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Funds Secured to Move Historic Saddle River Barn
SADDLE RIVER — A Nov. 3 Planning Board resolution has freed escrow funds that will help finance the relocation of an 1800s barn from 4 Apple Ridge Road to borough-owned property on the site of a former Exxon gas station at East Allendale and West Saddle River roads.
The barn is on the landmarked property of John George Achenbach's 19th-century Dutch colonial house, which once included what are now two adjacent lots at 4 Apple Ridge Road and 184 Chestnut Ridge Road.
The property was subdivided when owners of the Apple Ridge property received approval from the Planning Board in 2002 for a soil removal permit to prepare for construction of a house on that part of the site.
The approval was conditioned on removing the barn and Achenbach house driveway to the adjacent Achenbach house site on Chestnut Ridge Road.
The applicant returned in 2004 seeking relief from the requirement to move the barn so it could remain as an accessory building on the Apple Ridge property.
But moving the driveway was never lifted as a requirement of the soil movement agreement.
The Achenbach house on the Chestnut Ridge property was landmarked in 1978, but it was destroyed by fire in 2004 and never rebuilt.
The Apple Ridge property was sold in 2023 to new owners, who have agreed to let the borough take possession of the barn for historic preservation purposes in exchange for having the driveway removal condition from the original 2002 application finally declared "satisfied."
Financing the barn's disassembly and reconstruction
The Nov. 3 Planning Board approval will release funds escrowed at the time of the 2023 closing to a trust fund established by the family that owns Perillo Tours, and will be used to help finance the barn's disassembly and reconstruction on the borough-owned site, said Borough Attorney David Lafferty.
"Steven Perillo is paying an additional $19,000 personally," Lafferty said in an email statement Nov. 6.
The Exxon station on the site of what was once the borough's blacksmith business closed in 2005, and was eventually bought by the borough. Its use has been under discussion since a committee was formed in 2017, Mayor Albert Kurpis said.
”Building on the leadership of former Mayor Sam Raia, the governing body and I are honored to continue that legacy by rescuing an authentic piece of Saddle River’s past from demolition and giving it new life opposite our landmark buildings in our Historic District," Kurpis said in an email statement Nov. 5.
"This project restores beauty, signals our community’s commitment to reclaiming and reusing historic structures, and affirms one of the values that make Saddle River a peaceful, proud, and special community," Kurpis said.
Preliminary estimates on the move of the 25-by-36-foot barn ran as high as $130,000, but it is now estimated at $58,000, Kurpis said. The borough is contributing $19,000 and the Perillo family is contributing the rest, said Borough Administrator Richard Molinari, who also sits on the Planning Board.
Kurpis said a well and electrical connections are on the property, and they will be connected to the barn under financing from future-year budgets. The barn will be renovated to restore its original doors and details.