HISTORIC MIDDLETOWN HOUSE UP FOR SALE
Built in Massachusetts in the early 1700s and relocated to Middletown in 1962, the former Nathaniel Smith House features exposed-rafter ceilings, as in the library, below. (Click to enlarge)
It took historic preservationist Mary Lou Strong more than a week to get back to redbankgreen after we called recently to inquire about her Middletown home going on the market.
She apologized for the delay, and said she simply wanted to be sure she could talk about it without crying.
It’s not just that the house located on a tongue-tip of land bound by Navesink River Road and the anchorage to the Oceanic Bridge is where Strong and her husband, George, raised three kids. Or that it’s filled with cherished antiques collected over a lifetime.
It’s that the house, built in Massachusetts before the United States was born, is itself the manifestation of the couple’s shared values when it comes to keeping history alive. And who knows if the next owner will want to bulldoze it into oblivion?