BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
The Tredwell House after the June 15 fire. With the Tredwell House in ruins, the Rumson Borough Council has decided to protect what remains of the property and the surviving structures on the site.
Last Thursday the Borough Council held a special public meeting at which the council unanimously passed a resolution stating that the site is a historic property and should be protected against trespassers and damage to archeological artifacts.
The Morris-Salter-Hartshorne-Tredwell House, known commonly as the Tredwell House, sustained severe fire, smoke and water damage as the result of a fire on June 15, which resulted in the demolition of the uninhabited main house.
Mayor John E. Ekdahl said last Thursday that the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the borough Planning Board will meet next month to discuss what changes, if any, recent events will have on the approvals for a subdivision granted by the board in February 2005.
Arthur Parent, Red Bank, who owns the Tredwell property with his wife, Leslie, said that he had secured the area as well as he could, but that the property had to be available to real estate agents because the site was up for sale.
“We did everything we could,” said Parent, “but the Realtors had to have access to it. We couldn’t keep the teenagers out. If they want to get in, they’ll get in. They knocked down doors. They knocked down windows.”
Parent said that his wife visited the site nearly every day and found cigarettes on the site as evidence that there were trespassers breaking into the house.
“You’re always surprised by something like this,” he said. “I have no idea how this will affect the subdivision. We’ll just have to wait and see how this will unfold.”
The home, which stood on Ridge Road for 300 years, had a contentious recent history. An application to subdivide the property was granted to the Parents by the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment on Dec. 18, 2000, on the condition that the Tredwell House not be demolished. The Parents let the application lapse, without acting on the subdivision.
In 2004, the Parents submitted another application for a subdivision, again requesting permission to demolish the house.
The Zoning Board passed a resolution at its February 2005 meeting that would permit the Parents to demolish the newer additions of the historic home, but require them to keep the “historically significant” parts of the building intact. The newer additions to the building date to the early to mid- 20th century.
The Tredwell Preservation Coalition, a group of local residents formed to fight for preservation of the complete Tredwell estate, filed an appeal of the Zoning Board’s decision with Superior Court Judge Alexander Lehrer last summer.
Lehrer upheld the board’s decision, and the coalition brought the case to the appellate court, where the appeal is expected to be scheduled for a hearing this fall.
Michelle Donato, the attorney for the coalition, said that the appeal will go forward at this time, despite the loss of the house, and that the major argument will continue to be that the public was not permitted to speak at the final hearing in front of the board.
Hollis Colquhoun, spokeswoman for the Rumson Historic Preservation Commission, was at Thursday’s meeting to ask for further action by the council to protect the site.
“Obviously everyone is really upset about the loss of the house,” she said. “I think it’s very important for the council and other governmental bodies in the borough to seek the preservation necessary for the site.”
Colquhoun said that there may be pieces of history lying amid the rubble of the house.
“We should be able to look through the remains,” she said. “There may be fixtures, doors and bricks of historical significance.”
According to the resolution, the Tredwell site, despite the fact that the house has been destroyed, is still historically significant and satisfies a number of designation standards of the Historic Preservation element of the borough’s master plan.
“Whereas,” the resolution states, “on various parts of the property, archeological digs have unearthed deposits from the prehistoric period as far back as 6,000 years, the initial Colonial development (1620-1775), the agricultural development (1750-1860), and the agricultural expansion (1850-1920). There appears to be extensive Native American deposits which have the potential to provide considerable new information about a poorly understood period in Monmouth County’s past.”
The resolution requests that the Gardener’s Cottage, the last remaining historical structure on the site, be preserved and incorporated into any future development application, and that the Parents share publicly the results of an archeological survey conducted several years ago by the Cultural Resources Consulting Group, which have never been publicly released.
“The borough recommends that a thorough survey of the property be conducted followed by an archeological dig with qualified professionals,” the resolution states, “to find, recover and preserve the archeological materials, prior to any granting of development applications.”
Colquhoun said she would like to see the council take a step further than a resolution to simply request the protection of the site, and pass a resolution stopping any potential development of the site.
She then presented photographs to the council showing doors and windows of the house left open.
“These photos were taken several weeks ago,” she said. “The doors are open. There are open windows. There are broken windows. The house was not secure or protected. We have to preserve what’s left.”
Parent denied leaving the doors or windows open.
“The council has to adopt stronger protection for historical sites listed on the master plan,” said Colquhoun.
Bernard Vaughn, a member of the Planning Board who recused himself from the Tredwell hearings because of his involvement as a historic preservationist, spoke at the council meeting as a private citizen.
“The reality is that now the historic commission has very little effective power,” he said. “Historic sites that were once identified as historic are virtually unprotected today. In retrospect, we could have been more vigorous in protecting the house and we have to be more diligent going forward.”