BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
OCEAN TOWNSHIP — The Eden Woolley House is three-quarters of the way home. It was moved on April 6 from it’s old foundation to a point on the path to the new foundation where it will be renovated and house the Ocean Township Historical Museum.
According to Howard Richmond, an Oakhurst resident and a trustee of the museum, five workers from Frank Myroncuk & Sons House Movers of New Egypt, worked under the house from 7 a.m. to about 1 p.m., but it rained Thursday night into Friday morning, which postponed any further move.
“We suspect it will get here next week, but as usual it depends on the weather.”
He explained that there is a foundation already in place just to the east of the parking lot near the new library on Deal Road.
“They have to clean up the parking lot before moving the house across it,” he said.
Right now the house is owned by Ceruzzi Holdings, the corporation that owns the property on Route 35 and Deal Road, where the developer plans to build a Stop & Shop supermarket and a strip mall.
Ceruzzi is going to put a jug handle and a bypass where the house was located. When the property was purchased, the contract specified that the buyer would assume responsibility for moving the house. It will pay the mover, but once it’s there, the township will own it. The township will lease it to the museum after it is restored, Richmond said.
Once the building is restored, it will have 10 rooms, with additional attic space for storage, or even an office. Among the room uses will be a classroom, kitchen, research library and a room for quilters.
At present, the museum is located in an old school house on Monmouth Road, owned by the Board of Education, where the museum occupies just part of one room.
The house is named after Eden Woolley, who owned the farm the house sat on. According to Richmond, Woolley became very interested in forming a government in Ocean Township, and in 1849, became the township’s first elected councilman.