North Jersey mansion on market for $6.95M dates to 1880s, Short Hills' birth. See inside

Perched atop a knoll in Millburn's Short Hills Park Historic District, 85 Stewart Road stands out amid a sea of modern manors.

The seven-bedroom home built in the mid-1880s is reminiscent of England's West Country cottages. Constructed with cut stone walls, it was built for New York native John Stewart Jr. in homage to his British roots. The historic bones today hold a modern layout with dedicated media, wine tasting, recreation and billiards rooms.

Listed in March for $6.95 million, 85 Stewart has a four-car detached garage built earlier this century that sits atop a World Squash Federation regulation-size indoor squash court. There's also a contemporary pool house with a kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. It sits next to the tennis court and inground pool in the expansive rear yard.

"There are a few properties like this in Short Hills, but very, very few — maybe a handful," said Anthony Verducci Jr., an agent with Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty

The property at 2.3 acres is large for the area, as is the relatively flat lawn, Verducci said. It helps set the property apart from others on prestigious Stewart Road, he said. Once called Taylor Road, the street now memorializes the home's original owners.

The custom estate was the second Millburn home for Stewart and his wife, Anne. The first, on Old Short Hills Road, was the couple's base of operations from 1885 to the completion of their estate in 1887. The estate, named "Appin" to honor Stewart's Scottish heritage, included a gardener's cottage and a carriage house. Both were converted into standalone residences after Stewart's 1946 death. The cottage was spared from demolition in 2014 and preserved as an annex during the neighboring 89 Stewart Road's reconstruction, local records show.

Stewart's well-maintained home has recently been retouched. White paint now covers the expanses of wood paneling in the formal rooms to better match a modern expansion that holds a family room, bedroom suite and exercise room, Verducci said. Outside the home are large porches and a south-side terrace with gardens once supervised by Anne Stewart. A co-founder of the Short Hills Garden Club in 1906, she would serve as Garden Club of America president from 1925 to 1929, according to local and club records.

Stewart moved to Millburn to indulge his interest in horses, according to his October 1946 obituary in The Item of Millburn and Short Hills. From 1889 to 1891, Stewart served as master of the Essex County Hunt Club's hounds and horses. Anne Stewart also hunted with that club and others along the East Coast.

The Stewarts were among those lured to the area by Stewart Hartshorn, according to reports in The Item. An early investor in Millburn real estate, Hartshorn helped shape the community of Short Hills by buying lots, developing roads and building mansions to sell to his rich friends.

By 1887, Hartshorn had created a park-like village of more than 30 homes with a communal social center designed by McKim, Mead and White, according to historic district records. Hartshorn said his aim was to create a harmonious community filled with people who appreciated nature, records show.

"I find that whenever people are lovers of nature they have some taste and feeling about the place they want," Hartshorn said. "I have no trouble with that sort of people."

Stewart, whose home was custom-built, was the son of a New York City banker and Day One investor in the United States Trust Company. An assistant U.S. treasurer after the Civil War, John Stewart Sr. led a syndicate that bought millions in war bonds to restock the nation's gold supply during Grover Cleveland's second presidential term. And, in 1910, the Morristown resident became Princeton University's acting president after Woodrow Wilson resigned to run for governor of New Jersey.

The younger Stewart graduated from Princeton in 1879 and Columbia Law School two years later. Rather than practice law in a courtroom, he spent a career building his own real estate firm, Smith and Stewart. His son, John A. Stewart III, was a Princeton graduate turned banker and member of the New York Stock Exchange. He served as president of the Short Hills Civic Association from 1936 to 1942 and was Millburn Township Committee chairman from 1939 to 1941.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Historic Millburn 1880s mansion on the market for $6.95 million