser to work evenings and weekends to build the house of argillite, a stone cut from a nearby quarry.
The house was purchased in 1965 by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Eglin. Ten years later, when Mr. Eglin was named dean of students at The Lawrenceville School, the family sold thehouse and moved onto the campus.
In 1988, the Eglin family repurchased the house. The property had been modified, bringing down the lot size from one acre to three-quarters of an acre.
The six bedrooms were reduced to four bedrooms. The third-floor master bedroom has a four-way exposure, with beautiful views of the countryside. The boxwood garden was planted in the 1920s.
The Home and Garden Tour will run noon-4 p.m. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased at Village Traditions on Main Street and at Euphorbia on Gordon Avenue. They also may be purchased at Ethan Allen Interiors on Brunswick Pike, which is a sponsor of the tour. A limited number of tickets will be available at the houses on the day of the tour.