New Jersey's Colonial Architecture Told in 100 Buildings by Veasey David

Author:Veasey, David [Veasey, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Published: 2014-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

Vought Farmstead, Clinton Township

The Johannes Vought Farmstead is the only house in the United States with intact German folk art ceilings dating from the Colonial Period. The house was built in 1759, with ornamental plaster ceilings featuring German folk art decorations, usually found on quilts, dresser drawers, and other household objects. A plaster snake in the hall is embedded into the ceiling plaster, and not added later. Four other rooms have decorative ceilings. The house with this artwork was built by Johannes Vought. It is two-and-a-half stories, made of rubble stone with a stucco surface applied in the 1830s. It has a gable end-roof. Vought came from a poverty-stricken family who immigrated from the Palatine region of Germany. Even though he was born in New Jersey, Vought’s house shows German influences, such as being sited on south rising ground, with the rear of the house built into the hillside. This building style is known as a Bank House. The kitchen is in the lower level of the Bank House, with one end below grade for colder storage of food. The house was near land that could be developed as stream-irrigated meadows, also according to German-convention. Vought was an active Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. The local patriot militia arrested him in June 1776, although his son John escaped and went on to become a Captain in the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers. Vought’s property was confiscated and his farm sold in April 1779. The property changed hands several time during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and its original 285 acres was reduced to a 25-acre farm. An historical association is restoring the house to its original eighteenth century core, which is between the two chimneys. The house is being developed into a Loyalist Museum, the only one in New Jersey.

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