139 East Main Street, Moorestown

The house at 139 East Main Street is a contributing property in the Moorestown Historic District listed on the National and New Jersey State Registers.

The 18th century Hessian House, built by Joshua Bispham, was standing at the time of the Revolutionary War. According to oral tradition, it was occupied on the night of June 20th 1778 when Hessian soldiers were evacuating from Philadelphia with the British army.

Hessian House image on a postcard from the 1890s.

Although the house has been changed and renovated many times during its long life, it started out with a simple plan – 2 rooms on the first floor and two on the second. The walls were almost 18 inches thick and the chimneys were built into the walls. Rather than stairs to the second floor, it’s believed that a ladder was used to access the sleeping quarters through an opening in the floor in one of the bedrooms. There are narrow wooden steps leading to the attic which appear to be original.

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By January 24, 1771, the house had been enlarged when Joshua Bispham placed an ad in the Pennsylvania Gazette:

In the second half of the 19th century, #139 and #141 were owned by Asa Schooley. Schooley’s harness shop was between and connected to the two houses.

According to George DeCou in his Moorestown and Her Neighbors, “Old residents recall when these two buildings were connected by a one story building, but I do not know when this addition was added. Some old records refer to the two properties as the barracks, which was probably because the buildings were occupied by the British troops in 1778.”

139 and 141 appear to be connected on the 1876 J.D. Scott Map of Moorestown

In the early 1900s, the house was owned by the Sloan sisters who conducted a well-regarded boarding home in the house. Miss Elizabeth Sloan was said to be such a good cook that there was always a waiting list to secure lodgings and meals.

Hessian House, present day