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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty visits Red Gate, a very fine home in rural New Jersey now on the market with the local experts, Turpin Realtors.

Seth E Thomas was a pioneer of mass clock production. He started out in 1807. By 1925 his great grandson, Seth E Thomas Jr, had married into one of New Jersey’s finest families and the company had built the famous giant clock – now valued at between $10 and $20 million – that still graces Grand Central Station in New York City.

Seth E Thomas Jr had another passion besides clocks. He was a keen huntsman and built himself a house in the midst of the Spring Valley Hounds hunt country in and around Harding Township. Thomas established the hunt in 1915 and it still exists today as a drag hunt. He was particular about tradition and made sure that there was a room large enough for the annual hunt ball. Today this connection is still seen in the charming breakfast room that features a hunting scene around the walls.

Designed by architect Harrie T Lindeberg who had apprenticed with Stanford White at the leading New York firm of McKim Mead & White, Red Gate has now been subject to thorough renovation by the present owners who have shown a great degree of understanding and appreciation in this sympathetic project. The result is a warm, inviting and graceful house that reflects its origins but brings the property fully up to date.

I loved the period touches like the Art Deco detailing to the ceilings, the front-to-back entrance hall and the enormous butler’s pantry ideal for some large scale entertaining.

But perhaps just as impressive and agreeable are the grounds which extend to over 9 acres. These include wide sunny terraces, verandas for shaded contemplation, a very fine pool with pool house and a delightful English style and partly walled parterre garden leading from the ballroom – ideal for taking the air between dances.

All in all if you are house hunting in the highly sought after New Vernon estate, tally-ho!

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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty visits a building on the market through Turpin Realtors that started life before American Independence and now offers a delightful home in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

It’s funny what you remember a few days after seeing a house for the first time. I thought this having seen The Herb Farm in Chester Township, New Jersey. This is in a rural, well-heeled, area of the state and the house is an historic building that has been beautifully restored to a very high standard. It is full of wonderful detail and features. But it was the huge copper hood over the fire in the kitchen, the fabulous original wooden stair and the magnificent island unit in the kitchen with black granite top and matching basin that stick so firmly in my mind.

And then there was the magnificent living room with its stone walls and exposed ceiling timbers, and the little water feature that surprises and then charms one on turning a stair. Not forgetting the tiny detached stone outhouse in the garden – as yet not modernised – where I am convinced I could happily try and write the great American novel – although I’m British. All things seem possible at The Herb Farm.

So perhaps possibility is really the lingering memory of this house. The possibilities were certainly seen and then seized upon by the owners who commissioned architects Hiland Hall Turner to re-fashion the building for the present day. The architects’ vision and the owners’ talent at interior design were both spot on.

Developed from a stone barn dating back to 1750 that later became a well known restaurant and a thriving herb business, the house stands in over 5.7 acres and is surrounded by the beautiful 500 acre Black River Park.

So what will be your abiding memory? Everyone’s will be different. But whatever it is you are certain to be touched by this wonderful property. It is a perfect remedy to a house purchase dilemma.