Farmers Trust Company - Mt. Holly Historic District - Mount Holly, NJ
N 39° 59.595 W 074° 47.235
18S E 518162 N 4427029
This is one beautiful, old building which used to be a bank, but has been converted into the culinary arts center for the Burlington County College system.
Waymark Code: WMH3MT
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 05/16/2013
Views: 5
This beautiful bank is open to the public...all you have to do is ask! Of all the contributing properties I have investigated, this one is definitely the most interesting. On the outside is a rectangular, date stone atop the entrance and the center-third window and just under a decorative arch of oblong-lined bricks. The entrance is column supported with a cool little arched cover. The left side has what seems a cooper drain pipe extending to street level. Atop the down spout and below the cornice is the date 1815 featured in high, block-lettered relief. The inside is totally awesome! The original vault looks fantastic as well as the redesigned stained glass windows.
In July of 2011 Burlington County's College new $9 million culinary arts centered opened. The renovation of the bank to culinary arts school was designed to meet LEED certification standards. "Green" aspects include material reuse, water-use reduction, optimized energy performance and "daylighting," when possible. SOURCE
I also found some excellent information on one of our local on-line newspapers, phillyBurbs.com: The center occupies the space of the old Farmers Trust Company Bank, which is on the New Jersey State and National Historic registries and dates from 1814, and is adjacent to the college’s current Mount Holly Center at High and Mill streets.
The interior space includes exposed brick from the 1814 building and its distinctive arches. The sky-lit corridor bridges the old building with the addition. The old bank vault door also was incorporated into the design and the vault itself now holds refrigeration and literally, one of the kitchen sinks.
Naturally, a building this old and unique is also a contributing structure to the Mount Holly Historic District. In my never ending quest to document all things contributing, I visited the town library to retrieve the nomination form and narratives for the historic district. The reference desk rewarded me with a very old, crumbling NRHP packet from 1969. Despite what on-line sources would have you believe, there are actually 39 contributing structures and not 36.
From the Nomination Form:
18. FARMERS TRUST COMPANY .... 1815 ....21 Mill Street
Two and one-half story central block with wing building; foundation of stone and high brick; walls of Flemish bond brick; two inside end chimneys with horizontal stringer at each end of building, also one outside chimney; 6/6 windows in inset arcades, capped by marble lintels, and marble sills under windows; one bay entrance porch; one bay entrance double wooden doors with fanlight above; gabled roof (H.A.B.S. NJ 397).
Address
21 Mill Street
Mount Holly, NJ 08060