Wyckoff-Cawley-Nelson House
Cawley-Nelson-Carnevale house, Jan. 2022.
Historical Overview
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An unadorned 2-story, front-gable house with enclosed front porch stands at 27 Washington Road. Behind it is a small, detached 2-car garage/workshop. This is the Cawley-Nelson-Carnevale House. It is also a member of West Windsor's "100 Club."
Township tax records claim the house was built in the year 1900.[1] It may have been constructed by Jacob R. Wyckoff, who operated a farm supplies business on the property.[2] Click here to learn more about that business. Around 1927, Jacob passed away,[3] and part of his property passed to Mayhew R. Swinger,[4] who, the very same year, sold this house to Adolf Thaysen,[5] who owned it for the next five years.[6] However, in 1932, it was seized by the Sheriff of Mercer County via a writ of "Fieri Facias" by the Princeton Building and Loan Association (probably due to an unpaid mortgage or loan).[7] The property was sold to the Association, who in 1935 sold it to Adelaid Price for $1.00.[8] Adelaid (presumably) lived here for the next eleven years. After them were Frank and Mary Cawley starting in 1946.[9] Frank was, for many years, the shop manager at Nelson Glass & Aluminum Co. – a longtime regional glass and aluminum company.[10] In 1972, he and Mary sold the property to Robert Nelson, the founder of Nelson Glass.[11] Robert founded his company in 1949 in a large garage on Nassau Street, servicing both commercial and individual clientele. At the time, Princeton did not have a local business to supply glass, so his company quickly skyrocketed to success. In 1960, Nelson Glass moved to Spring Street in Princeton,[12] and in later years expanded into West Windsor, where, at the time of this writing (December 2024) they still maintain a large facility at 741 Alexander Road.[13] In 2005, the Nelson family sold the house at 27 Station Drive to new owners,[14] who have long since rented it out to various tenants.[15] |
Robert A. Nelson.
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Bibliography
- "West Windsor Tax Assessor Address List, 2019.” West Windsor, 2019. List of all residences in West Windsor with dates of construction, according to tax assessor. Sent to the Historical Society by Lorraine Jones and Dawn Moretti.
- Jacob R. Wyckoff. (1923, May 8). Conkey's Buttermilk Growing Mash. Trenton Evening Times. Trenton.
- "First National Re-Elects Officers and Directors." Princeton Herald. January 21, 1927.
- Perrine, Calvin H., Swinger, Mayhew R., Wyckoff, Alice F., Wyckoff, Nannie S. "Indenture." West Windsor, 1927. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 605, Page 452.
- Swinger, Mayhew R., Thaysen, Adolf. "Indenture." West Windsor, 1927. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 605, Page 452.
- Princeton Building and Loan Association, Reichert, Charles H. "Indenture." West Windsor, 1932. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 698, Page 512.
- Ibid.
- Price, Adelaid, Princeton Building and Loan Association. "Indenture." West Windsor, 1935. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 739, Page 101.
- Ibid.
- Cawley, Franklin G., Cawley, Mary E., Price, Adelaid. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1946. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 915, Page 166.
- "It's New To Us - Nelson Glass Company." Town Topics. April 4, 1979.
- Cawley, Frankling, Cawley, Mary, Nelson, Eleanor M., Nelson, Robert A. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1972. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 1923, Page 90.
- “Nelson Glass & Aluminum Co. - Glass: Princeton, NJ.” Nelson Glass & Aluminum Co. Accessed December 19, 2024. https://www.nelsonglassprinceton.com/.
- Carnvale, Gary, Nelson Family 2001 LLP. “Deed.” West Windsor, 2005. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 4960, Page 52.
- The author of this article (Paul Ligeti, Historical Society President) personally knew the people who lived there as tenants for some part of the 2010s/early 2020s.
