When we found an original photo of the house, we had quite a surprise!  After our bid was accepted, our contractor, Darrin Myers, decided to learn more about the house. He went to the Historical Preservation Commission and met L. Scott. Her husband is the great grandson of the original builder of the house and was a font of information. She also had a picture of the house from 1910. Needless to say, this was an awesome find! It was also shocking. The old photo showed that the house originally had a wrap-around porch. An amazing porch made of brick with double, fluted columns and capstones around its edge. My first thought when I saw the photo was, “This is going to cost a lot of money!” But it was clear from the moment we saw it that we needed to replace the porch. Without it, the house never looked quite right. Now we knew why. With the porch, the house is grand.

After we moved to Cranbury and started to meet residents, we started to hear the same question from many of them: “Are you going to put back the porch?” We went to Teddy’s Diner and the waitress said that we were the talk of the town that morning. Everyone was discussing and wondering whether we would repair the porch. Keep in mind that the porch was torn down in the late 1950s. It hasn’t been a part of the house for over 50 years. But small towns have long memories.