Isaac Pearson House Heritage Tourism Assessment

Last year we finished up a heritage tourism assessment of the Isaac Pearson House, a now-vacant but largely intact 1773 Georgian five bay, two story brick mansion owned by Hamilton Township in Mercer County NJ. The house’s builder was Isaac Pearson, a Revolutionary War-era farmer and an appointed local official who served British officials in West Jersey. The house today is located in Veterans Park, a 5.5-acre remnant of what was once the extensive 1000-acre Pearson Plantation   that used enslaved people and others to tend sheep, an orchard, and crops.  Today, the Historical Society of Hamilton Township has long term plans to rehabilitate the Isaac Pearson House for use as a visitor center/experiential learning location/maker space for Colonial-era trades and crafts.  They have a preservation plan in hand, with the hope of completing restoration before the upcoming 250th Anniversary of the Revolutionary War, which begins in 2026.

 

The future plans for the house include rehabilitation of the inside and out, and the reconstruction of a two-story Kitchen Wing/Visitor Center on the site of the old kitchen. The first floor of the mansion will be used as a multipurpose space with movable chairs and tables for educational programming.  A small room and hallway on the second floor will house temporary exhibits. The second-floor bedrooms will serve as the maker spaces, where craftsperson’s/artists will have short term residencies while making 18th-century goods like tinware, cloth, leatherware, clothing, and the like. These craftspeople will also interpret their crafts to visitors on weekends. Outdoor spaces under tents in the park will expand the locations for educational events and activities. We are excited about this project and hope the Historical Society of Hamilton Township is successful in gathering the needed funds to restore the building and open it as an historic site offering innovative and engaging programming for Hamilton Township residents and visitors.