KMS Farmstead in Basking Ridge Honored with Painted Wooden Keepsake

Release Party: March 1, 2025

Celebrating the rich history of the Kennedy Martin Stelle Farmstead, this iconic Basking Ridge farm is honored with this beautiful wooden hand-painted collectible as part of the New Jersey Historic Village Cat’s Meow wooden keepsake collection.

Beautifully handcrafted wood, hand-painted edges, and a beautifully hand-painted rendering. The back of the keepsake includes the history of the iconic people and property that began as one of the area’s most noted theologians and teachers.

Keepsakes are available at the KMS farmstead and also available online.

The New Jersey Historic Village keepsake collection is a wood-painted collectible series honoring historic iconic buildings, properties, and fixtures that are part of the historic fabric of New Jersey’s history. Each keepsake was selected based on community feedback and a voting process. Brooks Betz stated, “We’re excited to see how the public reacts to the next additions to this historic series.” The Mr. Local History Project plans to introduce at least five new keepsakes. Sign up for updates when new pieces are added to the New Jersey Historic Wooden Village Collection.

For more information about the KMS Farmstead – visit their website www.farmsteadarts.org

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Want to be part of the New Jersey Historic Keepsake Village Collection?
You Have to be Nominated to Get In!

Do you know of a worthy historical addition to the New Jersey Historic Village Collection? Please email us as we’ve gotten very good working with organizations to create a keepsake to be nominated to the New Jersey Historic Village Collection.

Additional keepsakes are being added to a multi-year cross-state effort to promote and preserve New Jersey history.

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More Related Local History

Keepsake History Story

c.1762  – Kennedy Martin Stelle Farmstead, Basking Ridge, New Jersey

The KMS farmstead in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township is historically associated with the Reverend Samuel Kennedy, a renowned local minister and educator; Col. Ephraim Martin, a Revolutionary War soldier, and New Jersey legislator; and Oliver Stelle, a prominent local farmer landowner.

The farmstead contains a restored early English-type barn and other architectural structures typifying 18th and 19th-century domestic and agricultural buildings. The farmstead comprises four acres of a larger 36.5-acre tract along the Passaic River that Bernards Township acquired in 1999 by open space purchase. In 2004, the Township leased the farmstead buildings to the Friends of The Kennedy Martin Stelle Farmstead. Today, the farmstead preserves local history and is home to the Farmstead Arts Center, a 501c3 non-profit that cultivates art and community. Artists occupy the upstairs studios.  Art classes and workshops are offered downstairs, virtually, and outside on the picturesque grounds, and theater and special programs are provided in the barn.  Art shows, concerts, and lectures are offered throughout the year in the galleries of the farmhouse.

Financial support has also been made possible by the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust administered by the New Jersey Historical Trust of New Jersey, the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, and Bernards Township.

Listed New Jersey Register of History Places – 2023
Listed National Register of Historic Places – 2004