On Thursday, July 16, the Phillipsburg Area Historical Society met for the first time in about 35 years at the Roseberry House. Michael Margulies spoke about the philosophy and process of preservation, highlighted by his work at the Vanatta Farm, the Vail house in Historic Speedwell (Morristown), and at the Roseberry House (of course). There were about 30 people in attendance–some standing–as space was limited in part due to the fact that it is still a “construction zone.” We had the pleasure of hosting Catherine Goulet, Principal Historic Preservation Specialist with the New Jersey Historic Trust. She got a thorough tour of the house and a sense of how we were approaching the preservation task. The Trust is the state entity that recently awarded the Society a $50,000 grant to prepare a Preservation Plan.

Windows and doors are now being installed, but the work goes deliberately, as there is still a lot of fitting and adjusting. We expect all to be completed within two weeks. And then the plywood goes back up to protect against vandalism, until we have shutters made.

Michael Margulies, Frank Greenagel, Cathy Goulet and Wayne Sherer in the hall of the Roseberry House

In the first weeks of June passersby will notice something very new about the Roseberry House-the original windows have been refurbished where possible and replaced where necessary. The millwork has been competed, stacked up waiting for the windows themselves in the photo below. The original color—a dark brownish red—discovered on a shim beneath one of the original sills was scanned and matched by the nice people at Sherwin-Williams in town, is being applied. The place will begin to approach its original appearance. There’s not enough money available now to replace the shutters, but that will happen next year (we hope!). In the meantime, we’ll have to put plywood over the windows again—to protect them from stone-throwers who pitched rocks through many of the temporary blue plexiglass panels that have been there for the last year. That’s unfortunate, but vandalism is a fact of life, even for historic places.