About 100 Little Silver residents, joined by Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno
, celebrated the completion of restoration work on the three barns at the Parker Homestead Sunday.
The structures, the oldest of which is believed to have been built in the 1790s, and the Parker farm site on which they sit are “as important as Jamestown” in the history of America, Mayor Bob Neff told the crowd.
The restoration, funded with a $250,000 Monmouth County Open Spaces grant, was completed after a dispute with a contractor was resolved and a second contractor, Drill Construction, came on board in January, said Keith Wells, a trustee for the nonprofit Parker Homestead 1665 Inc., the nonprofit that oversaw the project. Two carpenters, Joe Rubel and Mike Cerniglia, were credited for work.
Click the “read more” for additional photos. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Bob Sickles Sr. and Bob Sickles Jr., whose ancestors worked the farm for four centuries into the 1960s.
The circa-1790 horse barn, left; the cow barn (circa 1825), center, and the wagon barn (circa 1875), right, each got a makeover.
Locals toured the barns as well as the adjacent farmhouse.
Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno.
The Chorus of the Atlantic sang ‘God Bless America.’
A view of the horse barn interior.
Keith Wells told redbankgreen that officials hope the work lasts “another 200 years.”
