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The Epicenter of Glassboro: From a Family to a Corporation

Hollybush

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Rowan’s Impact on Historical Properties in Glassboro
The Heston House Today

The Heston home is, by far, in bad condition. There are trash bags in the windows. Air conditioning units also appear to be improperly placed, making it seem as though they could fall out of the window at any time. The house itself is dirty, meaning that there are many stains on the paint. Many windows also appear to be broken. Most of the windows of the entire house are replaced by wood. Another window appears to be taped back together, instead of being replaced. The grounds of the house are also not in the best conditions. Some of the grass needs to be replanted, but this may be due to it being winter when the pictures were taken. Bushes were also clearly missing from the back of the house. Overall, the condition of the house is very poor and it is in need of many repairs.

The Stanger House Today
The Stanger House was built in 1780 with its purpose to be a general store for Stanger Glass Works as well as a home for the storekeeper Daniel Stanger. It was the second building ever constructed in what is now Glassboro and later it is directly across from the home, at the time, of Colonel Thomas Heston. The house was later purchased by Thomas Carpenter and Thomas Heston in 1784. It continued its operation as a store for the company and for some time it was owned by Levi Campbell, who also lived in the building. Years later, when the Olive Glassworks – the former Heston Glass Works – shut down, it was owned by several people, particularly the Iszard family. Joseph Iszard enlarged and repaired the building in 1827, his son and grandson Jacob and Howard operated the building at points, and they still had ownership in 1917, where the store section was rented as a classroom after a fire.
The house operated as a post office from 1869 until 1880, and from 1881 to 1892 as a drug store.
Like the Colonel Heston homestead, the Stanger House underwent modernization and was remodeled in 1922, and it is said that the original store and house are within the remodeled structure.
Today, the Stanger House is still standing in its same location over two centuries later, now across from the restaurant Landmark Americana on the former site of the Franklin Inn. It is owned by Rowan University and offered as an option for student housing, currently housing one of Rowan University’s many fraternities. A plaque that marks the blue house as the “Stanger House” is the only indication of its historic significance in Glassboro.
The Stanger house, by comparison, is in much better condition. The foundation of the house is quite dirty with large cracks in parts of it. The plants in the front yard are either dead or have been cut improperly. The roof probably needs to be power washed. This may be due to the school or community keeping the acknowledgment that the building is a historic site, or it may be because of the care of the fraternity.
The Franklin Inn
The building which became the Franklin Inn was built around 1776. Five years later in 1781 Stanger petition to the court to have his building licensed as an inn, which was granted. Stanger operated his tavern until 1786 when it was purchased by Thomas Carpenter and Colonel Thomas Heston. Heston took ownership and operation of the inn, even enlarging the building. The Gloucester County Fox Hunting Club, which Heston was a part of, frequently met at the tavern, and it is said that it was here that the name “Glassboro” was decided upon. Heston left the tavern in charge of others as he focused more of his attention on Glassworks.
After Heston’s death, his widow Hannah operated the tavern, naming it the Black Horse Inn, and it became the meeting place of her daughter Bathsheba and her eventual husband Ebenezer Whitney. Hannah Heston operated the tavern until 1817, where she continued to retain ownership until her death in 1843, and her son-in-law Ebenezer operated the tavern from 1817 to 1819.
The tavern then had multiple proprietors afterward, such as Johnson Beckett who made restorations and repairs, and named it the “Friendship Tavern.” William Pickles who enlarged the tavern, and Mary Paul, the daughter of Colonel Thomas and Hannah Heston were also proprietors. The tavern was sold after Hannah’s death, in which it was purchased by Thomas Whitney, who quickly sold it to Thomas Paul. Thomas Paul renamed it to “Pauls Hotel” and remodeled it in 1849. The tavern changed hands and was renamed the “Bismark House” in 1872, and in 1907 after changing hands two more times, the name of the building was changed to the “Franklin House.”
The Franklin Inn was heavily dilapidated, even as far back as the 1970s, when the school was still known as Glassboro State College. The historic Franklin Inn was eventually torn down in 2003. Today the popular restaurant and liquor store Landmark Americana Tap & Grill sits in its place.
Hollybush Mansion
Holly Bush mansion was first constructed in the 1840s by Thomas and Samuel Whitney as a family home. The two incorporated many architectural innovations of the time, most likely inspired from one of their trips to Europe around the same time of the house’s construction. It was the first house in the Glassboro area to include running water. It served as a home for Thomas and his family, Samuel, and for their mother Bathsheba Whitney. Over the duration of the Whitney’s ownership, the mansion hosted many dignitaries of many fields; particularly Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft, the latter who was president at the time.
In 1917, with the construction of a new school catered to the education of teachers, the state of New Jersey and the tentative school negotiated with Samuel Whitney, the son of Thomas Whitney, for the purchase of the house and its grounds. By December of 1917, the state of New Jersey received the title to Holly Bush as well as 55 acres of land. Eventually, the Glassboro Normal School was constructed and opened in 1923, with the mansion serving as a dormitory for girls. Eventually, the house was repurposed as a home for the college’s president.
The house became of national, even international, significance when it was used to host a meeting with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in June 1967. What took place at the house is today known as the Glassboro Summit, a meeting between the two superpowers at the height of the Cold War.
In 1972, Hollybush Mansion was placed on the National Registry of Historical Places.
The house today still sits on the school’s grounds, the school today is named Rowan University. Over time, Rowan University has spent approximately three million dollars on the restoration and upkeep of Hollybush mansion. It also serves as a museum.
With the three million dollar investments, Hollybush Mansion is kept in pristine condition. There is an informative plaque outside describing the significance of the building and the grounds are kept quite neatly. There are security cameras mounted on the building to watch for trespassers, most likely to guard any valuable objects inside the house. From observation, there are no cracks in the windows or barely in the pavement surrounding the house or even rust on the iron.
Rowan University

Rowan University chooses which historic properties they want to preserve. Many houses now are in disrepair, due to Rowan's power over the town. Houses like Hollybush Mansion are well preserved, while the Heston house and the Stanger house are both in shambles, due to the university's influence and power over Glassboro. There needs to be a movement to keep these historic landmarks protected and to let the public know how influential their past inhabitants were to the town, to better understand their history.