Peachfield Plantation - Westampton, NJ
N 40° 02.100 W 074° 48.074
18T E 516958 N 4431660
In 1674, John Skene, a Quaker from Scotland, bought 300 acres of land in the second tenth of the Province of West Jersey and named the property Peachfield.
Waymark Code: WMBD2
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 04/27/2006
Views: 33
This historic marker is out front and to right of the long driveway which leads to the farmstead. New signage has since been added by the Colonial Dames Society. If you want to take a tour of the facility, call in advance. Peachfield is located just off Route 295.
History
Henry Burr purchased the property from Skene's widow in 1695. He and his wife built the east portion of the house, made with South Jersey bog ironstone, on the present site in 1725. Their son, John Burr and his wife, Kaziah, built the west part of the house in 1732.
The date stones can be seen on the front of the house. The property remained in the Burr family for 200 years. Following a devastating fire in 1928, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Harker purchased the house and engaged the architect R. B. Okie to restore the residence to a lovely country home.
Upon her death in 1965, Mrs. Harker bequeathed the property to The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of New Jersey to be used as its State Headquarters. They also own the Brainerd School House, another NRHP site, in Mount Holly, NJ, down the road a piece.