Preserving Americana: Salter's Mill restored
Historic site updated as use for office space
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer
The unassuming exterior of the building at the corner of Davis Station and Imlaystown roads actually encases the striking inner workings of a gristmill, an ever-running stream and a history that stretches back to the time of Abraham Lincoln's great-great-grandfather.

JEFF GRANIT staff Although Salter's Mill in the Imlaystown section of Upper Freehold has an unassuming exterior, its interior exists in stark contrast and offers a glimpse into the history of the gristmill.

The site, known as Salter's Mill and located in the tiny village of Imlaystown in Upper Freehold, is on the National Registry of Historic Places. The original structure there was built before 1700 by Richard Salter. The mill remains named for him, although it had a succession of owners and operators including Abraham Lincoln's great-great-grandfather, Mordecai.

When the mill burned down, a new one was built after 1820 and operated until 1962, before remaining vacant for several years. The internationally known landscape architect Robert Zion, who created the Ford Foundation Atrium and the first-ever pocket park, both in New York City, among numerous other renowned projects, purchased the structure in 1971 and remodeled it as offices.

Top: The Everest Group, of Freehold, has purchased and is renovating Salter's Mill in the Imlaystown village of Upper Freehold. Bottom: Spiral staircases connect the four stories of the historic gristmill.

At that time, Zion had also purchased a nearby farm and enjoyed riding his horse to work at the gristmill offices each morning.

Zion was killed in a traffic accident near his home in April 2000. His family started selling off his estate and sold the farm. However, it wasn't until recently that the family started looking for someone to purchase the mill, which had again fallen into a state of disrepair.

When electrician Jimmy Lombardo of Robbinsville got wind of the mill being for sale, he contacted his friend Mike McCloskey, of Colts Neck and the Everest Group in Freehold, a developing and managing real estate firm, and told him he needed to see the historic site.

The two men were intrigued by the idea of creating offices in an environment where water constantly courses through and where workers would have the opportunity to step back in time by seeing the Americana and mechanisms of an old mill.

PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff

"I like specific types of buildings," Mc- Closkey said. "I like older buildings with character."

Lombardo said, "I have a soft spot in my heart for projects like this."

They purchased the mill for $355,000 and expect to finalize about $150,000 worth of renovations to the structure in the upcoming weeks.

The most costly and time consuming of the repairs, replacing the corroded and rotting cedar clapboard on the exterior of the mill, required the teamwork of six to put up the new, tan, hardy plank.

"Hardy plank is more costly, but it has the look of cedar and a longer life span," Lombardo said.

Although the team expects to wrap up exterior repairs soon, McCloskey said that when a building is 200 years old, renovations are never done.

The two are no strangers to historical renovation projects as they have been working together since 2001 and also partnered to purchase a pegged barn built before the industrial revolution in Princeton Junction. They successfully converted the structure into office space for Ferret Music, an independent record label, and a realtor.

PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff Above: A look at the first-story office space of Salter's Mill in the Imlaystown section of Upper Freehold. Right: The Everest Group, of Freehold, will keep mechanical devices like this one intact to preserve the historical integrity of the gristmill.

Lombardo and McCloskey have 6,000 square feet of office space available in Salter's Mill, which is divisible into units of 1,500 square feet, 1,900 square feet and 2,750 square feet. Beyond being located amid a fieldstone wall dating back to the 1670s, wooden gears, long pulleys, stone chutes, and elevator cups, the offices also offer views of both Doctors Creek, Imlaystown Lake and the waterfall over the Booth Bridge dam from a number of windows and the back deck.

The unique interior space consists of four floors with an entranceway on the ground level and a lounge on the floor beneath that both look into the 20-foot pit where the gristmill's waterwheel and other antique machinery rests. All of the floors are connected via metal and wood spiral staircases, with a second floor loft option and a fourth-floor conference room option.

The co-owners also shared plans to clear overgrown brush away from the running creek on the property and to place benches along the water so workers could enjoy lunch and breaks amid the numer- ous painted turtles that enjoying sunning themselves on the surface of the water in warm weather.

"It's the perfect spot for artists and architects," Lombardo said.

Interested tenants don't have to worry about the fact that gristmills of a bygone era did not have bathrooms, heat or air conditioning as the renovated Salter's Mill offers all three amenities.

Lombardo said the project has been an enjoyable challenge.

McCloskey added, "I enjoy seeing a building take shape, seeing something that obviously was once beautiful be beautiful again."

The mill is located one mile off I-195 in Imlaystown, which also has a wealth of history. Dating back to 1690, the hamlet was once the center of marketing and social life for area farmers with a sawmill, tannery, store, post office, wheelwright, blacksmith shop and tavern.

The village remained the seat of government for Upper Freehold until 1975 when the township completed its new municipal building on Route 539. The former municipal building is still located across the street from the gristmill and now stores goods for the food bank.

Many of the hamlet's 12-15 original dwellings still exist as does the longstanding Happy Apple Inn, which is also located across the street from the mill.