History of the Restoration of the Marie Zimmermann House

In the late Fall of 1997, a group from the Milford, PA area came together around a common goal of restoring the Marie Zimmermann House in the nearby National Recreation Area (Delaware Water Gap - DEWA), which spans both sides of the Delaware River between Shawnee-on-Delaware and Milford.

The house sits on a plateau over the river and under the Pocono escarpment about 5.75 miles south of Milford in Delaware Township, off US Route 209 with two gated access roads.

It is a magnificent structure (considered Dutch Colonial Revival with Breton touches) sheathed in native block stone and New England slate, and was designed from all biographical indications by Marie and John Zimmermann, her father, between 1910 and 1912. It was completed in 1912.

In 1997 it had been boarded up for protection by the park for about 25 years, had suffered some vandaliztion, and had significant deterioration on the interior.

Friends of Marie Zimmermann was formed and held two public meetings with community leaders and NPS present, at which it was explained that Friends and the park would petition the US Congress for $1 Milion to restore this worthy structure, once belonging to this eminent individual in American Decorative Arts, for eventual designation as a National Historic Landmark.

Our petition was successful thanks to PA Congressman Joe McDade, at the time No. 2 on the Appropriations Committee, and the resulting monies were managed by the park over the next 8 years to repair the slate roof, remove the asbestos, remill all doors and windows, and install a whole house geothermal heating and cooling system.

In 2010, the original monies exhausted by the expense of the geothermal, Friends arranged with the Marie and John Zimmermann Fund (the family-run Trust which Marie had left in her will for the medical education of young women; Marie died in 1972 at the age of 93) to fund over 3 years the restoration of the interior.

The pictures here are a complete representation of that work, accomplished in great part by the dedicated workmanship of Glenn Sophie of Milford.