Renovations at Historic Cold Spring Village

Historic Cold Spring Village is the grateful recipient of a 2008 grant from the 1772 Foundation. Funding has allowed the Village to undergo a major restoration of the c.1800 Spicer Leaming House.
During the first phase of the project, headed by local preservationist Jamie Hand, the two first floor fireplaces were restored to their original footprints. The second phase, which is currently in progress, consists of transforming the second floor into a typical upstairs dwelling in the early 1800s.
This includes adding walls, proper flooring, entry doors, and window trimmings. HCSV plans to furnish the upstairs and open it to the public during the 2009 summer season.
The two-story, early 19th century farmhouse has an important story to tell. It originally stood in Neck Farm, adjacent to Spicer’s Creek—the creek that divided mainland Cape May County from Cape Island (now Cape May City).
Jacob Spicer, Jr., a colonial legislator, owned the land. Along with his friend and colleague Aaron Leaming, Spicer wrote “Concessions and Agreements.”
The document was a compilation of existing Colonial laws, including laws pertaining to freedom of speech and religion, trial by jury, public elections, and human rights.
HCSV Executive Director Anne Salvatore said that that Spicer’s document is “considered to be the colony of New Jersey’s first constitutional Bill of Rights and the basis for our Federal constitution.”
The Spicer Leaming house was moved to the Village in 1977.
Historic Cold Spring Village is a non-profit, open air living history museum that portrays the daily life of a rural South Jersey community of the Early American era.
The Village is located on Route 9, three miles north of Victorian Cape May and a mile and a half west of the southern end of the Garden State Parkway. For more information, call 609-898-2300, ext. 10 or visit the Village website at www.hcsv.org.