Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance

A nonprofit conservation organization working to preserve and protect the rural character of Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Dvoor Farm

In December of 1999, HLTA became the owners of the Dvoor Farm, a historically significant farm in Raritan Township. The property was acquired through the efforts of several partner organizations including the South Branch Watershed Association, Raritan Township, Citizens for Parkland, and the state Green Acres program.

Over the years, Dvoor Farm has been home to many industries: from dairy farming to copper mining, pottery production to its most recent incarnation as a center for horse and cattle trading, the farm typifies the agricultural character of the region that is an integral part of the history of Hunterdon County. The farm has a magnificent Dutch stone farmhouse constructed in 1790 and three barns that represent the history of barn building in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Herb Dvoor's family has been farming the land and selling livestock on the farm since the late 1800s. Its highly visible location on the Route 12 circle contributes to the rural feeling of the area that county residents so desperately want to preserve.
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William Penn originally owned this property, passing it on to his sons, who, in 1738, sold it to John Kase, a German immigrant. When Kase came to build his log home here he befriended Chief Tuccamirgan of a Lenni Lenape encampment on the Mine Brook. These natives were extremely helpful and friendly to the settlers, sharing their foods and medicinal herbs. After a long friendship between Tuccamirgan and Kase, the chief, faced with his imminent death, asked to be buried in the Kase family cemetery, a request that was granted when, in 1850, he was buried there in full tribal ceremony. In 1925 Flemington erected a monument to Chief Tuccamirgan, which is still intact at 56 Bonnell Street.

The Dvoor Farm is a critical connection in a greenway of parkland along the Mine Brook in Raritan Township. To the north, the farm abuts Mine Brook Park and the greenway continues through Bernadette Morales Nature Preserve and Uplands Park to the headwaters of the brook. The NJ Department of Environmental Protection classifies the Mine Brook as a high-quality trout maintenance waterway. The brook is also habitat for the threatened wood turtle.

Funds for the acquisition were provided through a variety of sources including the NJ Green Acres Program, Raritan Township, Flemington Borough, NJ Department of Transportation (through the Federal ISTEA program), the Large Foundation, The Tomlinson Family Foundation, The William Penn Foundation, The Bunbury Company, and Merck. In addition, Citizens for Parkland, a local preservation group, spearheaded an effort to raise funds, raising over $255,500 of the purchase price through foundation grants, raffles, gifts and events such as "A Day in the Park." Of these funds, $65,000 came through a bequest from the estate of Hermia Lechner.

After closing, a 2 1/2-acre portion of the Dvoor Farm was donated to Raritan Township to be annexed to Mine Brook Park for future recreational use. Mr. Dvoor made a generous donation of $50,000 to the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance for maintenance of the property. Mr. Dvoor and Mine Brook Associates also donated two easements on adjacent parcels along the Walnut Brook for stream corridor preservation and pathway construction. HLTA has created a special committee plan for the future use of this important community asset.

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