**JUST REDUCED TO $149,900*******
VERY COOL UPDATE********... Bob from the West Jersey History Group posted all this research about Ivy Cottage. Here it is... !
http://westjersey.org/ivy.pdf
Plus THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION posted it as a PRESERVATION 911...
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/911/oldest-brewery-building.html
The Oldest Brewery Building in the United States, 1690s, +BEN FRANKLIN
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A few years ago, I came across this little, ancient town that time had forgotten. Right on the river, and only 20 minutes to half an hour up 95 from Old City.
Other worldly. No kidding.
I bought three buildings.
A circa 1800, though probably much earlier, storefront with the funniest, most rambling apartment upstairs, next to the 1780s Quaker Meeting House, which replaced a 1680s meeting house.
A 1760s mansion with the first floor expanded into a 1910 five and dime, (I couldn't make this up) that we've since sold.
And an unusual home facing The Promenade, the mile long park that runs along the Delaware River. 'Yet Strangely Charming' should be the cover of the book as yet to be written about this place.
Knowing little about it except that it's relationship to the street didn't seem to make sense, and that it was covered in lumpy pink stucco, and that we knew we could watch the boats go by over our toes while lying in bed once we moved in, we moved into the aforementioned rambling apartment and set to work on the house.
Peeling off paneling revealed four 1770 paneled room ends with fireplaces. Pulling down the ceiling in the dining room revealed beams and construction methods much, much older than that. By the way, I saved ALL the accordian lath and ALL the gnarly handmade nails, except for a handful that had bent violently when first hammered into knots. They were sent to Altadena based jewelery artist, Ypsey Borders, to turn into a necklace.
Research at the library of the Burlington County Historical Society turned up a wealth of info, as the house was a favorite of beloved local historian, the late Dr. Bisbee.
It ends up that the house started out as a brewery, part of a complex of buildings that made up a 1680s-1690s compound behind the First Governor of West Jersey's mansion. That is why it's relationship to the street is so strange. It actually faces High Street, not Pearl Street, and would have been approached by entering between the mansion and another building along High Street.
About 1770, it was turned into a domicile from a commercial structure, and doubled in size. The side door, that faces High Street, is actually the 1770s front door, and all the original woodwork of the door entryway is intact.
As you enter that door, which is symmetrical to the layout of the expanded Georgian structure, the original brewery space opens up on the left as the dining room, with the largest and grandest of the panelled room ends/fireplaces facing you. Look up, and you'll see all recycled ship beams for structure, visible since I pulled the ceiling down.
Francis Purcell Antiques in Old City came up and dated all the extant finish woodwork to very close to 1770. Their speciality is Colonial fireplaces and woodwork. Once I got Francis the Younger started, I couldn't shut him up about all the info he had at hand just by reading the clues from construction methods, choice of materials, etc.
He and several other architectural historians who've come through over time were also dippy for the stairwell. Surprisingly and unabashedly dippy. VERY hardy, sturdy, manly man, complete and unadulterated, the stairwell is different than the elegant one I grew up with in a well to do gentleman farmer's 1740s house in Cheyney. I liked it, but I was so excited about uncovering the fireplaces that I'd sort of overlooked it. Their persistent gushing caused me to get on board the love train.
I peeled away ceilings and floor covering and all sorts of things, and then we moved in. Imagine a theater set, where artworks are hanging in space, furniture, rugs and the other accoutrement of normal living laid out in an interesting, neat, clean and loving way. The audience accepts that consciously created, yet mainly suggested normalcy, and the play begins. That was our life for four years. I'd run, money wise, to the end of my chain like a dog in a cartoon, and progress slowed to slo mo.
Don't get me wrong, we were living a pretty wonderful life. Walking my kids along the river every day to the post war, flat topped tiny elementary school that was, in spirit, right out of late 20s, early 30s Little Rascals... that was livin'. In the fog, in super freezing, ice clogged conditions, on days when spring had sprung. Add first one dog, then another to the mix. Fun stuff.
Back to the house... It is known on all the old maps as Ivy Cottage, a name deriving from its likely having been allowed to become totally covered in English Ivy. A consciously picturesque picaresque crib.
Another 50% was added on about 1850 or so, stetching the house towards the river. In the accompanying photo, that 1850s face is what you are seeing, shot from the direction of the Delaware River.
All sorts of famous folks are rumoured to have lived here at some point or another. Betsy Ross, before she moved to Philly and before her name was Ross, the father of Captain James "Don't give up the ship" Lawrence, Winfield Scott (look him up), and the only celeb that is totally verifiable... Miss Vicky, post Tiny Tim.
I had thorough and expensive as-built drawings done, with exterior elevations and some interior elevations as well, especially the fireplaces. Two of those drawings are here. I can email you the others if you like.
The house was supposed to go to a friend of mine, who gave me a deposit and did other construction work for me elsewhere as part of the deal, but two total rehabs he'd done of good but less historically significant properties hit the market just as the market tanked, and they are still on the market! So the bank wouldn't give him the dough to do this place until something gave in his current equation.
Therfore, we've put it on the open market.
The place needs a total redo, but opened up as it is, that is not such a daunting proposition. I would pull all the pipes and radiators, and put in a Pex system with cast iron baseboard radiators. I did that on the 200 year old cottage I just finished back in Pennsylvania, and I've since become somewhat of a Pex/cast iron baseboard evangelist!
We had pulled all of the cootie cabinets out of the kitchen, for example, and put in a really funny catch-as-catch-can conglomeration of cabinets and shelves, which was a delightful though temporary fix until we could truly address the kitchen. With our brand of visual magic removed, the kitchen at present looks like the living room in Who-ville after the Grinch has removed all the Christmas decorations. The kitchen is, and has always been, a shed kitchen. It can either be scooped out completely and redone, or the whole shed removed and then built back up from scratch. There are good arguements for either approach.
Personally, I would put a three story enclosed porch on the side of the house facing the river. That was our plan all along, to be able to hop out of bed, walk through French doors where the windows are now, and relax in our robes reading the Sunday paper while all the river and promenade activity happens.
Look at the front view of the as-built drawings. You'll see the 1770 house is the left two thirds, and the 1850s addition is the right third. Our plan was to open up two windows, and clad the entire 1850s addition in clapboard, to visually separate the 1770 house.
***NOTE*** The front elevation drawing is somehow considerably squished online. I'm not sure why, but the house and the drawing are MUCH lower and longer, as shown in the UNsquished interior drawings.
The now side yard, the front yard and the back yard could and should be incorporated into a larger landscaping plan that pulls together the patchwork yards of four properties into something wonderful. I started the process, but stopped when our plans changed.
THIS IS THE OLDEST FREE STANDING BREWERY STRUCTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. For all you historians who are also beer afficianados, you get top chest thump for THAT one. "Here, drink from this naken kultur stein given by Kaiser Wilhelm to his mistress biographer in Heidelberg in 1879." "Here, partake of my Winter Pale Ale, homebrewed using filet of a fenny snake as a final bouquet booster." "Hey, c'mon over for brats and beer in my house, the oldest freakin' brewery in America!"
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, door number three WINS!
Just because they've figured out which post holes in Jamestown show the location of their brew house, that doesn't mean there IS a brew house.
Just because Yuengling is the oldest brewery in America, their company and their building are just snot nosed kids compared to Ivy Cottage. SO THERE!
...and then there is Ben Franklin!!! Thats right... ol' Ben himself. Franklin hung out and printed money in Collins' Print Shop next door, sharing a back yard with our house, and undoubtedly a mitre of snog as well.
A journalist wrote an article about the place about two years ago. I was disappointed in the result, mainly because he didn't acknowledge the stack of research I'd left in his care, and seemed to think that the lack of a physical presence of a bowl and bench specific to toothless crones pre chewing hops meant it was all a big 'maybe'. Harrumph! Again, based on considerable research done by a number of others over the years, documented, recorded, filed and uncovered at the Burlington County Historical Society Library, I expected him to freak the hell out, and trumpet to all, "YO!, here is the big W, the Golden Ticket, the Holy Grail!"
Oh, fear not, humans with genuine enthusiasm about the wonders of beer and beer history, your champion will still ride in and and declaim Ivy Cottage to the world. In the mean time, I'll toot my tin trumpet on Craigslist!
We've priced this place to move, and a fear is that, because it's priced so low, a creepy slum lord will snatch it up and patch it up as a rental. It deserves the full on rethinking that a genuinely loving, three dimentional person can bring to the project. One couple came in, ready to low ball my already low price, and made much of pursing their lips and telling me how much work it needed. I did not say "No shit, Sherlock", but after letting them know that "perhaps this amazing project isn't for YOU!" and marching them double time to and through the door, I admit to roaring with laughter after they left. Another couple from academia looked at the place, fell in love, have been jugglin' their finances, but still haven't crossed me paaaaalm with silver, so I turn to Craigslist.
If you'd like the proper yarn spun in person by someone who clearly loves the place, contact me and I'll be happy to show you Ivy Cottage.
The photo shows the 1850s addition, facing the River...
I do have some digital shots of three of the four 1770 panelled rooms ends with firplaces, which I'll send if you like.
Todd B. Kimmell
Historian, Archivist, Lecturer, Consultant
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