Scott Farm Barn (Cary Barn)

Location: 88 Mountainside Road

Description: Back of the Scott Farm Barn (Cary Barn)

The Scott Farm Barn, formerly the Cary Barn, was built around 1825 by Stephen Cary. It and the surrounding farm were passed down through generations of the family until 1907. Expanded several times, the barn was owned by the Scotts from 1977 to 2015 and has now been restored by the Borough of Mendham.

The Cary/Scott Farm property includes a well-preserved classic red “banked barn”, a style of barn noted for its accessibility, at ground level, on two separate levels. This 1.5-story four-bay banked barn is a well-preserved example of traditional construction, with a stone foundation and vertical frame siding. The central portion probably dates from the 1820s, when Stephen Cary purchased the farm. The northern facade contains a pair of centrally placed two-story sliding wooden doors; the western facade is blank except for a foundation-level ventilator. The southern side is open at ground level, with an added projecting forebay, with an additional set of doors with hand-wrought strap hinges and a single sliding door located at ground level on the eastern side. A small six-light fixed window also appears on the eastern side level with the top of the stone foundation, and a pair of louvered shutters ventilates the gable end. In its prime time, this historic red barn would have housed livestock at the lower level, with storage of wheat, hay, and other grains at the main level.

Currently, you can admire the red barn and the history baked into its architecture. The property also connects to local walking paths and trails to explore. In the future, construction will begin to turn the barn into a beautiful nature center with a viewing deck.

Scott Farms (Cary Farms)

History:

The property was owned by the Scott family, who purchased it on December 13, 1977, from Herbert & Ruth Kent for $195,000. It was originally known as the Cary Farm, and dates back to 1822. Jonathan Cary came to Mendham from Bridgewater, MA in 1745 (the Cary family traces its roots back to the 1630s period of the Plymouth colony). Jonathan was a carpenter who came at the request of Ebenezer Byram to build the first Hilltop Presbyterian Church on the current location at 14 Hilltop Road. He then settled in the area to raise a family and operate a gristmill. His son, Stephen, was born on March 15, 1794. In 1822, Stephen purchased 59 acres of land on Mountainside Road to operate as a farm. He built the “Stephen Cary House”, a brick Federal-style house with a gambrel roof, in the 1825-1835 period.

During the twentieth century, the former Cary property was sold and presumably subdivided several times. Daniel and Darby Scott acquired the house and barn lots in 1977, and they retained ownership for several decades. In 1989, the Stephen Cary House was listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, and the listing included the property across the road with the barn and storage building. The property was continuously farmed until the 1990s, and in 2015, the Scotts sold the barn lot, which totaled approximately 10.6 acres and included the barn, small storage building, and two chicken coops, to the Borough of Mendham to be preserved as open space. They sold the Cary House in 2017, and it remains a private residence today. Since then, Mendham has been afforded three major grants from the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund in order to rehabilitate and preserve the barn for public use. The 2020 grant funded a detailed historic preservation plan that can be found below. Then the 2022 grant completed construction documents related to structural upgrades to the barn and front foundation wall, repair and restoration of the roof, roof drainage, upgrades to lighting, and ADA access to both levels of the barn. Lastly, the 2023 grant will assist with the barn rehabilitation, including structural upgrades and the front foundation wall. The construction will begin in the near future in order to turn Scott Farm Barn into a beautiful nature center with a viewing deck.

 

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