Andrew and Hannah Drake Farmstead (Brookdale Farm)
Historic Site Management Grant
Capital Level II
Grant Award: $49,090 (2018); $320,570 (2021) Grant Recipient: The Watershed Institute (fka the Stony Brook-Mills County: MercerMunicipality: Pennington
The historic Andrew and Hannah Drake Farmstead is three-acre site in the larger 950-acre Watershed Institute Reserve. The farmstead is significant for its association with Dr. Muriel Gardiner Buttinger, a noted author and psychologist who lived at the farm from 1940 until 1965. It is also significant because of its well-preserved collection of agricultural buildings. The Large Barn, constructed between 1830 and 1850, is a prominent and unusually decorative example of traditional English barns in New Jersey.
The 2021 Trust grant will help fund stabilization and repair of the “Drake Barn” which is a contiguous structure made up of the Wagon house, Large Barn, and Dairy Barn. The 2018 Trust grant helped fund the preparation of a preservation plan and concept design drawings for potential adaptive reuse of the site.
For more information https://thewatershed.org/