Somerset gives $758,000 to preserve 7 historic sites

The Somerset County freeholders have allocated $758,000 from the open-space tax fund for historical preservation, with seven well- known sites getting grants.

The largest amount, $156,200, will go to South Bound Brook to continue stabilization and restoration work on the Abraham Staats House.

Revolutionary War Gen. Friedrich von Steuben used the house as his headquarters during the second Middlebrook Encampment. The house's oldest section provides an example of Colonial Dutch construction in the area.

The Gen. John Frelinghuysen House, which serves as Raritan's library, will receive $145,870 for exterior repairs and drainage improvements.

Branchburg will use $130,210 for exterior restoration, including roof repairs and the replacement of a missing cupola at the South Branch School House.

Ongoing work at the Kennedy- Martin-Stelle farmstead has been controversial in Bernards, but the county awarded $110,040 more to save and restore the complex's English Barn.

Other grants are $110,000 to the Meadows Foundation for foundation work on the horse barn of the Hageman farm in Franklin, $70,000 to the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills for the continuing restoration of the Brick Academy in Bernards and $25,680 for interior restoration of the Rocky Hill Community House.

The remaining $10,000 goes for administration and legal expenses. While many of the properties and groups have their own events, Freeholder Director Denise Coyle said the county would like more activities to link them, such as tours.

"We're going to start doing that now that we've accumulated more historic properties," she said.