The original house, which comprised the
center core and the two-story portion of the wing at the rear
(the north wing), was built by John and Catharine Wicoff, parents
of John V.B. Wicoff, in the late 1870's or early 1880's. Catharine
Wicoff had been given the property by her father, Colonel Dean
Britton, who died in 1870. John Wicoff and Catharine L. Britton,
fifth of six surviving children of Dean and Mary (Dye) Britton,
were married in 1875 and lived briefly in Dayton before sttling
permanently in Plainsboro, where both had been born.
John V.B. Wicoff, their only child, was
born in 1878 in Plainsboro, probably in an earlier house known
to have existed on this same property. His father was a wholesale
merchant in farm crops (dealing in potatoes, wheat, etc.) and
also operated this 150 acre farm.
When John Wicoff, the father died in 1892
John V.B. Wicoff was fourteen and attending the State Model School
in Trenton, commuting to school by train each day. At this time,
the house was modified to accommodate a resident farmer and his
family. The northeast room in the center section was converted
into a kitchen for Catharine Wicoff, the former kitchen in the
north wing became a dining room for the farmer and a new farm
kitchen was added to the wing. The farmer had use of bedrooms
on the northwest side of the house and a room in the attic for
a hired man; the family (Catharine and John V.B. Wicoff) used
the east and front rooms of the main house.
The next modification to the house occurred
in 1907 and 1908. John V.B. Wicoff had graduated from Princeton
University in 1900, studied at New York Law School and took his
bar examination in 1903, joining the office of William M. Lanning
in Trenton. He married Lavinia Applegate of Hightstown in 1904.
John and Lavinia resided in the Aleda Apartments in Trenton the
next three winters, spending the summers in Plainsboro. A separate
house was constructed for the farmer at about this time, and when
John and Lavinia decided to make the Plainsboro house their year-round
home, John's mother, Catharine, took over the west side of the
house and the north wing, and a new east wing was added, comprising
a new kitchen with separate access to the cellar with its coal
furnace at the foot of the cellar entry from the backyard, and
with a second story bedroom for a hired had. This was probably
when the central heating was installed; originally the mantels
in the various rooms had individual coal or wood-burning stoves
piped to the chimneys. The small second floor room at the center
front was converted into a bathroom in 1908.
In 1908 Russell and Ethel Britton, then
only thirteen years old, lost their mother and came to live with
their Aunt Kate, Catharine (Britton) Wicoff. Their father, John
D. Britton, had died in 1901. Russell lived here until his marriage
in 1916.
Also about this time, a widowed cousin
of Catharine Wicoff's, Elizabeth (Rue) Embley, joined the household.
She soon involved herself in helping the younger Wicoffs with
their growing family. Mrs. Embley (Nanny to the adopted family)
lived with the Wicoffs until her death in 1929.
Sometime around World War I or shortly
thereafter a Delco electrical generator was installed in the cellar
and the house was wired for electricity.
The final remodeling of the house took
place in 1929. Catharine Wicoff had died in 1928 and John V.B.
and Lavinia Wicoff now had seven children, ranging in age from
six to twenty-four. This latest remodeling restored the kitchen
to its original location in the north wing. The Victorian parlor
was enlarged by adding half the adjourning room and the remainder
of the room was converted into a serving pantry and lavatory.
The parlor, not the new Living Room, had its old mantel and chimney
replaced by an open fireplace. The porch on the west side of the
house was removed and the present wing was constructed, containing
a sunporch and new dining room on the first floor, a master furnace
room in the basement. At this time, public electricity was brought
into the house also. Mr. Mueller of the Mueller Tile Company in
Trenton was persuaded to creat a "Princeton Tiger" and
four family coats-of-arms for the sunporch floor. (In this remodeling
the 1893 farm kitchen and the 1907 east-wing kitchen were dismantled,
becoming unheated storage areas only.)
John V.B. Wicoff, although a lawyer and
banker for most of his life, always retained an involvement in
the working farm, which was farmed "on shares" by a
resident farmer. When the 150 acre farm became too small for modern
mechanized farming he acquired the Cox farm on the other side
of Dey Road to be farmed in conjunction with the home farm. He
expanded the private grounds about the house manyfold, adding
a tennis court and formal flower gardens across the driveway on
the west side, two grape arbors, more than doubled the length
and breath of the front yard, built the single frame garage for
his first automobile soon after his marriage and the double concrete
garage when that became too small for the (in those days) ever-growing
American automobile. He maintained a large vegetable and flower
garden for home use in the area next to the double garage, and
a small apple orchard behing it. He planted many varieties of
ornamental trees, but was particularly interested in the hollies
which he cut and distributed widely each Christmas, and in the
English boxwood.
While most of the farm buildings were probably
built in his father's time: the wagon houses, windmill (taken
down in the 50's), corncribs, and horse and cow barns in particular,
John V.B. was diligent about keeping them in good repair.
Dick MacKenzie was often called in on carpentry
problems and recalls that John V.B. balked only when Dick recommended
replacing the doors on the old carriage house. John asked Dick
to reinforce and straighten the original doors as best he could
but to change nothing. John knew those doors were made personally
by the father he had lost at age fourteen.
John V.B.Wicoff died in 1952, having lived
in and loved this house since his infancy. Lavinia, his wife,
and two daughters resided here until her death in 1958. During
the succeeding twenty years various families rented it, but the
grounds suffered from lack of resident owner attention and care,
and were devastated by a tornado which knocked down eleven large
trees in March 1975. At this point the Township desperately needed
office space and the house desperately needed rescuing...
In mid-1977 this century old home of Township
Founder John V.B. Wicoff became Plainsboro's new municipal center.
Researched and written by Evelyn Wicoff
The Wicoff Family 1922
Back Row: Douglas, John V.B., Dorothy, John E., Catharine,
Seated: Kate B., Marjorie, Evelyn, Lavinia A
1. Daughter Evelyn Wicoff
2. Daughter-in-law Lilian Moore Wicoff (Mrs, John E.)
3. Granddaughter Anne L. Wicoff (daughter of John E.)
4.Son John E. Wicoff
5. John V.B. Wicoff
6. Daughter Marjorie Wicoff Cooper
7. Lavinia Applegate Wicoff
8. Son-in-law Edward W. Cooper (husband of Marjorie)
9. Daughter Catharine L. Wicoff
10. Granddaughter Jean A. Wicoff (daughter of John E.)
11. Son Douglas B. Wicoff
12. Daughter-in-law Virginia Pew Wicoff (Mrs. Douglas B.)
13. Granddaughter Evelyn B. Cooper (daughter of Marjorie)
14. Grandson John R. Wicoff (son of Douglas B.)
15. Grandson Douglas B. Wicoff, Jr. (son of Douglas B.)
*Missing from picture - Daughters Dorothy Wicoff Bennett and Lavinia A. Wicoff II
Wicoff House
Built by John and Catharine Wicoff around 1880. It is the home of the Plainsboro Museum. Pictured left to right are: unidentified friend, Catharine Britton Wicoff, and John V.B. Wicoff, holding horse.
