When you walk through the front door of Stokes Mansion in Moorestown you can feel the nostalgia that the spacious property brings. The rooms are not much different from when the house was built more than a century ago. Nowadays, it’s full of the sound of children playing and adults chatting not too far away, keeping a watchful eye. Decades ago, the scene was completely different.
The Stokes Estate, or Broadacres as the house was originally known, was constructed in the mid-1920s and gifted to Lydia (Babbott) Stokes and her husband Dr. Samuel Emlen Stokes as a wedding present by Lydia’s father Frank. Given how long it has been standing at 631 Chester Ave., in its original form, it is a charming piece of history woven into the fabric of the town. If you had the chance to explore every room, every closet, even the winding staircase, you could easily take yourself back to a time period where things were changing but elegance remained the same.
Moorestown was officially incorporated on March 11, 1922, by an act of the New Jersey State Legislature, separating itself from portions of Chester Township (now Maple Shade Township). The 1920s led to rapid suburban expansion, as more families were able to afford cars, which led to more residential development away from the concentrated areas around rail lines, as many workers could commute by car to the urban centers of Philadelphia and Camden. The economic boom and mass ownership of cars of the post World War II era greatly impacted the township, as the population shifted from cities to suburbs. Development spread outwards from the older center of town to surrounding agricultural land. It’s easy to think about what the land looked like before the Stokes Estate was built, assuming nothing was there. But when the mansion was completed, it became a part of the early settlement landscape of what is now a bustling neighborhood today.
A fifth generation Quaker physician in Moorestown, Dr. Samuel Emlen Stokes was born to Dr. Joseph and Mary (Emlen) Stokes in 1894. He served as Chief of Pediatrics at two different institutions – Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ, and Burlington County Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly, NJ – for a combined total of 37 years. His ties run deep in Burlington County, as that’s where his family settled in the 17th century. He was 78 when he passed away at Burlington County Memorial Hospital on October 9, 1972. Born in 1895 to parents Frank Lusk Babbott and Lydia Richardson (Pratt) Babbott, Lydia (Babbott) Stokes was a strong, outspoken woman who cared about helping others. Her family’s first philanthropist was her grandfather Charles Pratt – the seventh son of a cabinet maker – who started his career as a clerk in a paint-and-oil firm and eventually built his own oil refinery before joining the original Standard Oil Trust, led by John D. Rockefeller. Lydia’s desire to help others was clearly passed down from her grandfather. Pratt founded the Pratt Institute in New York with a $1 million donation, so that the school could help all classes of workers, artists, artisans, apprentices and homemakers.
The historic Stokes Estate at 631 Chester Ave. in Moorestown dates to the mid-1920s, when it was built as a wedding gift for Lydia and Dr. Samuel Emlen Stokes. Today, the Georgian- style mansion is home to Montessori Seeds of Education, where its century-old character has been preserved while welcoming a new generation of children through its doors.
Throughout her life in Moorestown Lydia was always involved in something special. She may have had the privilege of calling a 10,000 square-foot home her dwelling, but she never stopped lending a helping hand wherever she could. She helped to establish a home healthcare service, the Moorestown Visiting Nurse Association, in 1904. Later in life, she became active in the World Council of Churches and Church Women United. After years as an individual philanthropist, Lydia founded the Lydia B. Stokes Foundation in 1959, which she led until she passed away at 93-years-old on July 14, 1988. Her primary interests both individually and through the foundation were women’s health, especially Planned Parenthood, education, the American Friends Service Committee, the World Council of Churches and the arts.
The Stokes Estate, a Georgian-style mansion that sits on 5.6 acres, includes a carriage house, a green house, lavish gardens, flowers, a plethora of green trees and an aura of peace and tranquility. It once included 25 acres but was sub-divided after the death of Dr. Stokes. Since the passing of both Dr. Stokes and Lydia, the home has had several owners. The Bancroft School, a nonprofit provider of programs and services for individuals with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities and those in need of neurological rehabilitation, previously used the house as a group home. In December 2000, a young family from Burlington County purchased the home to plant their roots. Since then, though, things have changed.
In November of 2018, Matthew Simberg signed the paperwork to turn the Stokes Estate into what’s now the Montessori Seeds of Education. In Montessori classrooms, children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the highly trained teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process. Simberg is the founder, CEO and Head of School of the Moorestown campus. Since he’s moved into the building, the only major change has been the addition of an elevator. Simberg is intent on simply adding onto the mansion because like many Moorestown residents, he loves the home’s history and antiquated feel.
“I don’t do all of this for myself, and I look at it as something bigger than myself,” Simberg said. “It’s about creating a positive impact and that’s what drives me.”
