The Rev. John Frelinghuysen built this house in 1751, soon after he was called to serve three Dutch Reformed congregations. He died three years later and was succeeded by the Rev. Jacob Hardenbergh. In 1766, Hardenbergh drafted, circulated and submitted a petition to the Royal Government to establish a new "classical and divinity" school in the Colony of New Jersey; Queen's College was chartered that same year. He served in the Provincial Congress of New Jersey and in 1778-1779, as a go-between, to help maintain relations between the army and local residents in the Watchung Mountains. After the war, in 1785, he became the first President of Queen's College, now Rutgers, The State University. A grand house for its day, the Parsonage is of brick laid in Flemish bond pattern, Georgian style. When it was threatened with demolition in 1907, Frelinghuysen descendants rescued it, moving it a short distance to become a neighbor of the Wallace House.



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