270-year-old Stone Home on 7 Acres in N.J. For Sale $700,000

Californians seeking homes will read this and weep. It’s got a 2-story barn! It’s got a pond! Hand-hewn beams! In yesterday’s NY Times Sunday paper. I couldn’t get the photo to come up (it’s definitely not the one at the top of the article), but here’s the realtor’s pitch:

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.

WHAT: A three-bedroom one-and-a-half-bath stone house

HOW MUCH: $679,000

SIZE: 2,610 square feet (according to tax records)

PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT: $260.15

INDOORS: The house’s oldest sections were built in 1730 and 1820, and retain nearly all their original features, including wide-plank pumpkin pine floors, hand-hewn wood beams and exposed stone walls. The kitchen and bathrooms were renovated in 2006. There are three original fireplaces, one decorative and two wood-burning. In addition to stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops, the kitchen has an old beehive baking oven.

Bedrooms are upstairs. The master has an en-suite bathroom. The second floor also features a den.


SETTING: Washington Township is in Morris County, 55 miles from New York City. Parts of the area are on the National Register of Historic Places. The region has many stone houses dating back to the 18th century. This house, built in 1730, is on over seven and a half acres. Neighboring properties tend to be two to three acres. Grocery shopping and other amenities are in Hackettstown, a 10-minute drive.

OUTDOOR SPACE: The property is a mix of clear and wooded land, with a pond and two-story barn. There are poplar, cherry, pear and walnut trees.

TAXES: $11,193 a year

CONTACT: Virginia Harpell and Doris Ju, Turpin Real Estate (973) 650-1637; turpinrealtors.com

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

6 Responses to 270-year-old Stone Home on 7 Acres in N.J. For Sale $700,000

  1. As someone who lives in this area, I can vouch for the beauty and charm of the old homesteads, however…

    The incinerator and landfill nearby, not to mention the property taxes, mice and rats attracted to the grains in the barns and the brutal heating bills, dilutes the pastoral fantasy a bit.

  2. I love old homes, I bought one several years ago, but there was no basement or solid foundation on it. I ended up contacting a company that specializes in house raising in NJ, they came out and actually lifted the house and built a solid foundation and basement underneath of it and I haven't experienced any kind of flooding since. I would recommend anyone with an old home with out a solid foundation look into this service.

  3. Anonymouse re the perils of Old Home in that area…sigh…yup, those things would take the bloom off, especially the mice / rats…Maybe those could be managed with a barn full of cats?… the landfill…well ..yuck..guess that would be the "sweet smell of success/prosperity", but yuck…

    Moon to Moon
    any chance of a pic of your parents house?
    love to see it.

Leave a Reply