BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
The township of Ocean Historical Museum has received a grant of $10,980 from the Sunfield Foundation, a private foundation based in Red Bank that gives funds to nonprofits in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Howard Richmond, a trustee of the museum, said the museum was unsuccessful the first time a grant was applied for from Sunfield.
“The second time, I followed the guidelines impeccably and got the grant,” he said.
He explained that he has been applying for grants for the historical society for the past four years, hoping to find money for the renovations to the Woolley House.
“We have ended up with $250,000 so far — from the state in three phases,” he added.
Richmond, an Oakhurst resident, said the funds from the Sunfield Foundation will be used to purchase furniture for the museum’s new research library to be located in the 300-year-old Eden Woolley House in Oakhurst, which is currently being restored.
When the restoration has been completed, the museum will move into that structure.
In August, the Ocean Township governing body agreed to enter into a lease agreement with the Ocean Township Historical Museum Association Inc. for the property that the Eden Woolley House sits on in the Ocean Township Library Complex at Joe Palaia Park on Deal Road.
The 25-year lease will automatically extend for additional five-year periods at a fixed rent of $1 per year.
In addition, trustees authorized a $5,000 Monmouth County Historical Commission matching grant application that would be used to replace the Woolley House floors.
Richmond explained that when the house was moved from its original site, movers had to take out the flooring in the kitchen and the oldest section of the house adjacent to the kitchen. Richmond said the original part of the house was built in the 1700s and the remaining two-story section was built in the early 1800s.
Once the building is restored, it will have 10 rooms, with additional attic space for storage or 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 schoolhouse on Monmouth Road, where it occupies only part of one room. The building is owned by the Board of Education, which has donated the space to the museum association for the past 21 years.
Last spring, the historical association received a major donation of historical books.
“Right now we have artifacts in storage all over town. We have a member who has a barn. She lets us use half of the second floor of her barn,” Richmond said at the time.
In the museum, there are things like permanent exhibits that deal with town government and sections of town and artifacts like a model of an old outhouse, a washboard, photographs of classrooms and old school desks.
“We have a third-grade educational program for township schools and other schools. Every third grade goes on a bus tour of the township and then they are brought into the museum to learn about what this place was like 100 years ago,” he added.
The house is named after Eden Woolley, who owned the farm. According to Richmond, Woolley became very interested in forming a government in Ocean Township and in 1849 he became the first councilman ever elected.

