Seabrook-Wilson House

**Seabrook–Wilson House** (also known as the **Whitlock–Seabrook–Wilson Home** and nicknamed the **Spy House**) is located in the town of Port Monmouth, a part of Middletown Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The house was built in 1663 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 29, 1974.

## History

The
 original house was built in 1663 by Thomas Whitlock, who came to the
North America in 1641, first living in Brooklyn. It no longer exists. It
 started out as a 1 1/2-story, one-room cabin, and Whitlock lived here
with his family. The house was turned into a two-story home by its
second owner Thomas Seabrook, who was a patriot in the New Jersey
militia. Over the years the Seabrook family added to the original
structure. The home stayed in the Seabrook family for a total of 250
years.

Listed
 on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, the
Seabrook–Wilson House is one of the oldest surviving houses in the
Bayshore. The Seabrook‐Wilson House began as a small cabin about 1720
and over the years was expanded and altered many times by later
generations. By 1896 (photo left) the house had grown to its present
size and appearance.

For
 most of its history, the farm on Sandy Hook Bay was home to generations
 of two prominent Port Monmouth families, the Seabrooks and the Wilsons.
 Ship owners and captains, a Revolutionary War militia officer, local
business owners and investors, and a clergyman were part of these
notable families, many of whom served in local government
positions.↵Until the mid 1800s, the Seabrook‐Wilson House stood alone on
 this stretch of the Bayshore, surround‐ ed by a farm of several hundred
 acres and salt marsh. With the development of steamboat service and the
 railroads in the mid‐1800s, the village of Port Monmouth grew up around
 the steamboat pier and commercial fishing, transforming the area into a
 bustling port. Tourists flocked to the area for its fresh air, sandy
beaches and recreational fishing. By the early 1900s the old
Seabrook‐Wilson farmhouse had become an inn for tourists, known first as
 “Bay Side Manor” and later as “The White House.”↵After almost fifty
years as a boarding house and tavern, the Seabrook‐Wilson House stood
empty and in severe disrepair by the mid 1960s. Concerned Middletown
residents convinced Township officials to purchase the site in 1967 and
save the Bayshore landmark from destruction. The Middletown Township
Historical Society and, later, the Spy House Museum Corporation,
operated the house as a local history museum for over twenty years.

In
 1998, Middletown Township transferred the property to the County of
Monmouth and it became part of the surrounding Bayshore Waterfront Park,
 which preserves a thriving coastal landscape of salt marsh, dunes, mile
 of beach and scenic views across the water. Visitors can once again
enjoy the historic site and create new memories of Port Monmouth and the
 Sandy Hook Bay.

The house is open to the public from April through October from 1 - 4 p.m. on Sundays only.

### Spy House

In
 attempting to create interest in the building, in the 1960s part-time
caretaker Gertrude Neidlinger fabricated a story that the house was a
tavern during the Revolutionary War where British troops were spied on
by patriots. There is no evidence that the house was ever a tavern at
that time. It was a private home. It remained a private home until the
early Twentieth Century. However, the tale caught on and helped keep
local interest in the House, probably aiding in preserving the property.

## Hauntings

The
 Spy House Museum, which conducted candlelit ghost tours, was alleged to
 be haunted by its part time curator Gertrude Neidlinger.