First Look "Down the Brook": Exterior Rehabilitation
About this Session
250 years ago in December 1775 Scottish emigrant and Philadelphia merchant John Wallace purchased 95 acres on the Raritan River in Somerset County, building the Wallace House over the following year. Completed by 1777, the new Wallace House served as George Washington’s Middle Brook Headquarters in December 1778 and February – June 1779.
250 years later, the Wallace House is under construction again, receiving a major historic rehabilitation for Revolution NJ. The State of New Jersey’s architectural consultant is introducing new approaches for the preservation of State Historic Sites, emphasizing traditional techniques and materials and reintroducing linseed oil paint and putty to the structure.
This tour offers a first look at the exterior rehabilitation of the Wallace House completed in the spring of 2026 before the forthcoming interior rehabilitation due to begin next year in 2027. Kallie Kothmann, project manager for Historic Building Architects, leads the tour of the Wallace House. Paul Soltis, the State of New Jersey’s historian for Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites, introduces the history and historiography of the Wallace House, considering how the preservation of the historic structure is prompting new questions and perspectives on Washington’s Headquarters and the Continental Army’s Middlebrook Cantonment in New Jersey.
The Revitalization of Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites is underway “Down the Brook” for Revolution NJ. The historic rehabilitation of Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage is supported in part by Semiquincentennial Grants from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
