Rockingham Barn Reconstruction Wins State Preservation Award

The Dutch barn at Rockingham reconstruction won an award from the state Historic Preservation Office. Photo: HMR Architects.

The reconstruction of the Nevius Dutch Barn at Rockingham in Kingston won a 2017 New Jersey Historic Preservation Award from the state Historic Preservation Office.

The project was one of six that were honored May 11 in a ceremony at the Burlington County Olde Courthouse in Mount Holly.

Rockingham, which is owned by the state and located on Laurel Avenue, was the George Washington’s headquarters during the last months of the Revolutionary War. After the Treaty of Paris was signed Washington wrote the “Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States” at Rockingham.

HMR Architects of West Windsor was contracted by the state in 1999 to relocate the house and outbuildings, including the barn, and restore the site, according to HMR’s web site.

The barn was located on an adjacent property and had fallen into disrepair. HMR salvaged what it could of teh original structure, then replicated what was needed to complete the project.

“The reconstruction of the barn included re-erecting the repaired frame on a new concrete slab with a stone veneer, enclosing it with new clapboard siding, a cedar shake roof, a new wood floor, and lighting, fire detection, and infrared heaters,” according to the SHPO web site.

“The goal is to preserve the Rockingham Museum and further the understanding and interpretation of the entire property as an eighteenth-century farmstead as it might have appeared when Washington lived on the property in 1783,” according to the web site.

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