The dining room at Portland Place was once the whole house. It was built around 1720 as a one-and-a-half-story Dutch-framed pioneer cabin on a bluff above the Navesink River in what is now the Locust section of Middletown. Over three centuries it was expanded, piece by piece, into a large farmhouse and then a country place, and the Monmouth County Park System says its historic character is still intact.
If you've hiked Hartshorne Woods, you've been walking on land tied to that cabin. The house tells you how the park came to be. You can only get inside on a docent-led tour, and those tours stop for the year on Sunday, November 15.
From 2,400 Acres to One Farm on the Bluff
The story starts with Richard Hartshorne, an English Quaker who lived from 1641 to 1722. He arrived in New Jersey in the late 17th century and gradually acquired nearly 2,400 acres across the Navesink Highlands, the Bayshore and the Sandy Hook peninsula. His son William acquired the 200-acre farm that became Portland Place.
The family kept it for most of its history. The farm later became a summer home, and the county's Hartshorne Woods Park page notes that the house was home to eight generations of the family. Historians aren't fully settled on the earliest details. The Spring 2023 issue of Green Heritage dates the oldest section to around 1717 and names Samuel Culver only as a possible builder of the original cabin.
That long family ownership is why the land between the house and Navesink Avenue is preserved. In 2008, Hartshorne descendant Daniel Ward Seitz left Portland Place to the Park System. The bequest joined the house to more than 800 acres of preserved land in Hartshorne Woods Park. The county also bought neighboring parcels that had once belonged to Portland Place, so the historic site now covers 15 acres inside the park.
The house is listed on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. Its restoration was funded with help from the Seitz bequest and a donation to the Friends of the Parks from the Estate of Doris Scheuing. The restoration plan covered foundations, framing, roofs, siding, porches, windows, doors and paint on the house and carriage house, along with new mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-protection systems.
Portland Place opened for tours and programs in late 2022. Its first regular public tour season began in May 2023. That makes 2026 just the fourth tour season for a house that has been standing for about three centuries.
A Tour System Built for People Who Live Nearby
You can't reserve a Portland Place tour weeks in advance. Here's how it works, according to the Park System's Portland Place page:
- Come on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday during the season, which runs May 2 through November 15 in 2026.
- Sign up in person at the Visitor Center on the day you want to tour.
- Pick one of four start times: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. or 2:30 p.m.
- Join a group of no more than 10 people. The tour is free.
Indoor tours may be suspended in severe weather.
Those limits mean each tour day has at most 40 spots. Counting from today, Monday, October 12, there are 25 tour days left in the season. That adds up to roughly 1,000 tour spots between now and mid-November, assuming the weather cooperates.
For a family in Lincroft, Navesink or River Plaza, a same-day system has an easy workaround. You can stop by in the morning, add your name to a later tour and go for a walk while you wait. Someone driving in from farther away doesn't have that flexibility.
What's Left on the Calendar
These are the remaining Wednesday-to-Sunday blocks, based on the season dates on the Portland Place page and the county event calendar:
- October 14–18: this week
- October 21–25
- October 28–November 1: includes Halloween weekend
- November 4–8
- November 11–15: the final block of 2026
After that, the house closes to tours until spring. In each of the last two years, the season opened on the first weekend in May: May 3 in 2025 and May 2 in 2026. The county hasn't announced 2027 dates yet.
What the House and Barn Cover
The Visitor Center is a restored 19th-century barn next to the house. It's a good first stop while you wait for your tour. Its panels cover the Hartshorne family, the early settlement of the Navesink Highlands, the area's history as a destination for vacationers and artists, and its farming and maritime past.
The artist theme also runs through the house. The Hartshornes collected and commissioned work by several well-known American and British painters, and some of those pieces hang in both the house and the barn. The Park System says the region's forested bluffs and coastal light have long drawn artists and writers. You can see that light for yourself from the bluff in late October.
There are several spots along the bluff with wide views of the river, but the property has no river access. Next to the house are eight acres of century-old forest that were once part of Portland Place. The forest is habitat for sensitive wildlife and tall tulip trees, and there's currently no trail into it.
The Visitor Center, patio, walkways and main floor of the house are accessible to visitors of all abilities. The second floor can only be reached by stairs, so the Park System offers interpretive materials for visitors who stay downstairs.
Where to Park, Especially If You Plan to Hike
The house is at 200 Hartshorne Road, and on-site parking is limited. The Park System encourages carpooling. If you plan to hike Hartshorne Woods too, it asks you to park at one of the park's main lots instead of at the house.
According to the county's Hartshorne Woods page, those lots are:
- Rocky Point: 1402 Portland Road
- Claypit Creek: 239 Locust Avenue
- Buttermilk Valley: 307 Navesink Avenue
There's another reason to hike this fall. The county says part of the Grand Tour Trail recently got invasive-plant management and habitat improvements. A Park System story map updated in March 2026 explains how that work in the Monmouth Hills area aims to reduce trail hazards and restore habitat.
A practical plan is to sign up for a 1:30 or 2:30 tour in the morning, move your car to one of the main lots for a hike, then come back for your tour time. You'll leave a parking space at the house open for other visitors.
If You Pick This Sunday
Sunday, October 18, is a tour day, and it's busy across Middletown. Thompson Park Day runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 805 Newman Springs Road in Lincroft, with a dog parade and costume contest, wagon rides, a petting farm and scarecrow and jack-o'-lantern contests, according to Patch. Middletown Day takes over Croydon Hall at 900 Leonardville Road from 1 to 6:30 p.m., according to the township calendar. A 10:30 a.m. tour in Locust still leaves time for either event.
On Wednesday, October 21, the first day of the next block, a Park System naturalist leads the free Awesome Autumn Amble at Thompson Park at 10 a.m., starting from the Old Orchard parking lot.
The Building That Isn't Open Yet
The Portland Place carriage house dates to around 1900, and it's the next part of the site in line for restoration. A county project sheet dated February 12, 2026, describes a $579,500 contract to repair the building and convert it into space for small-group programs, including activities, history lectures and exhibits. Construction was expected to start in March and finish in summer 2026. The county's current projects list still includes "Portland Place - Carriage House," and we haven't found any announcement that the work is finished.
Once it opens, the Park System has said Portland Place will host programs on history, preservation, art, literature, horticulture and passive recreation, with limited registration through its programs and registration site. For now, the four daily house tours are the main way inside, and there are 25 tour days left this year.
The last Portland Place tour of 2026 starts at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 15. If you're curious how Middletown's preserved land shapes the streets near Locust and Navesink, Tom Mallan Jr. of The Mallan Group is always glad to talk it through, and he can put together a free home valuation whenever you'd like one.
