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Old Farmhouse in Cape May City

by Libby I>*mp Fonrut CAPE MAY. - “I’ve always had a fwling of heloniihg here,'' Mary i BunnJ(> Reilly aaid as she sat in the quaint livingroom of her old farmhouse, yimetimes referred to as me oldest house in f-'ape •May While (he architcc tural pedigree of the early house is disputed, a plaque on the exterior white siding attributes the John Hand house to circa 1712.

Architect Hugh McCauley says the tidalv marshlands on which the /louse stands was considered good farmland for early dwellers who first jsettled in Cape May But, considerable research would be required to establish the approximate date of the Washington Street farmhouse, according to McCauley. MRS. REILLY, believes the livingroom and the

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SEVERAL ADDITIONS and aluminum storm windows help belie the true age of this quaint cottage on one of Cape May’s main streets, down which hundreds of residents and tourists travel dally without realising the history this house has lived thru.

overhead bedroom to be the oldest rooms in the house, based on stories told to her by Dolores Cans Deering, a Baltimore relative who willed the house to the current owner. "Aunt Laurie loved this house," Mrs.' Reilly said. "Even after she became blind in- her last years, she still wanted to stay here and touch all the things she was so familiar with." The ceilings of the rooms are so low it is possible to reach up and 1 touch them,ang tall guests to the Reilly home have to stoop over in order to walk around. MRS DEERING was a legal secretary and did

considerable research on the old house, unearthing an ancient deed to the property. at the courthouse which today hangs on the wall of a rear sitting room. The deed is dated January 28, 1795 and bears the signature of Jacob Spicer, who. prepared the document deeding "170 acres of land and marsh" acquired from a John and wMercy

Hand about 1735.

“Aunt Laurie tqlcLme the original land Extended from the ocean tfflhc other

side of the cana^" Mrs.

Reilly said. ^ According to architect

McCauley, the Schellengers Landing area was once a fishing village,

New Office Aids Drivers

TRENTON - New Jersey motorists experiencing problems in. dealing with the State Division of Motor Vehicles can expect quick help by contacting the Division’s new Office of Citizen Information and Complaints, according to DMV Director Clifford W. Snedeker. Headed by Marvin C. "Peiafir of Pennington, the office’s function will be to personally assist individual motorists who have become frustrated in their dealings with DVM. Those needing help should call (609) 292-5591 or write the Office of Citizen Information and Com-

plaints, Division of Motor Vehicles, 25 South Montgomery Street, Trenton, NJ 08666. The office is open 8:30ajn. to4:30p.m., Monday through Friday. Bosses ’ Night CAPE MAY - The Cape May County Legal Secretaries Association will hold its annpal Bosses’ Appreciation Night at 6:3<f p m. Nov. 16 at the Atlas Motor Inn. Guest speaker David Johnson, M.D., PhD., will discuss Stress Management, and both the Boss and Legal Secretary of the. • Year will be announced.

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with farmlands extending through a narrow ribbon of land to the area now designated as the historic district in the vicinity of Perry Street. The Perry Street area became a resort area after 1812. MANY OF THE OLD deeds granted by the Crown Were illegal, said McCauley, hoodwinking early settlers into believing they were purchasing pro# perty, but were only allowing them to develop the lands. « The original front door to Mrs. Reilly’s house once opened onto Washington Street, but was later boarded over and covered with the siding. The front of the house is now entered by a side garden, surrounded by a white picket fence. Today’s front door opens onto an enclosed sun porch, beyond which is part of the original log-Sheathed exterior and an old door with a doorbell alongside that leads to the livingroom. At one time, the old door was a front entrance. “Soihetimes I lie awake wondering how it must have been to go in and out of the house directly onto Washington Street when it was still a dirt road," said Mrs. Reilly. SHE ASSOCIATES her

Washington Street home with "the happiest of times," when she and her children would drive up from Baltimore to spend holidays with Mrs. Deering. Mrs. Deering and husband Arthur purchased the house in. 1956 from a pair of maiden sisters, Elsie. Walker Buiterworth and Jane Maws6n.Batterworth. She was well past middle age at the time of her marriage to her beloved ’Nick,’ an English professor at St. John's College. The Deerings retired to Cape May, but the blissful years they planned together ended abruptly when ‘Nick’ died six years,later. A NURSE by profession, Mrs. Reilly attended to her aunt when she settled in Cape May after her own family was raised. "When I was raising my family in Baltimore we always lived in modern houses. This is the only house I felt a sense of belonging in since I left my mother’s house when I got married," Mrs. Reilly said. The livingroom fireplace is used throughout the winter months, but its pedigree is also in question. "I don’t believe this is the original fireplace," Mrs. Reilly says, "But it’s

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