Old church site to be luxury home

The abandoned building on Route 518 sat vacant for more than a decade.

By: Linda Seida
   WEST AMWELL — The abandoned church on Old Route 518 never was occupied by its congregation, which outgrew the 49-person occupancy limit before the structure was completed.
   Empty and unused for more than a decade, it was demolished last week to make way for the construction of a single-family house planned by three brothers. Framing was scheduled to begin the day after Memorial Day and should be completed in a couple of weeks if permits are issued without a hitch, one of the brothers estimated.
   Their company, Sassman Brothers of Kingston, purchased the property about a month ago for approximately $240,000. Their plan calls for the construction of a two-story house that is expected to sell in the "high $60s," the upper end of the $600,000 range, according to Allen Sassman of Lambertville.
   Mr. Sassman, 40, and his brother Michael Sassman, 43, of Kingston are builders whose usual products are 7,000-square-foot houses that sell for $1.5 million, give or take. They also each own several rental properties in Lambertville.
   The construction of the house on Old Route 518 will mark the first time they are building as a trio with their younger brother Brian, 30, a mason who resides in Levittown, Pa.
   The new house will consist of 3,500 square feet with four bedrooms and 3½ bathrooms. A great room will boast a 20-foot vaulted ceiling. There also will be a two-car garage and "French courtyard parking" at the front, which Allen Sassman describes as a walled courtyard area. The interior will be entirely custom made, he said.
   "It’s really going to be something," Brian Sassman said.
   The brothers wanted very much to keep some semblance of the church in their design, but it wasn’t possible.
   Allen Sassman "really wanted to do something with it for a long time," according to his younger brother. "We really wanted to use the existing building and make it work for us. It would have been nice to fix that up, keeping some of the features. Just the fact it was such a unique building, it would have been nice to incorporate that into a finished product. In the end, it just didn’t make sense."
   The structure was simply four cinder-block walls and a roof, Allen Sassman said.
   "It was more cost-effective to knock it down," Brian Sassman said. "The roof was shot. Plus it had skylights in it."
   He explained the roof was a truss design, and to keep it, they would have had to install a ceiling, which would have blocked use of the skylights. The tall and narrow windows, too, were of no use.
   "With the windows, they weren’t the ideal size and there were way too many for a house," Brian Sassman said.
   Even before construction began, comments from the community have been positive.
   "People tell me they’re happy that something’s being done," Brian Sassman said. "It sat there unused for so long, they’re happy something’s being done with the property."