Renovations Under Way at Moorestown Historical Society

To those running the , “historic” doesn’t have to mean "antiquated" and "outdated," and certainly not "unsafe."

Contractors are in the process of renovating the nearly 300-year-old Smith-Cadbury Mansion on High Street—the society’s headquarters since 1969—replacing 85-year-old knob and tube electrical wiring and redoing the upstairs library floor.

Vice President Stephanie Herz said the renovations are the result of a preservation plan the society conducted a couple years ago to determine the building’s most pressing needs. The knob and tube wiring—a relic of late 19th/early 20th century homes, which Smith-Cadbury once was—was identified as a concern, according to Herz, both for practical and safety reasons.

Electrician Joe Borkowski explained that knob and tube wiring is an outmoded way to supply electricity, used at a time when the biggest draws on the electrical system were lights and maybe a radiator. He said he and his son, also Joe Borkowski, are installing a grounded system, which is safer.

“It all has to do with safety, bringing it all up to code,” said the younger Borkowski.

Both Borkowskis explained, since the mansion was built before there were building codes, the rewiring is a tricky proposition. They never know what they’re going to find once they get inside the walls, but they’re being extra careful because of the importance of the structure.

“When you do a project like this, you have to have respect,” said the younger Borkowski. “You don’t want to devalue the property as you’re doing it.”

Meanwhile, the floor of the second floor library—one of the other low points of the mansion pointed out in the preservation plan—has been ripped up. Herz described the floor as “spongy and not balanced,” which given the weight of all the books and documents in the room created an unsafe situation.

With the help of a “bucket brigade” of volunteers, she said the society moved all the books in the library down to the basement and sealed them in Rubbermaid containers so they’d be safe from mold and mildew.

The floorboards remain leaning against the back wall of the library while the society waits for an assessment from a structural engineer, Herz said. “Somehow that floor needs to be shored up and stabilized … They’re going to make it safer, better, so it hopefully takes us a couple hundred years before we have to do it again.”

Although the materials have been moved, Herz said the historical society library is still open.

However, tours of the mansion have been temporarily suspended until the rewiring is completed. She said it hopefully won’t take long, perhaps a couple weeks.