40 Independence Road

Step onto this rare 20-acre estate in Middletown, NJ, & the outside world simply disappears. Comprised of a 15-acre parcel & two 2.5-acre lots with Chapel Hill Rd access & saleable separately - one of the smaller lots already improved with a cottage. Five residences, a clock tower, Gothic arches, ivy-covered stone courtyards, Ludowici tile roofs, hand-carved oak doors & interconnecting pebble drives create the unmistakable feeling of a French chateau at a human scale. Granite hitching posts, original stone fountains & a small barn with paddocks serve the property's horses, while wisteria & English ivy tumble over every wall. Beyond the courtyards, meadows & tree lines extend the sense of seclusion. Designed by acclaimed architect Alfred Hopkins, with landscapes by Martha Brookes Hutcheson, one of America's first women landscape architects, the estate was built for the Straus family of Macy's, whose name carries rare Titanic provenance. Offered for the first time since 1949, Tower Hill Farm is one of NJ's last authentic links to the Gilded Age.