Six-Mile Run House

The rear section may pre-date 1760 and was built with hand-chopped wooden beams and pegs. The larger front section was likely built around 1820. The house is one and a half stories tall. The second story has a loft and wide board flooring. The direction the staircase faces indicates that the front section of the house was likely bolted to the rear section. In the 19th century, it was common to expand a home by combining smaller ones. Before the 19th century addition, the rear section had a main room on the first floor and a loft sleeping area above. The larger front section originally had a kitchen and parlor on the first floor and sleeping rooms above.  

Some sources say that one section of the house was moved across a field to the other, and the two were then combined. Other sources claim that the front section was added to the original structure when the family who owned the rear section was settled and had the resources to expand. Family life in the home centered around a large central room with a cooking fireplace and a beehive oven. A modern kitchen and bathroom were added at some point in the 19th century. The outhouse remained in its original location until the house was moved to the East Jersey Old Town Village.  

The residents of the home were everyday citizens. The house stood on a little less than one acre of property from at least 1861. It was not associated with a farm, its residents probably worked in commerce or transportation. John Stryker is the earliest known owner of the home. He sold it in 1861 to William Lucas, and the land the house sat on was likely subdivided around this time. Benjamin Hubbard purchased the property from Lucas a few months later. Cato Hoagland, a freeman, bought the home in 1862 from Hubbard. Cato was a porter and split his time between Manhattan and Six-Mile Run Village.  

Mary Meseroll purchased the home from Ella Baker Hoagland, widow of Cato Hoagland, in 1900. Lewis A. Meseroll transferred the property to Edna Heacock and Alice Sadtler in 1925. Helen and Joseph Galbraith bought the home in 1956 and sold it to Harry and Arlene Grossman in 1973. The Grossmans donated the structure to the East Jersey Old Town Village in 1979.