People and communities
Bishop-Irick: seven generations, then a smaller dairy farm
Documented history · Sources compared
Changes in markets and ownership repeatedly changed the work performed at the Bishop farm.
From mixed husbandry to dairy
The Pinelands Alliance’s property history describes seven generations raising mixed livestock and crops before the 1932 sale out of the family. The farm then specialized in dairying. A 1932 Louden barn survives from that transition; the old house alone would conceal it. The 1958 sale and subdivision left the house with roughly twelve acres. Later uses included Morgan horses, sheep, produce and flowers. Alliance property history.
Keeping buildings useful
The Alliance purchased the property in 2002. Preservation funding reinforced floors and created accessible facilities for its headquarters; a 2008 study examined repair, accessibility and future uses for the dairy barn. The wagon shed became an educational space. These were adaptations of a working farm’s separate buildings. New Jersey Historic Trust site record.
The official record corrected its own date
A supplementary listing record signed in 1993 corrects the nomination’s mistaken 1758 significant date to 1753 and explicitly counts the 1932 barn as a contributing building. The farm’s recognition therefore includes its twentieth-century dairy work. The architectural description also locates the original house’s initials and 1753 date inside the attic of a later addition, where an outside wall became enclosed. Successive kitchen enlargements, including a beehive oven dated to about 1820, record changes in household work alongside changes in farming. Nomination, description and supplementary listing record.
Sources and research limits
The institutional histories document changing uses, not farm profits or employees’ conditions. The 1704 deed mentioned by the Alliance was not independently read here.