Crawford House TINTON FALLS — Members of the borough’s preservation community are hopeful that the historic Crawford House will be fully restored within the next two years with an infusion of funds.

At the July 5 meeting, the Tinton Falls Borough Council introduced an ordinance appropriating $109,756.41 for Americans with Disability Act (ADA) improvements needed at the landmark located on Tinton Avenue.

Business Administrator Gerald Turning Sr. explained, “The money is going to make it ADA-compliant,” he said. “We are going to be building ramps and a small kitchen inside that home.

“We will also improve the parking lot so that people with wheelchairs and [other special needs] can actually enter the property.”

The funds will also pay for a bathroom and kitchenette to be constructed within the 19th century building and the widening of an interior doorway.

According to the ordinance, $29,719.41 will come from the borough’s capital fund reserve for historic district improvements and the remaining $80,037 will come from a federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).

Turning said that the borough received the CDBG grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last year and the council is introducing the ordinance for the Crawford House improvements now because the plan is to apply next month for CDBG money for similar improvements to the borough library.

“The reason we have to do this quickly is because we will go back in front of the CDBG people inAugust and they are going to want to know how their money is being spent,” he said. “We want to show that we are doing a project that they approve.”

He also said that all the engineering and design work for the Crawford House improvements has been completed and the borough soon will go out to bid for contractors to do the work.

Tinton Falls Historic Preservation Commission Chairwoman Stacey Slowinski said in an interview last week that making the Crawford House ADA-compliant is essential in its restoration.

“We are trying to ready the house to open it to the public and before we can do that we really need to have the access issue resolved,” she said.

Last year, a community garden was begun and a farm stand opened at the Crawford House and Slowinski said that the ADA improvements will help draw visitors.

“So far the major draw that we’ve had to the house has been the farmstand that we had last summer,” she said. “We have had a [limited] number of people who came because all we have is a couple of steps that lead up to the porch.

“We’ve had a couple of customers that we’ve brought things out to the car for them because it’s difficult for them to get up onto the porch,” she added.

Slowinski said the construction will have little, if any affect, on the farm stand.

She said that the exterior of the historic house has been completely restored and that besides the ADA improvements, the interior still needs a heating system, finished walls and finished floors.

Slowinski said she is hopeful that the house would be fully restored in two years but that is largely dependent on outside factors.

“It very much depends on the availability of funding and the availability of volunteers and donations,” Slowinski said. “Optimally it will be another year or two, our best case scenario will be another two years.”

Slowinski said she is looking forward to holding educational classes at the Crawford House once the structure is fully restored.

She also said that she fully expects other groups to take advantage of the space for their own events.

“The environmental commission and the open space committee are sharing that space with us so they will doing all kinds of seminars,” Slowinski said. “The house can and will be used for things like a local poetry group can meet there, if there is a photographer who wants to have an exhibit we can use the house for that.”

Another benefit from restoration of the house is that the three bedrooms on the second floor will be converted into three offices for the three borough organizations that will share the house.

Slowinski said that the three groups do not currently have offices at Borough Hall and will also likely hold their monthly meetings at the Crawford House.

Dating from the early to mid-19th century, the Crawford House is an example of the Dutch-frame style. The home belonged to the Crawford family for four generations, according to Slowinski.

The borough acquired the property in 1999, after Ruth Crawford’s death in 1998. The property had originally been bought by the Stavola family and later was traded in a land swap with the borough, according to Slowinski.

The exterior renovations were carried out with a $97,000 grant from the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust, and a matching $65,000 from the borough, according to Slowinski. Contact Kenny Walter at kwalter@gmnews.com