You might be able to live in this historic Somerville home that was integral during elections

Mike Deak, MyCentralJersey.com
·2 min read

SOMERVILLE - You could live in the house on Gallows Hill if the borough approves a plan to convert a Victorian mansion at the corner of Bridge and Cliff streets once used as office space into apartments.

6 West Cliff Street LLC is scheduled to appear before the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment on Feb. 21 with plans to convert the stately mansion built in 1877 that had been the headquarters for Edison Research into two apartments.

Plans also call for the carriage house on the lot, at the highest point in Somerville, to be converted into a four-bedroom apartment.

The property was called Gallows Hill because in the 1700s, it was the site of four Somerset County hangings.

The mansion was built in 1877 by William Dakin, who bought the property from a Somerville publisher, according to the Somerville Historic Advisory Committee.

You could live in the house on Gallows Hill if the borough approves a plan to convert a Victorian mansion at the corner of Bridge and Cliff streets once used as office space into apartments.
You could live in the house on Gallows Hill if the borough approves a plan to convert a Victorian mansion at the corner of Bridge and Cliff streets once used as office space into apartments.

Leonard and Dori Knauer bought the mansion in 1983, restored it to its Victorian elegance and converted it into offices for Knauer Realty Corp.

In the 1980s, the Knauers would open the house for a “haunted mansion” event at Halloween that would draw upwards of 1,000 visitors. The party’s popularity eventually forced the Knauers to drop the annual event, according to the Somerville Historic Advisory Committee.

The property was then sold in 1999 to Rosin Lenski LLC, named after the two co-founders of Edison Research, Larry Rosin and Joe Lenski.

The company, which has moved to Division Street, is in the national spotlight on Election Nights because since 2004, Edison Research has been the sole provider of exit poll information to the National Election Pool, conducting exit polls and collecting voting returns used to project and analyze results for every major Presidential Primary and General Election.

Since 2017, Edison Research has also compiled and tabulated real-time election results across the United States for ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and Reuters.

Edison Research also measures the weekly reach of podcasts and conducts surveys of digital consumer behavior in the United States.

More: Somerville 'recklessly permitted' gun shop near elementary school, lawsuit says

Rosin Lenski LLC sold the property to 6 West Cliff Street for $592,500 in August 2022.

The plans before the Zoning Board of Adjustment call for converting the office space on the first and second floors of the mansion into a three-bedroom apartment spanning both floors.

The attic, which is vacant and uninhabitable, would be converted into a studio apartment.

Plans also call for a new two-way driveway onto Cliff Street 90 feet from the North Bridge Street intersection.

Variances are required because the property is in a zone that does not allow three residential units on a lot.

Another variance is needed because the existing cupola is 42-feet high and the ordinance only permits 35 feet.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Historic Somerville house once home of Edison Research could become apartments