Frazee House Property Nearly Secure

After years of deterioration, the historic Frazee House in Scotch Plains is close to being stable.

The Fanwood-Scotch Plains Rotary Club, which has been leading the effort to restore the home since 2005, hired a contractor, Jetco Unlimited Inc., last fall to complete an emergency stabilization of the property. During the group’s July 15 meeting, preservation architect Annabelle Radcliffe-Trenner presented the results of that project, which was completed in May.

“I can now say it’s stable and that it’s not going to get worse,” Radcliffe-Trenner said.

The emergency stabilization, which was the first of a three-phase reconstruction process, required dealing with some of the home’s most pressing issues: termite damage to the wood, basement and foundation wall failure, roof structure deflection, and an unstable and failing chimney.

“We had a lot of things we needed to get through immediately,” Radcliffe-Trenner said. “We thought we wouldn’t get through another winter if we didn’t hurry up.”

The contractor closed off the home’s openings while providing ventilation, regraded the site, improved drainage, relocated the sump pump drain to the home’s south elevation, provided emergency shoring for the stairs, shored the room and walls internally, and carefully dismantled the chimney.

While the termites aren’t entirely under control yet (the group is still looking for an extermination company to donate its services), Radcliffe-Trenner said the home is now technically in a “holding pattern,” meaning it will remain secure until the group is able to move on to the next phase of reconstruction.

“Even if it stays in a holding pattern for five years, we can do it in steps now because we’re holding it up,” she said.

Phase one was originally estimated to cost $60,000, but the project came below that at $45,559. Funds have primarily come from grants.

Now the next step is finding funding for phase two, which is anticipated to cost nearly $704,000.

Much of that phase will include fully restoring the exterior and interior of the home, starting with the foundation. Part of the work will also include replacing much of the home’s wood, depending on its age and condition. Radcliffe-Trenner said that surface tests of some of the wood revealed that boards that appear solid are actually hollow on the inside.

“It will be interesting to tell us the level of authenticity,” she said. “This is sort of like a little antique, trying to put together the puzzle will be part of the story.”

Another part of the puzzle is figuring out what purpose the Frazee Home should have in the community in the future. 

Located at the intersection of Terill and Raritan roads, the house was built in the 1700s by Gershom Frazee Sr. an 18th century carpenter and joiner.

The home is deemed important by historians since it’s one of the few remaining houses from that era that was occupied by ordinary people. It’s also particularly known for its alleged involvement in the Battle of Short Hills, when British forces showed up demanding loaves of bread that “Aunt Betty” Frazee had just baked. When she expressed her displeasure with the British, the troops looted the home.

Little structural change occurred to the property until the 1940s, when the Terry family purchased it and turned it into New Jersey’s largest privately owned zoo. The Terry Lou Acres Zoo operated there until 1994.

The property was taken under eminent domain by the township of Scotch Plains in 1998, the same year it was added to the state’s list of endangered properties.

“I think we need to have a solid plan of where this is going in the future,” Radcliffe-Trenner said. “Who in the public is going to enjoy it, learn from it? What story are we going to tell?”

Rotary Club member and restoration project chair Andy Calamaras said the group has had several discussions trying to determine a vision for the home’s future, but that it has yet to come up with one that it thinks is right.

For now, he said, the club will be volunteering its time this summer to clear the grounds around the home.

“We want to come up with a park-like setting,” he said. “You drive by now and say, ‘why are we saving this thing?’ But, we’re preserving a piece of property that wouldn’t ordinarily get preserved. It’ll be a real benefit to the town.”