On a sunny Sunday morning, I was a guest at an amazing Angus farm in Raritan Township. Far off the road, the property is a sprawling River-Friendly working farm with a beautiful historic stone house with several impressive stone outbuildings. The property is included in the township Historic Site Survey of the 1970s. The owners were generous in letting me photograph the buildings.
The outbuilding is 1 and 1/2 story with gable roofs, timber-linteled fireplace and three original windows. Attached at the north face is the smoke house. It is beautiful and well preserved.
The smoke house is 9′ wide and 12′ long, and 6′ tall, 8′ to the top of the roof. The summer kitchen, with the chimney, is roughly 17′ long, 14′ wide and 16.5′ tall. The front of the outbuilding is shown below with the date engraved in the stone, 1895.
Here is a view of the back of the summer kitchen/smoke house which also shows the large stone house in front of the outbuildings.
There is a front door to the smoke house and a small opening in the stones as a vent on the northern upper face.
On either side of the door are wood beams – which also appear at other structural locations of the smoke house and summer kitchen. One beam face below also has an old vintage spike – likely for hanging lanterns, buckets and other objects. Additional hooks and spikes are shown, on the south face of the summer kitchen.
The summer kitchen also has a large hearth with small brick lined baking insert, as we can see below:
There is a loft in the summer kitchen. Below is a view of the original beams supporting the floor boards of the loft and the window on the north face.
As you can see from the window image, the walls of the summer kitchen and the smoke house are very thick, about 18″.
There are several other outbuildings on the property, including a 19th century English barn and gable roof wood shed. All in beautiful condition.
I thank the owners for the opportunity to add their treasures to my photo journal.
The Historic Site Survey says the “this farmstead retains a complement of buildings that are illustrative of the area’s farm culture and building practices in the early 19th century. Of particular note is the small out-kitchen with attached smoke house”.
I completely agree. They are treasures.
Springhouses in Hunterdon County 