The Ross Family Farm - Basking Ridge

This 18th century farmhouse on 61 acres was built by Elias Boudinot, a leading attorney for the Colonies. In 1782, Boudinot was elected President of the Continental Congress and is credited with signing the preliminary document for the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War. In 1785, Henry Southard, who would become a longtime U.S. Congressman, bought the home. His son, Samuel, was born there and would have a distinguished career as a U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy and Governor of New Jersey. After several other owners and home expansions, Edmund Ross, a gentleman farmer and breeder of thoroughbred horses, purchased the home in 1952. The stately mansion features Federal and Georgian style architecture, and the property includes a stable and two-story barn. Ross raised his family there and after his death in 2005, the farm was willed to his four children. In order to honor their father’s wish to preserve the land and house, the Ross children sold the property to the Somerset County Park Commission in late 2005 to be preserved as open space in perpetuity.