Benjamin Holme’s House

The Benjamin Holme House, also known as “Holmeland,” stands along Fort Elfsborg–Hancock’s Bridge Road in rural Elsinboro Township and preserves a sweeping view of fields once stretching to the Delaware River. The earliest section dates to about 1729 and formed the core of a prosperous 1,600‑acre farm and ferry operation linking Salem County to New Castle, Delaware. In 1762, Benjamin Holme, a committed Whig, acquired the property and later served as colonel of the South Jersey militia during the British raid of 1778, fighting at nearby Quinton’s Bridge along the vital Alloway Creek line. During that same campaign, British forces looted and burned Holme’s house in reprisal for his leadership, destroying much of the original dwelling. Undeterred, Holme rebuilt around 1784, adding the elegant east section that gives the house its distinctive Jersey Georgian character today. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and military significance, the Benjamin Holme House offers a powerful glimpse of how war reached directly into Salem County farmsteads and family life.