Voorhees-Hey House

Hey-Voorhees house, viewed from Washington Road, March 2019.

Historical Overview

A 2-story, wood-framed Italianate building with a 2-story ell once stood at 14 Washington Road, near that avenue’s intersection with Station Drive. This long-gone building – presumably constructed some time in the 1860s – was the Hey/Voorhees house and one of Princeton Junction’s original landmarks.

In 1868 – 5 years after the present-day Northeast Corridor was established and three years after the Dinky line into Princeton was laid – David S. Voorhees took out an insurance policy for this house with the West Windsor Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Other structures on this property listed in insurance documents included a barn, a cow shed, wagon house, corn crib, and stables.[1]

From 1863-65, David, in several deeds, sold land to the Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Company.[2],[3],[4] This is the very land upon which they built the Princeton Junction Train Station circa 1863/4, and at which the Dinky Line into Princeton converges with the present-day Northeast Corridor. In 1871, two other sales – to Owen Sheridan and James Brophy – removed from David’s possession the properties of the Princeton Junction hotel and the Brophy house – both long since demolished.[5],[6]

Voorhees-Hey house, 1908.

David S. Voorhees was a Justice of the Peace and Poundkeeper (animal control) for West Windsor for much of the 1860s-80s.[7] The 1860 census shows him (then 53 years old) living here with his wife, Amy Elizabeth Slingerland, as well as nine individuals presumed to be their children (Amy, Harriet, Elizabeth, Harrison, Mary, Georgia, Edward, Smith, and David), as well as a teacher named Carrie J. Sartrop and David’s father, William C. Voorhees.[8]

After David’s death in 1883,[9] his family sold this property to his son-in-law, Isaac (a German immigrant married to Mary).[10] The Heys would operate the nearby general store/post office at 31 Station Drive and warehouse at 33 Station Drive. After Isaac died in 1920,[11] the Hey/Voorhees house further passed through the Hey family. Finally, in 1947, it was deeded to Elizabeth Good[12] – a longtime live-in housekeeper for the Heys, who had immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1912 as a young girl.[13] Elizabeth also worked as a postal carrier and longtime residents remembered her delivering mail on a motor scooter.[14]

Elizabeth presumably lived in the house until it was sold in 1969 to Daniel and Suzanne Goldenson.[15] In 1986, it was further sold to Country & Princeton Inc.[16] and then further passed through other LLCs.[17] Although used as offices, it became increasingly decrepit, as evidenced by chipped paint and rotted fenestration. In 2022, the building was demolished[18] to make way for “W Squared,” a 25-acre residential and retail development.[19] Nothing remains of the old farmhouse.

Princeton Junction, 1875. Notice "David Voorhees."

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Bibliography

“Penns Neck Area EIS - West Windsor and Princeton Townships, Mercer County and Plainsboro Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey - Historic Architectural Survey - Volume 2 of 2,” May 2003. Prepared for the New Jersey Department of Transportation by John Milner Associates (Architects/Archaeologists/Planners).
Camden & Amboy Rail Road & Transportation Company, Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” Windsor, 1863. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 55 Page 188.
Camden & Amboy Rail Road & Transportation Company, Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” Windsor, 1864. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 58 Page 351.
Camden & Amboy Rail Road & Transportation Company, Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” Windsor, 1865. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 63 Page 239.
Brophy, James, Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” Windsor, 1871. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 82 Page 397.
Sheridan, Owen, Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” Windsor, 1871. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 130 Page 275.
“West Windsor Township Meeting Minutes, 1797-2012.,” n.d. Original Township Committee meeting minute database located in the Municipal Center.
United States Census, 1860 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1860.
Princeton Baptist Church. (n.d.). Princeton Baptist Church graveyard. West Windsor. Princeton Baptist Church graveyard gravestones, which often list birth dates, death dates, and ages of those buried there - including those of many of West Windsor's oldest families.
Hey, Isaac, Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” Windsor, 1884. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 142 Page 50.
Princeton Baptist Church. (n.d.). Princeton Baptist Church graveyard. West Windsor. Princeton Baptist Church graveyard gravestones, which often list birth dates, death dates, and ages of those buried there - including those of many of West Windsor's oldest families.
Good, Elizabeth. “Deed.” Windsor, 1947. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 1003 Page 221.
United States Census, 1930 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1930.
“Broadside,” 1998. Newsletter about the history of Princeton Junction (Part 1 of a 2-part series) produced by the Historical Society of West Windsor. Spring 1998.
Goldenson, Daniel R., Goldenson, Suzanne K., Good, Elizabeth. “Deed.” Windsor, 1969. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 1846 Page 468.
Country & Princeton Inc., Goldenson, Daniel R., Goldenson, Suzanne K. “Deed.” Windsor, 1986. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 2369 Page 453.
Country & Princeton Inc., Lower Pyne Associates LP. “Deed.” Windsor, 1988. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 2348 Page 4359.
Personal observation of the author of this article - Paul Ligeti
Link at W Squared. Pulte. (n.d.). https://www.pulte.com/homes/new-jersey/princeton/west-windsor-twp/link-at-w-squared-210949