By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Philanthropist’s Doris Duke’s lifelong home in Hillsborough — even if saved — probably wouldn’t qualify for acceptance on the national register of historic places, according to testimony from a historic architectural consultant.
Duke Farms is seeking permission from the Hillsborough Historic Preservation Commission to demolish the home off Route 206 in the northern part of the township. The foundation would focus its resources in restoring the Coach Barn for historic and public purposes.
No decision was reached, and the hearing was continued to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24.
Historic preservation consultant Dr. Emily Cooperman said at a hearing Thursday night that the home bequeathed to Doris Duke by her father, energy and tobacco magnate James Buchannan Duke, wasn’t distinctive enough architecturally or in a historic context to stand out on its own.
It was the Duke Farms property, now about 2,300 acres and preserved as an environmental oasis open free to the public, that held the most significance, she said.
Still, about 50 people attended the meeting in the municipal meeting room and occasionally showed an emotional attachment to the fact that Doris Duke lived there and that was enough reason to save the empty main residence, which was closed off since 2006 and is deteriorating. Asbestos removal work has begun, knocking holes in walls and ceilings, Mr. Catania said.
Duke Farms wants to demolish the main residence and concentrate an estimated $1.4 million in restoring the Coach Barn, which housed vehicles and served as offices for Mr. Duke. Earlier in the evening, Duke Farms gained the commission’s unanimous approval to replace the slate roof, some cedar shingles and in general make the building watertight as part of its conversion to public meeting and program display space.
Mr. Catania said it would cost $10 million to $20 million to restore the residence, and the foundation didn’t have a good purpose to use the building. It costs $100,000 to $200,000 a year to be “mothballed” and will cost about $1 million to demolish, he said.
Jack Richards of Plainfield said Doris Duke “spent 50 years here and you people are throwing it out the window.”
Irma Mooney of Raritan, who said her father helped build the iconic stone wall around the property, said the house could be an attraction, even if it was not in the best repair. Michael Catania, the executive director of the Duke Farms Foundation, told her the public would better be served by having access to waterfalls, fountains and natural beauty of the now blocked-off 50 acres surrounding the home.
Commission member Tim Stollery told Mr. Catania that Ms. Duke “had houses all over the world, but she always considered Hillsborough her home,” he said.
When Mr. Catania answered: “Yet she didn’t tell us to save it,” Mr. Stollery responded, “She didn’t tell you to knock it down either. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Mr. Catania said they would work to evoke the memory of the footprint of the house by saving some stone foundation walls and developing programs to the story of Doris and “Buck” Duke.
The main residence grew from the modest Veghte farmhouse built in perhaps the 1860s and purchased by Mr. Duke in 1893. It was likely seen as a temporary residence while Mr. Duke built a “grand mansion” elsewhere on the property; that project was begun and abandoned, and the foundation is visible from public space.
“I think in all likelihood he would have torn down this house when he completed the mansion,” Mr. Catania said.
Expansions and alterations on the farmhouse residence changed the appearance over the years, said Dr. Cooperman. There was an 11-room expansion in the 1899-1903 period, with further alterations in 1903-07. In 1907 an expansion more than doubled the size of the house, she said, and gave the exterior a Tudor “stick style” look, she said.
In 1932, after Mr. Duke had left the house to his 20-year-old daughter, Doris Duke began her own transformation of the house, adding a “Hollywood wing” with a theater and indoor tennis court, and having much of the exterior covered in stucco.
Dr. Cooperman said the criteria for historic registers say that “mere association with events or trends, is not enough in and of itself” to be included on the register. There was no basis for significant historic events occurring there, she said, and the mere presence of a famous person is not enough reason alone to save it.
She said the property is no longer recognizable as the original “Buck” Duke house, and other properties nationwide (Duke University, or Doris Duke’s homes in Rhode Island and Hawaii) represent more of the Duke story.
The building, “as a whole, the house is a pastiche of different designs from different periods and does not completely express the work of a master or the collaboration between masters,” she said.
