Anna N. & Walter P. Stokes House - Moorestown, NJ
N 39° 58.267 W 074° 56.799
18S E 504555 N 4424552
This contributing home to the Moorestown Historic District lines the N.W. side of Chester Avenue. Most of these homes are extremely huge and heavily landscaped compared to their Main Street counterparts, less than a half mile away.
Waymark Code: WM42E5
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 06/27/2008
Views: 13
95 percent of these homes on Chester Avenue contribute to the historic district status of Moorestown. Of these fifty or so homes, a handful of them were built using the Victorian-style architecture.
This is probably the most ornate and complex (and expensive!) home on Chester Avenue. I noticed all the northwest homes, or even numbered homes are larger and reserve more property than then odd numbered, southwestern homes on Chester Avenue. It is located on the northwest corner of East Oak and Chester Avenues. This house is just massive with enough detail to keep an architect busy for months. To wit:
There is a massive wraparound porch, custom made and installed stained glass windows, ponds, streams (yes, streams!), waterfalls, butterfly gardens (yes, more than one!), a rear detached garage constructed in the same exact style of the house, retaining walls everywhere, black wrought iron fence surrounding the property, an EP Henry custom paver driveway, and balconies galore! Naturally, there is a pool. I have included a Google Earth view to give a bird's eye view of the property and so one might appreciate it more than the description allows.
The original home ownership is questionable. The house has a historic marker which identifies the original owners as Anna N. & Walter P. Stokes. The Historical Society and Dept. of the Interior list it as William H. Roberts House. I am going with what I see and will use the Stokes name.
Located at 500 Chester Avenue a half mile or so from downtown Moorestown, this is one of 351 contributing buildings/structures to this historic district.
The Department of the Interior sent me the following narrative/information on this house:
c.1887. 2 ½ story Queen Anne style house, stone first floor, butt and double coved shingles at second floor, half-timbering and stucco in gables. Wraparound porch, corner pedimented entrance with lattice work tympanum, slender columns rising to brackets, circular porch with slated conical roof at north end. Double glazed and paneled doors along E. Oak elevation. Single, paired, and tripartite windows. Arched transom and leaded glass at second floor and Palladian window in gable of E. Oak Avenue elevation. Corbeled brick massive chimneys, lattice work balcony at top of variously pitched slate roof. Victorian cast iron fence. - Contributing.
There is also an historical marker attached to the house which reads:
ANNA N. & WALTER P.
STOKES
HOUSE
1889
Historical Society of Moorestown