This is the oldest home in New Jersey built around 1640

The oldest log cabin in the Western hemisphere still stands in its original location in Gibbstown, NJ and has received visitors from all over who came simply to marvel at it.

Sitting on 1.3 acres with 100-foot redwood trees, the Nothnagle Log Home is an amazing piece of history. The log home was built circa 1638 and is on the National Register of Historic Sites through the U.S. Department of Interior.

The owners of Nothnagle are the Rink family, Harry and his wife Doris, who according to an article in townandcountry.com, lovingly cared for it along with its attached colonial home, which was constructed circa 1738, for years.

The article says that the 1,800-square-foot cabin was built by Finnish immigrants sometime between 1638 and 1643. The property also has a gazebo, 4-car garage, machine shop and shed.

The Rinks turned the cabin into a free museum, welcoming thousands of visitors on private tours since 1973, the year they were married. The visitors have included ambassadors, consulate generals, congressmen, governors, authors, professors, archaeologists and historians.

When Harry was young, according to an article on nj.com, he helped his aunt and uncle, the previous owners, maintain the cabin, using mortar made of clay and mud to patch space between the logs. He bought it from them in 1968 and he and Doris moved in when they got married.

Harry Rink told Town and Country that had he not restored the home, it would have collapsed. He did everything from taking up the floor, reinforcing it and then putting it back, to reinforcing the roof and pushing bowing logs back into place. Rink also told the magazine that during reconstruction, he found a 240-year-old boot, toys, a fork, an iron thimble and other things under the floor. These artifacts are on display in a case inside the cabin

Sadly, Harry Rink passed away in December 2018 and the property was listed for sale a few times, once for $1.25 million and again for $750,000 in March 2022, but now the listing says it is no longer for sale.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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