In 2012, residents of Millburn became increasingly concerned about the loss of local landmarks in White Oak Ridge, considered the oldest neighborhood in town. Their advocacy led to the town government buying the Parsil House, which reopened as a house museum yesterday after a decade-long restoration.
“When William Parsil Jr. began building this house on this site in 1825, I doubt he gave any thought that it would still be here 200 years later. And it is only here, thanks to the combined effort of numerous people,” said Mara Epstein, president of the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society. “This house, which was once only part of the Parsil family history and those families who lived within its walls, is now part of the story of Millburn.”
The opening of the house museum comes in an important year — the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution — as two Parsil family members, Thomas and Nicholas, both died in battle and were buried in the family cemetery across the street. The cemetery was restored in 2016. Behind the Parsil House is the 1832 White Oak Ridge Chapel forming a cluster of related landmarks at the intersection of Parsonage Hill Road that tell the story of Millburn’s earliest days.
The township had already saw the demolition of two 18th-century homes — first the Thomas Parsil House at 356 White Oak Ridge Road and the 1790 Aaron F. Ross Homestead at 423 White Oak Ridge Road.
“That was kind of what set it in motion. We tried to rescue that house first, but it had been taken up by a developer,” said Carrie Ross Fraenza, a descendant of the Parsil family and secretary of the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society. “We weren’t successful there and that triggered the attempt to get this one and restore it.”
Yesterday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony served as a family reunion of sorts for the descendants of the Parsil and Ross families. “This isn’t just family history,” said Akers, a descendant who grew up on White Ridge Road. “It’s New Jersey history. It’s fascinating that I have a connection to that.”
Wayne Parsil, 85, a descendant of Thomas Parsil, drove to Millburn from Lancaster, PA. He said that when he visited the graveyard in the 60s it was so overgrown. that his father salvaged one of the gravestone of Thomas Parsil, fearing the graveyard might be lost. But with the restoration of the cemetery and the Parsil House, he recently returned the grave marker to the cemetery, believing it was once again in safe hands..
“It has importance and needs to go back to Thomas Parsil’s grave,” Parsil said.
In 2017, the exterior renovations to the home were completed including roof repairs. Then the attention turned to the interior, which required another six years. The township’s Department of Public Works was responsible for that, Epstein said. “It was many hours of work, especially with the DPW,” she said. “Since I’ve been here, they’ve helped maintain it, paint it, and help make it safe for the public.”
There was thought put into every detail of the home’s decor from the color of the paint to the selection of furniture chosen to reflect a post Revolutionary War-era farmhouse.
“The task was to furnish the house and make it similar to what it was like when the Parsil family lived here starting in 1825,” Dorothy Kelly, curator for the historical society. “If you come here in the early morning on Saturday or Sunday, when there are no cars, it feels like you’re in the 19th century.”
In addition, there are family heirlooms like Bibles and photographs passed down over generations that descendents donated. Epstein said another resource was the photos of the house found in the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1939 to 1940.
Epstein said she’s hoping the organization can hold monthly events at the Parsil House but more important, let it serve as a portal for residents to connect with the township’s founding families.
“We are so increasingly online that to have a living history that you can see, touch, and feel. It’s such an important thing to have right now, the best way that we can learn about history by experiencing it.”
