The Parker house, on Rumson Road, dates to 1667 and is the borough’s oldest home.

Little Silver officials took steps last week in their effort to preserve the 341-year-old Parker house, home of the borough’s founding family.

The Asbury Park Press reports that the borough hired Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects of Princeton

to perform a historic analysis and an operational feasibility plan to show that the borough can operate and use the homestead. The borough will pay $14,875 to match a grant for the work.

“They’re going to get it put on the historic register and apply for state historic grants,” said Michael Biehl, borough administrator.

Getting placed on the national and state registers of historic places opens the door to qualifying for various state and federal preservation grants, which could help the borough with its goal of using the Parker Homestead as a museum and educational facility.

The latest study continues work started in 2006, when the borough received a $50,000 endowment from the Codispoti Foundation, which officials used in December 2006 to hire Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects to determine the best ways to preserve the Rumson Road homestead.

The Parker family settled the land, then part of the Monmouth patent for Shrewsbury Township, in 1666, and Peter Parker built the house a year later. Until Little Silver was separated from Shrewsbury, the area was known as Parkerville.

Julia Parker, the last surviving member of the clan, died in 1995, one year after deeding the remaining 10-acre property, including a house, barns and pond, to the borough, according to a timeline on the home’s website.

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