SOUTH RIVER - A borough landmark that was recently considered for demolition is now expected to be preserved.
The Tabernacle Baptist Church announced that it will spare the circa late-1800s Victorian, Queen Ann-style house at 124 Main St. from the bulldozer and will instead restore the building for use as a residence once again.
Nan Whitehead, whose grandparents lived in the house and raised her father there, was pleased to hear that it will be preserved.
"My entire family was very happy because there is a strong sentimental attachment to the home," Whitehead said. "The Whiteheads have been in South River for generations and founded a lot of the important businesses there. My great-great-grandfather, Samuel Whitehead, was one of founding fathers of the town."
The Whiteheads sold the building to Joseph and Hedwig Bienkowski in 1945, and that family maintained the house until 1975, when it sold the home to the church.
The church used the house as a youth center until 2005, when an engineer deemed the building's structure as unsafe, the Rev. Charles Johnson, pastor, told the Sentinel. The church's board of trustees was considering demolition because of the high cost of restoring the building, which was estimated to be a half million dollars.
"Nobody wanted the house to go down," Johnson said, but money was a major concern for the 130-member congregation.
The church was faced with two options, he said, take the house down or restore it.
"It had to be one of the two," he said, "because we were not going to let it rot."
Johnson said the congregation can restore the home with money from the sale of another vacant residential property on Main Street. The house will then be used as a parsonage, which is the dwelling of the preacher.
"Now we have the money to do it," Johnson said, adding that he will also work with the borough's historical society to secure additional grant funding for the project.
The church will begin by restoring the interior of the house, and will then see how much money is left for the exterior, Johnson said. The church expects the project to cost around $300,000.
"We will put money into the inside. We are gutting the whole [interior of the] building down to the studs," he said.
South River Historical Preservation Society member Ken Roginski, who grew up in the borough, has said the home has several unique features, including the turret with the witch's hat on top of the roof.
The fact that the mansion, which stands prominently at the top of the hill on Main Street, is the former Whitehead homestead has led Roginski to the conclusion that it belongs on the state historical registry.
South River Historical Preservation Society President Richard K. Meyers believes the mansion dates back to the 1880s. He advocated for the home's preservation, saying that the structure is architecturally significant and the Whitehead family is historically significant for its economic, political and social contributions to the community.
"It is, indeed, a stately structure and a reminder of a bygone era," Meyers wrote in a letter to the Sentinel last summer.
Nan Whitehead's family is credited with starting several of South River's industries, going back to the early 1800s, when Samuel Whitehead began a fruit farm and nursery, giving birth to what would become a vital shipping industry locally. He later began a major clay bank and sand-mining operation, which would be handed down to his sons and expanded. Whiteheads were also involved in starting the borough's first textile mill, according to Meyers, and owned the first print shop in town. Another was on the original board of the First National Bank of South River in 1902.
Meyers said sparing the home would be a service to the family that was just as involved in volunteerism in the town as it was with economics.
"My father, Charles Whitehead, was born and raised there," Nan Whitehead said of the house. "My grandfather, in the early 1940s, passed away while my dad was in World War II."
Charles Whitehead would become well known as the state amateur golf champion.
"He won the amateur championship seven years in a row," Whitehead said. "He still holds the record, so he kind of made South River a little famous in his own way."
The Whiteheads only sold the house when Charles Whitehead became ill, according to Nan.
And even then, the house was well cared for by the Bienkowski's. Their daughter, Annette, who grew up in the house and now lives in Pennsylvania, was among those who rallied for its preservation last year.
She recalled that her parents were careful to prevent deterioration of the old building and even refused to have siding put on the house because it would cover up the Victorian filigree. Bienkowski shared memories such as having her wedding breakfast with her family on the grand wraparound porch, and watching her cousins play touch football on the lawn with future NFL star Joe Theismann.
Nan Whitehead said she and her relatives in Nebraska are delighted with the choice that the church has decided to preserve the property.
"I am so relieved, I can't even begin to tell you," she said. "That was a scary thought. I understand that it is a large project, but with any town, it is important to keep the character and the important buildings there for future generations. So this was a great thing."
