History of the Collins House The Collins House reflects the history of the time periods through which it has survived.  Its oldest section dates from 1790.  It is possible parts of the house are even older, as a cornerstone survives dated 1759.    The central portion of the house is the oldest section of the building. The basic architecture is one of the few surviving East Jersey cottages left in this area.    The larger portion of the house was added to the older section between 1815 and1820, and a small addition was annexed on the other side of the oldest section of the house in the mid-19th century.  The larger portion of the house exhibits many elements of the Federal style.   The Collins House is intertwined with the early history of Bloomfield and the growth of industry along the Third River.  Its location between the main road leading through Bloomfield to “Stone House Plains,” as the northern end of town once was called, adjacent to the Third River, made it an integral part of the mill industry in the area even though the Collins family themselves did not operate a mill.  John Collins, born in 1754, originally emigrated from Bally Shannon in the north of Ireland to Pennsylvania, enlisted in the Continental Army, and participated in the Storming of Stony Point. After the war he settled in what became Bloomfield, married Mary Baldwin, and in March of 1790, a few years after the birth of their sons Joseph, Isaac and Thomas, purchased the property now encompassing the Collins House, from Joseph Woodruff.    This is the earliest reference to the property that has been located. John Collins is the putative builder of the older section of the house according to a family descendant. He apparently farmed the land to support the family based on the existence of farming implements mentioned in his will.   After John’s death in 1806, son Isaac eventually became the sole owner of the house after dividing the Collins property with his brother Thomas in February of 1814.  The house has a history of association with the Morris Canal.  Inclined Plane 11E ran right behind the house and there is some evidence that Isaac, a carpenter, may have worked on the construction of the plane.  His son John later worked for the Morris Canal as well.   Isaac and his wife Jane lived in the house until Isaac's death in 1841; his widow continued to live in the house until her death in 1885.  Descendents of the couple owned the house from 1887 to 1891 at which point the property passed into the hands of the paper mill (National Paper Manufacturing Company of New Jersey) adjacent to the house property which had been sold off previously by the Collins family.   The house remained part of the paper mill’s holdings through a number of changes in ownership.    Marcal Paper Mills, Inc. and its predecessor, ERA Holdings Company, operated the paper mill on the site from 1960 until 1980, when all operations ceased.  It was then used as a warehouse for paper goods and a storage and workshop for small businesses.   The Collins House was used to house the mill’s caretakers during the Marcal mill’s tenure.    Marcal Paper Mills agreed to sell the property to the Township of Bloomfield for the purpose of building a senior citizens residence in late 1981. The Township planned to use federal Community Development Block Grants for the purchase.  However, the Department of Environmental Protection required that the property be evaluated for the presence of significant cultural resources.  In addition, the Bloomfield Area Environmental Action Group, a citizen’s organization, notified the state about the site, requesting it receive consideration.  The Bloomfield Historical Society urged that the Collins House be preserved.    As a result, the Township commissioned a cultural resource survey, which was conducted on the Collins House and the Marcal Paper Company property by Historic Conservation and Interpretation, Inc., of Newton, New Jersey.   Architectural Historian Herbert J. Githens, Researcher/Archeologist Brian H. Morrell, and Industrial Archeologist Edward S. Rutsch were the researchers, and they completed the survey in February 1982.  As a result of their research, they concluded that the Collins House met Criterion C of the National Register of Historic Places.   As a result of these findings, the State Historic Preservation Office sent a letter to Frank R. Domenick, Community Development Director in Bloomfield, dated March 4, 1982, stating the Collins House and its associated well were cultural resources within the property that “are eligible under criterion c – ‘that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction’ and criterion d – ‘that may be likely to yield information important in history.”    Therefore, the Township moved to preserve the Collins House.  The sale of the mill property to the Township of Bloomfield by Marcal Paper Mills, Inc., was finalized on May 11, 1982.  In order to preserve the Collins House and still enable the erection of the senior citizens housing, the Marcal property was then divided so that the Township of Bloomfield retained ownership of Tract 3 of the property, which included the Collins House, and is designated Block 697, Lot 96.    The remaining property was sold off to National Church Residents of New Jersey to build a senior citizen apartment building on the site of the mill buildings.  This building, Kinder Tower, and its parking lot are immediately adjacent to the Collins House property today.   From 1982 to 2004, the house continued to be occupied by the last Marcal caretaker and his wife.  They have since moved out of the house, leaving the Collins House vacant.   Current Status:   The Collins House is currently vacant and has suffered damage numerous times by vandals.  It is now boarded up and has a tarp over the roof to protect it from winter weather.  The house was recently nominated to Preservation New Jersey's "10 Most Endangered Historic Sites" program.  Results will be announced in the spring.

View of Morris Canal Inclined Plane11E with Collins House at far right (early 20th century).

View of the Collins House, summer 2006