High Breeze Farm
High Breeze Farm is one of Vernon Township’s historic sites. Now part of Wawayanda State Park, the goal of the Friends of Wawayanda State Park is to create a living historic museum at High Breeze. High Breeze is one of two sites listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. The other listed site is the Black Creek Site.
High Breeze Farm (c. 1828)
Excerpt from
Vernon 200: A Bicentennial History of the Township Of Vernon, New Jersey 1792-1992
By Ronald J. Dupont, Jr.
Although probably farmed soon after the Revolutionary War, the main farmhouse dates to c. 1828 while the other barns and outbuildings were added between c. 1860 and c. 1935. Owned by the Demarest family from c. 1818 up to 1860, the 160-acre farm was home to four generations of the Barrett family from 1860 to 1986.. Under last owner Luther J. Barrett, the farm operated almost as a time capsule of 19th century farming. Barrett, a blacksmith and lifelong bachelor, did most of the farm work with draft horses, and such modern conveniences as plumbing, central heat, or telephones were never installed on the farm.
By 1950, High Breeze Farm was the last surviving mountain farm on Wawayanda Mountain, dozens of others having been lost to the Pequannock Watershed, summer lake developments, and Wawayanda State Park. The farm was purchased for Wawayanda State Park in 1981, and Luther Barrett (who had lifetime tenancy rights) died in 1986. The farm was originally slated for demolition, but many Vernon residents thought the farm to be a priceless relic of a vanished age of farming. For these reasons, the 160-acre farm was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places following a preservation campaign by the Vernon Township Historical Society.
In 1992, the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry is in the process of restoring High Breeze Farm as a living history museum, where 19th century agriculture and farm life will be preserved forever. restoration plans for the farm were designed by the prestigious Manhattan architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle, which also designed the restoration of Ellis Island. The design project was headed by the legendary Dr. James Marston Fitch, who is generally considered the founder of the historic preservation movement in America.
Vernon 200: A Bicentennial History of the Township Of Vernon, New Jersey 1792-1992
by Ronald J. Dupont, Jr. or other publications by Ron are available for sale at the Highland
General Store on Highland Lakes Road or by calling 973-764-8554.
Read more on Vernon’s history by Ron Dupont.
Society members and town officials took representatives of the Glynwood Center, a national organization dedicated to helping communities save farms, on a tour of
High Breeze Farm.
In this 1983 photograph, Everett and Adam Paladini are pictured with Luther Barrett, left, the last Barrett descendant to live on High Breeze Farm.
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