Frequently Asked Questions

  Where is the William Green House located?
On The College of New Jersey Campus, in Ewing Township, New Jersey.

  I bought a brick years ago. Where did the money go?
The money remains in a fund currently consisting of about $2,679.73. Most of the funds have been used since 1974 for maintenance of the house.

  Why is the house a significant landmark?
The house was the home of William Green, an early settler of Hopewell Township, and one of the first judges of the county of Hunterdon. Members of the Green family born in the house served in the Revolutionary War. The grandsons of William Green include William Green III, who assisted at the Crossing on Christmas Night 1776, and Rev. Enoch Green. Enoch Green was a noted Presbyterian minister, and valedictorian of the Princeton University Class of 1760. He also served as a battalion chaplain at Fort Washington in 1776, and presided over the construction of the Deerfield and Maidenhead Presbyterian Churches.

According to National Archive Records, a number of the Light Horse of Washington's Army billeted at different times during the war at William Green's plantation.

William was a forefather of John Cleve Green, endower of the Lawrenceville School, and of the Greens who operated the Ewing-Yardley Ferry.

The fine Flemish bond brickwork of the Green house is similar to that used in the 1719 Trent House in Trenton, and its interior preserves original eighteenth-century detailing.  The National and State Registers of Historic Places both list the Green house, citing it as a significant example of colonial farmhouse architecture.

  How old is the house?
No one knows for certain. Estimates range from pre-1700 to 1730 for the first construction phase of the house. The most widely accepted date is circa 1730. The house stands on a piece of ground that Daniel Coxe sold to John Severns, who evidently sold the land to William Green Sr. around 1712, although no deed is recorded. We know that William Green owned the farm in 1715, for at that point in time the first minister of the Presbyterian church, Rev. Robert Orr, was staying on the farm with the Green family. The house as it presently stands consists of sections from four distinct building periods. The oldest of these forms the southeast segment of the building. Although this section has been traditionally dated 1717, it probably was built in the early 1730s when William Green Jr. and his wife Lydia Armitage had married and started a family. Apparently, there was a house on the site prior to the construction of the 1730s section. This would have been the the first New Jersey home of Judge William Green Sr and his wife Joanna Reeder. Traces of the roof of the earlier one-and-a-half story building appear on the partition wall between the eastern and western sections, and a few other traces of the earlier sections remain. (Historical Analysis and Feasibility Study, The William Green House, Trenton State College, August 1976)