Two Farms, a Chapel, and a Lighthouse: A Legacy Monmouth Morning Walk

Where the morning walk begins

Start on Longstreet Road in Holmdel, where the leafy lane carries the quiet clatter of a working farm and a Georgian house older than the Republic. Two landmarks on this single stretch of road — and two more just across the Navesink — make a gentle, unhurried morning walk for a Monmouth County family. Each is held in public hands, and each began as a private family home.

Longstreet Farm: the last family to farm here gave the land away

• A living-history farm at 44 Longstreet Road recreating daily rural life as it was in the 1890s, on the Monmouth County Park System grounds. Wikipedia
• The farmhouse was built between 1790 and 1810; nine of the farm's 664 acres sit inside Holmdel Park. Wikipedia
• Longstreet family members farmed here and owned it until it was donated to Monmouth County in 1967; the last heir died in 1977. Two River Times
• Nineteen buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, listed November 29, 1979. Wikipedia
• Admission is free, and the farm is open year-round from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the farmhouse is open weekends from March through December, noon to 3:30 p.m. Monmouth County Park System

House on Longstreet Road: a militia officer's home, captured and kept

• Built in 1754 by William Holmes in a Georgian-and-Dutch vernacular style, and sold to his cousin Garret Hendrickson in 1756. Wikipedia
• Hendrickson was a Lieutenant in the 1st Regiment Monmouth County Militia, captured by Loyalist raiders at the house on February 8, 1782. Wikipedia
• Descendants lived there until 1873; Bell Labs bought the farm in 1929, and Monmouth County's historical association moved it to 62 Longstreet Road in 1959, restored it, and opened it to the public in 1965. Wikipedia
• Documented by HABS in 1939 and listed on the National Register April 26, 1978; the county purchased a conservation easement in 2011, with ownership transferring in 2019. Monmouth County Park System

Church of the Presidents: the one structure tied to all seven

• At 1260 Ocean Avenue in Elberon, consecrated in June 1879 as St. James Protestant Episcopal Chapel, a branch of St. James Episcopal Church of Long Branch. Wikipedia
• Carpenter Gothic design by William Appleton Potter and Robert Henderson Robertson; services ended in 1953, and the church was listed on the National Register in 1976. Wikipedia
• Saved from the wrecker's ball in 1999 by members of the Long Branch Historical Museum, whose society was organized in 1953 by Edgar Dinkelspiel. Jersey Shore Scene
• It is the only remaining structure associated with all seven presidents who summered in Long Branch — Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, McKinley, and Wilson — though historians note Grant attended in his former-presidency years. Monmouth Beach Life

Twin Lights: two brownstone towers that came home in 1979

• Standing in the Highlands district of Navesink, a lighthouse has marked the site since 1828; the current brownstone towers were built in 1862. Twin Lights Lighthouse
• Roughly 246 feet above sea level, with a second-order bivalve lens fitted to the south tower in 1898, rated at 25 million candlepower and visible for about 70 miles. Twin Lights Lighthouse
• Decommissioned in 1951; its second-order lens returned home in 1979 thanks to a partnership of the New Jersey Park Service, the Twin Lights Historical Society, and the Rumson Garden Club. Twin Lights Lighthouse
• Listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Twin Lights Lighthouse

Why it matters locally

What these four places share is a quiet pattern: families who lived, farmed, and raised children here chose, one after another, to let their home become everyone's home. The Longstreets, the Hendricksons, the Walns, and a generation of Long Branch neighbors each handed a private inheritance to public hands — so that a school class from Spring Lake can walk the same barnyard as the farmers of the 1890s, and a Rumson family can trace the lens that once lit the Narrows. In a county of old estates, the deepest legacy is the one families left behind for the whole township to keep, visit, and pass on.

How to get involved

• Visit Longstreet Farm and the Holmes-Hendrickson House as a family — both are free and year-round through the Monmouth County Park System: monmouthcountyparks.com.
• Learn about the broader county's stewardship and volunteer programs at Monmouth County Parks, also at monmouthcountyparks.com.
• Tour the Church of the Presidents through the Long Branch Historical Society and its museum at the church site.
• Plan a Twin Lights visit or support the lighthouse directly at twinlightslighthouse.org.
• Become a member of the Monmouth County Historical Association at 70 Court Street in Freehold: monmouthhistory.org, or call 732-462-1466.

How Love of Humanity supports this work

Love of Humanity is a Monmouth County 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and we regard these family-kept places as part of the same inheritance we exist to strengthen. Where families in Rumson, Little Silver, and Holmdel choose to give, we work alongside institutions like the Monmouth County Historical Association and the Monmouth County Park System to co-brand family education programs — hands-on afternoons, student field trips, and weekend programs that make living history reachable for every township family, not just those who happen to drive past. We believe a legacy is strongest when a whole community can walk through it, and we build our partnerships to keep these doors open, funded, and welcoming to the next generation of Monmouth families.

This roundup is editorial. No fees were paid. Love of Humanity is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.