The Historic Cold Spring Village (HCSV) Historic District is listed on the New Jersey Register for Historic Places under Criterion A as a museum village and for its associations with the New Social History movement of the mid-to-late twentieth century. Of the 27 contributing buildings on the 30-acre property, 25 have been moved from locations across Cape May County between the 1970s and 1990s.

The 2022 Trust grant will help fund the preservation of the Corson-Hand House, Coxe Hall Cottage, Dennisville Inn, and the Ezre Norton House.

Constructed in 1837, the Corson-Hand House is a small domestic structure, typical of residences built in Cape May County in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is a two-story house with a lean-to. There have been very few alterations to its original floor plan, windows and finishes. Coxe Hall Cottage is not only the oldest building at HCSV, it is the oldest surviving structure in Cape May County. Constructed in 1691, the house is locally significant as a good example of first period heavy timber frame construction. The Dennisville Inn, built in 1836, is a large two-and-a-half story building featuring a gable roof flanked by large brick chimneys, three pedimented dormers in the front and two in the rear. The Dennisville Inn was one of only ten taverns or inns in the County at the time it was built and is one of only three surviving inns or taverns in the County. The Ezra Norton House, built c. 1850, retains a high degree of historic integrity. The building’s lean-to is original to the construction, as is the floorplan of the second story, which exemplifies the early Victorian transition to separate sleeping chambers.

The 2019 grant helped fund foundation replacement and regrading at the Spicer Leaming House. Built circa 1815 by Spicer Leaming in Lower Township and moved to HCSV in 1977, it is interpreted as an upper-class, early 19th century home.

The 2018 grant helped fund preparation of a preservation plan, a Phase IA archaeological investigation, and a tree management plan for the property. 

The 2017 grant addressed the restoration needs of three building at the site: the Ewing-Douglass House was constructed circa 1850 in the Gothic Revival style for David Ewing a local farmer and educator, and later owned by Nathaniel Douglass, who operated a country store from an addition on the house; the earliest part of the Hathorn House was constructed circa 1722 for James Hathorn, with later additions; and Mechanic’s Hall was constructed c. 1894 in a vernacular Gothic Revival style. This building originally housed a local chapter of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. 

For more information, visit: https://hcsv.org/