Three years ago there was a dilapidated house visible to anyone driving down Ridge Road off Route 1 in South Brunswick.
JEFF GRANIT staff South Brunswick local Michael Sassman stands outside the back of the historic J.J. Lake House, which he purchased in 2006 in order to restore. Paint was peeling, glass windows were broken, and the wood was visibly rotting.
Inside, the wallpaper had become moldy, beams were loosening, and paint hung down from the ceiling.
Today, that same house looks brand new, refurbished inside and outside. Thanks to township resident Michael Sassman, the historical J.J. Lake House, which dates back to the mid-1700s, has been restored.
“This is filled with history. You can’t really duplicate this,” Sassman said.
In October 2006, Sassman decided to purchase the home, which cost $200,000, because his business, Michael Sassman Construction Co., is known for building new homes as well as restoring older ones. He sought approval from South Brunswick Township officials to convert the 18th-century home into office space for his business.
FILE PHOTO The J.J. Lake House was built around the 1740s on Ridge Road in South Brunswick. Township resident Mike Sassman took it upon himself to renovate the historical house. “It’s been abandoned for 20 years and I’ve been trying to buy it for 15,” the 46-year-old said. “To bring it back to the way it was originally — a lot of people can’t do that.”
Sassman said that based on a map in the “Millstone Valley” book by Elizabeth G.C. Menzies, the Daniel Bailes house across the street, the neighboring Jedediah Higgins house and the English Parsonage down the block are listed as existing in the 1760s.
“We can locate all of these houses, so we think we can date this house back to the 1740s,” Sassman said.
In the 1860s, the front façade to the house was added on, the last of two additions to the home.
In the 1900s the house was then sold to the Reynolds family, who rented out rooms to Princeton University students. The family also maintained an antiques shop on the property.
JEFF GRANIT staff The new foyer of the J.J. Lake House features original lights and old time photographs provided by Martin Reynolds, one of the previous owners. Sassman said Martin Reynolds was very helpful in providing old-time photographs and lights for the house, which had previously been surrounded by barns and open fields.
Sassman had also found an undertaker’s bill from 1912 in the wall, as well as an old letter from 1913, and a handmade refrigerator.
In 1987, the land, with the house on it, was sold to a developer who built a Holiday Inn hotel, which has since become a Double Tree. The house itself had been used for storage for the past 20 years.
So, instead of watching the house fall down on its own, Sassman, along with general carpenter George Ackers and several engineers, installed new plumbing, electrical and heating systems. The existing structure was repaired with the wood frame rebuilt; 95 percent of the doors, trim and handrails were left in their original condition, Sassman said.
Some of the original windowpanes were left alone, complete with the original glass.
Double Tree, and make a right at the U-turn onto Ridge Road; the house is on the left side past the entrance to the hotel. Contact Jennifer Amato at jamato@gmnews.com. “We tried to save as much original stuff as we could,” Sassman said. “When we stripped stuff down, we reused a lot of things. We do a lot of green building.”
A handicapped-accessible bathroom was added to the 3,000-square-foot house, the flooring was refinished and the original fireplaces now use gas logs.
The entire basement was redone entirely of stone, supported by the original beams. The attic still needs some work but will be converted, most likely into a conference room.
“This takes more thinking than building a new house. … There is only one of these,” Sassman said.
In the backyard of the ¾-acre property, the old smokehouse remains, which was previously a kitchen. Sassman said Reynolds has some old utensils from back in the day, since he lived in the house with his dad, who lived to be almost 100.
PHOTO BY JEFF GRANIT staff Left: South Brunswick local Michael Sassman enters the front of the historic J.J. Lake House, which he purchased in 2006 in order to restore it. Above: The smokehouse was used as a kitchen, because there was no kitchen inside of the actual house. The smokehouse will be converted into a storage area and houses the well.
Outside, the original horse-hitching post remains, surrounded by a new parking lot, new landscaping and a rock wall with stones from the new bridge that was dug out in Rocky Hill.
Engineering fees alone were $180,000, a mandatory detention basin cost $60,000, and the three-year renovation project cost $700,000, totaling about $1 million for the project.
“It’s worth it. … I live right down the street. When people drive past it and see it, the work is like an advertisement,” Sassman said. “I make money on new houses and subdivisions, so it’s nice to give back to the community.”
Sassman’s company’s other projects include restoring the Black Horse Tavern in Griggstown, the Higgins house on Route 27, an old schoolhouse on Ridge Road, Princeton Nurseries in Kingston, the Schampf House in Princeton, and a 160- year-old home in Frenchtown.
PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff Above: Michael Sassman stands in one of the offices he constructed. The house will be used as office space for his own company, while accommodating renting companies as well. Right: Sassman explains the engineering behind the original stone walls in the basement of the J.J. Lake House. “This is more about craftsmanship,” Sassman said, whose family history includes a grandfather who was a mason in the early 1900s; Sassman himself worked for the company for 15 years.
To pass by the house, take Route 1 south in South Brunswick to Ridge Road near the
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