The Ewing Township Historic Preservation Society is celebrating a major step toward making the Benjamin Temple House fully accessible, thanks to an $82,000 allocation in New Jersey’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, who secured the funding, joined Senator Shirley Turner, Ewing Mayor Bert Steinmann, and local preservation leaders Thursday to mark the investment. The grant will fund an electric platform lift, a rebuilt rear porch, doorway modifications, two ADA parking spaces, and a wheelchair pathway — changes that will allow visitors of all abilities to tour the 18th-century home.
“We have been trying and hoping for decades to make this handicap accessible so we can become a museum and be open to all,” said Ewing Township Historic Preservation Society President Joanne Durham. “This will open it up to the entire community and for all visitors who want to come here”.
Reynolds-Jackson called the project essential for connecting more people with a building that holds both state and national historic designations. “We want to make this building accessible to school children, to our seniors, and to everyone who wants to know more about this beautiful facility,” she said.
Mayor Steinmann noted that the improvements will expand public engagement with a rare survivor of its era. “Unfortunately, when the building was moved, there were no provisions made for people with special needs,” he said. “This opens it up to so many more individuals”.
A House With Deep Roots
Built around 1750 by farmer, magistrate, and judge Benjamin Temple, the Georgian-style wooden farmhouse is among the oldest surviving wood structures in the region. Temple’s land once spanned roughly 300 acres along today’s Route 31. A neighbor and relative by marriage to Declaration of Independence signer John Hart, Temple served as a justice of the peace, a Hunterdon County Supreme Court judge, and overseer of Rogers Road, now Route 31.
The home remained in the Temple family until 1903, when it was sold to the Ryan family, who operated a dairy farm there for more than 50 years. Remarkably, only those two families lived in the house until the mid-20th century, preserving much of its original woodwork, flooring, and hardware.
From Farm Lane to Federal City Road
The house’s survival into the 21st century was not guaranteed. In the early 1970s, construction of Interstate 95 threatened the original site on Bull Run Road. In 1973, preservationists led by Gail Kuser orchestrated its relocation to township-owned land at 27 Federal City Road — a move that saved the building from demolition. The Ewing Township Historic Preservation Society was founded soon after, making the site its headquarters.
Over the years, the society has developed exhibits on local history, including African Americans in Ewing from slavery to the Civil War, and maintains a genealogy library and archival collections. The building is open for tours the first Sunday of each month and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Looking Ahead
For Becky Urban, immediate past president of the society and project manager for the accessibility upgrades, the grant is the culmination of decades of advocacy. “We’ve been trying for literally 50 years to get enough funds together,” she said. “By the 250th anniversary next year of the United States, I hope we have handicapped accessibility — and in the process, are a step closer to being an official museum.”
The improvements are expected to be complete in time for the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations, connecting more visitors to a site that has witnessed — and survived — the sweep of American history, from colonial farmland to modern highway interchange.
