The Henry Guest House is in New Brunswick, New Jersey at Livingston Avenue and Morris Street. It was originally located on New Street (previously known as Carroll Place) between Livingston Avenue and George Street. The Georgian stone farmhouse was built in 1760 by Henry Guest. He was a New Brunswick alderman and an associate of John Adams and author Thomas Paine.
Henry Guest, who operated a tannery, bought two and a half acres on the corner of Livingston Avenue and Carroll Place (New Street) in 1755. He built a sandstone house five years later and lived there with his family until his death in 1815. Henry Guest said, “If his descendants would only keep a roof on it, the house would stand till Gabriel blew his trumpet.” In a 1817 sales advertisement the building was described as "one of the best stone houses in the State of New Jersey."
By the twentieeth century the house was threatened with demolition, and in 1924, it was moved up Livingston Avenue next to the New Brunswick Free Public Library. Over time, the roof and other parts of the building deteriorated. In 1992, the city and the New Jersey Historic Trust funded a major exterior renovation. A new roof, repainting of the mortar, and other repairs prevented further decay and today the Guest House is mostly used for meeting rooms.
Famous quotes containing the words guest and/or house:
“Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.”
—Edgar Albert Guest (1881–1959)
“Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them. They lived in their writings, and so their house and street life was trivial and commonplace. If you would know their tastes and complexions, the most admiring of their readers most resembles them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)