The shingle style seaside Queen Anne Victorian known as “Shady Brink” was built at the top of the New Jersey shore line over 100 plus years ago in a community that originated as a private summer resort for New York professionals.  The development was intended as a place to summer in the airy, wooded hills that rise between Sandy Hook Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Navesink River to the south.

Over its 100 plus years the “Shady Brink” was initially owned by New York financier’s the Pemberton’s, the Goodrich’s and the Schwab’s.  Later the house was owned by the Goerke’s who owned and operated department stores in the Northeast and the South, who converted the house for year-round use.  In 1982 the house was sold to the Waynes who sold it to the Logan’s in 1994.  Over a period of five weeks the Logan’s cleaned and cleared, filling four huge thirty yard dumpsters, they painted, had carpet and light fixtures installed, upgraded the power and established a five year plan to restore the gleam and polish to this rambling prize.

During the fifth week of new ownership on August 13^th disaster struck, lighting hit the house during a violent storm, igniting a fire that swept through the entire century old timber dwelling, leaving it a burned out wreck.  In fact it took 75 fireman and six fire companies to put out the fire which could be seen for miles away.

THE CHALLENGE – The challenge was to rebuild the same house back with the details and character of the past 100 years.  There were no plans, only a few photographs, a skeleton of a structure and the year round view of Manhattan that lingered in the background, the further challenge was the insurance company and the claim.  The key issue was documenting what was there and building back the charm and character of this old romantic home that was more than 50% damaged, requiring everything to be brought up to current day code.  Another concern was that the house was built into the side of a very steep hill with nine levels of structure that had to all be rebuilt, reinforced and/or replaced.  One of the bigger problems was the replacement of the main front foundation wall running the whole length of the house and garage approximately 120 feet long by 22 feet high.  This was due to its failure from all the water used fighting the fire saturating the front yard creating a great amount of hyrastatic pressure pushing the foundation wall inwards.

Inside the house as part of fighting the fire there was 25,000 gallons of water on the master bedroom floor level about a foot deep causing the house to rack outwards six inches.  The fireman had to chop holes in the floor throughout the house to relieve the weight and stress thus causing the remaining house to become totally saturated with water.  Ultimately the new owners lost everything but the cars in the driveway.  The house had to be totally rebuilt from the skeleton of a building that could be saved.

The home was totally reconstructed and is now on the market for sale priced at $3,650,000. Click here to see magnificent photos of Queen Anne Victorian.  Please contact Diane Kaplan at Weichert Realtors to set appointment to see this masterpiece. Cell 732-672-0409 (call or text) or email to diane@dianekaplan.com – to see all MLS listings click here.