VltVT/lGE HOMES Fifth in a series

We Are Pleased To Announce That Mr. Ed Proud HasJoined Our Company Crowing to serve you. better, we are Dleaseh^o add Ed s familiar face to our company Ed wis bdrn and raised in the county and has been <6 plumber for the last 12 years His experience, particularly with older plumbing problems will be a real asset to our customers DAVE LOFT, PLUMBING MVffTU AVf ' * . 884-2268

This Winter... ' . * Come Out of the Cold TO CAP! MAY COUNTY'S BEST HOUSING BUY! mmu court • TOWNE HOMES« OPPOSITE AVALON COUNTRY CLUB ON ROUTE 9 Two Ix-flrfHtmlown homes offer you-a toasty franklin stove, energy efficient York hot air heating systerfi, wall to wflll carpeting, thermal pane windows, new appliances and cen-, tral air conditioning PRICED AT: $42,500 With as little as 5% down At 10%% interest To Qualified Buyers SAMPLE OPEN SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, 11-4 Or Coll: 445-3434 or 822-9477

Stately Home with a Political Past

by Libby Demp Forrest COLD SPRING - The walls of old homos bften reveal artifacts frdm hygone days, hut a wall of the Jacob Spicer house on Seashore Road displays a photographic history of politjcal doings that is as intriguing as any clues left from the house’s earliest dwellers The old pols of a geriehation ago when Con .gresshian T Millet Hand and his wife Betty owned the house are preserved in a collage mural mounted above a chair rail in a playroom where sisters Anne and Lea Billmeyer now keep their toy kitchen. President Nixon along with numerous local politicans — former start* senators Cafiero and Kay. amongst many others, pose at ribbon cuttings, chicken dinners, and within the inner sanction of their of-' Jfces, including the verjr* 'room,where the mural is mounted. ••WE BELIEVE this room was used as Congressman Hand’s office,” Ruth Billmeyer said as she showed a visitor through the ll-room house that had

powwows as it is privately located off a rear garden. Anne 5, and Lea 6. go about their play, accompanied by Thistle, their 4-months old cairn terrier, up and down the muitilevels of the old house, weaving their games much as children always have, fashioned from t the stirrings of the past along with the playthings of the present. \ "TH EL CHILDREN sense this as an old home.’’ Ruth Billmeyer sai*d. “but they're not in a time warp.” When Anne’s clas^ at the-Maude H. Abram’s school was studying American history, she was , fascinated to learn that Jacob Spicer I lived at the same time as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Her time sense even included her parents living in those days! "She thinks we knew all those people," Ruth said. Ruth and husband Jim. have been residents of Cape May County for seven years, coming here from Princeton. "I didn't reallywant on old house." Ruth said, but when the

THE PRESENT SIZE of the house is the result of several additions over the centuries.

lower livingroom was used as a 'viewing room’ during funerals," Ruth said. The room today, attractivelyi decorated with Colonial reproductions and paired love seats framing the old fireplace, seems a tranquil setting for a family’s comings and goings. THE BILLMEYER daughters often study the ABC’s carved into a floor board of a bedroom by the hand of a child generations ago, and they enjoy having a fireplace with the .old pot

hook still in place in the diningroom which is used during family parties and holiday dinners. Ruth said she sometimes lies awake at night, wondering about the people who have lived in the house. "There isn’t too much known about the period from 1800 to 1900." she said. "It was in a state of disarrqy and was just an ugly ramshackle house; kind of in a vacuum.” The ashes of one of the past occupants are said to

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THE ORIGINAL FIREPLACE in the diningroom also has the large old pot hook still in place — and is used during festive occasions.

it’s origins nearly three centuries ago. The Jacob Spicer house, built in 1702, is said to be the oldest structure in Cape May County. A later portion was added in 1759, doubling the size of the structure at that time, and a whole new section was added in the late 1940s. The playroom lends itself to the idea that it was once used for political

CAPE MAY LUMBER

Billmeyer's found that the Jacob Spicer house was for sale they liked its stately rooms, random width pine floors and dual living rooms.-The upper level livingroom. added about 30 years ago, is furnished with white wicker and has a wall-line bookcase. "This is my favorite room," Ruth said. AS THE: Billmeyers' refurbished the house and gardens they found a few chards of broken pottery, old military buttons and coins, and once a 14x20 metal plate that Ruth hoped was a buried treasure chest. "We’ve never found wampum or gold coins," Ruth said. Jacob Spicer II who lived from 1716-1765 was rumored to havd made black beads from clam shells and shipped them to New York state as bona fide Indian wampum. Nor‘does Ruth sense a rumored ghost in the house. "We do know the

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If you have always dreamed about owning your own comer of history, on a large parcel of ground, this is it150 year old colonial farmhouse, tastefully maintained with authenticity and charrti. Rooms are warm and spacious. Pine kitchen, large screened porch overlooks the (lowering yard. Random width doors. Cedar shingle roof covers 3 Jre.drooms, 2 baths, 2 parlours, dining room, sunroom, plus a 3rd door ’hideaway.’

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residential & commercial building contractor richard a. macdonald 504 baywood drive cape may, n.J. 08204 (609) 886-8843