Felician College Receives $50,000 Planning Grant to Renovate Historic Castle  

Felician College--New Jersey's leading Catholic-Franciscan college--will soon begin a multi-phased renovation project that will awaken a 132-year-old community landmark from a decade-long slumber.  

Having received a $50,000 Historic Sites Management planning grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust, Felician College officials are moving forward on plans to renovate the historic castle that stands majestically on the college’s Rutherford campus.  As one of 37 grants awarded to historic sites targeted for funding from the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund, the grant was awarded to Felician College for the preparation of a preservation plan and historic register nomination for their 19th-century campus landmark. 

With a long history in the Rutherford community, the Iviswold castle started out as the plain, two-story home of newspaperman Lloyd Tomkins, who built the house and named it the “Hill Home,” in 1869.  In 1887, David Ivison, president of the American Book Company, purchased the “Hill Home” and had it redesigned into the castle it is today by architect William Henry Miller.  Ivison renamed the home “Iviswold,” when he moved into the castle in 1889.  After Ivison’s death in 1903, the castle was sold several times, and was used for a variety of purposes over the years including a meeting place for the Union Club of Rutherford and administrative space for Fairleigh Dickinson University who inhabited what is now Felician College’s Rutherford campus, from 1942- 1994.  Felician College acquired the castle in 1997 when it purchased the 10.5-acre campus.

Having lain dormant for a number of years, the castle is in need of significant renovation before it can meet the needs of a Felician College student body that has more than doubled in the last decade, and serve as a resource for Rutherford area organizations and residents. 

In the beginning phases of the project, the focus will be on getting the plans in place for a full-scale renovation that will require substantial time and resources.  The first steps of this multi-year project are most visible in the scaffolding that now surrounds the castle as Felician prepares to secure the original clay roof tiles that are in a state of decay.  The next steps will involve the removal of interior partitions and selective demolition of non-original fabrics, such as drop ceilings and walls that were added during the past 50 years.  The removal of such materials will uncover what already peeks through parts of crumbling partitions—original plaster-work and architectural details reminiscent of the castle’s opulent past.  Felician College expects the full-scale renovation to take up to five years.

As Felician College officials plan for the castle’s renovation, they envision a reconstruction that will transform the structure’s entrance hall and first floor reception halls into areas that resemble what they looked like when the castle was built.  Those areas will serve as formal spaces which can be used as lounges and meeting places for college and community meetings and events.  A sweeping staircase and a three-story-high sky light featuring exquisite stained-glass work will be dramatic centerpieces to that entrance hall.  The renovated parlors and library on the first floor will showcase original twin Italian marble fireplaces in one lounge, and a fireplace surrounded by rich inlaid wood in another. 

Targeted for use as Felician’s College Center, the renovated castle will house the college’s chapel, the Falcon’s Nest eatery, and administrative offices of admissions, student services, alumni relations and institutional advancement.