Harvey Cedars Has a Museum Building at Sunset Park. Now It Needs What Goes Inside.

The hardest part of moving the Kane House was the wires. On Wednesday, Oct. 14, the century-old cottage left the former Maris Stella property for Sunset Park, but first its roof had to come off. Without the roof, the house could pass under the overhead lines along the way. According to The SandPaper, Harvey Cedars police closed the street and people lined the roadside to watch it go by.

Four weeks later, the cottage is in the park and has a new name to grow into, the Harvey Cedars Museum, with a planned opening on Memorial Day weekend 2027. The building is now the easiest piece to account for. The rest of the museum, meaning its exhibits, its renovation money and its volunteers, has to come together over a single winter, and much of it is still in private homes around town.

Three Addresses for One Cottage

This is the second time the Kane House has moved after a turning point for Harvey Cedars. The SandPaper reports that it first stood on 72nd Street and was moved onto the Maris Stella grounds at some point after the March 1962 storm.

The 11-acre estate had belonged to Frederick Small, a former CEO of American Express. Mother Ellen Marie McCauley, general superior of the Sisters of Charity, bought it in April 1959. Maris Stella, meaning "star of the sea," opened on June 20, 1959. For more than six decades the cottage sat on that oceanfront, out of public reach.

The Harvey Cedars Historical Society says the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth decided in fall 2025 to sell the oceanside Maris Stella property. The borough's Open Space Committee minutes from Oct. 9 record that builder Ed Walters closed on the property in August. As in 1962, a change at the shoreline sent the house somewhere new. This time it went to a public park.

Who Got It Across the Boulevard

The rescue started with a parks commissioner who knew the cottage was there. Joe Gieger, commissioner of the Department of Public Works, Parks & Public Property, told The SandPaper how it began.

"I was sitting there as the commissioner responsible for public parks … and knew there was an old cottage on the Sisters property that the developer who purchased the property wouldn't want. So I approached the Sisters and one thing led to another, and I got them to agree to donate it."

Several parties shared the work. Walters Custom Homes donated the cottage after buying the property. Atlantic Structural Movers of Barnegat handled the move. Before the truck rolled, the utilities were disconnected, and Public Works crews graded and leveled the ground so the house could travel smoothly across the Maris Stella grounds and onto the newly paved Boulevard.

The money is split two ways. According to the Open Space Committee minutes, the borough put $60,000 toward moving the cottage, and the Historical Society is responsible for raising the money to fix it up. Public funds covered the trip down the Boulevard. The renovation depends on private donors.

The Society credits the community effort to residents inspired by local historian Margaret "Poochy" Thomas, who rallied around turning the cottage into a museum.

A Park Already Being Rebuilt Around It

The Kane House reached a park that was already partway through a rebuild, and the museum had been part of that plan for months. In the May 18 commissioners' minutes, Gieger reported that the bay-beach bathrooms were finished and open for the first time. At the June 15 meeting, he reported a $100,000 Green Acres grant, new ReClam the Bay upwellers and beach mats, and said the museum pilings were due to be installed. The foundation was planned four months before the house arrived.

The state funding also includes a loan. New Jersey DEP's 2026 Green Acres project package describes the Sunset Park project as a proposed concrete boat ramp, vinyl bulkhead upgrades and a waterfront access drive, funded with a $100,000 grant and a $300,000 loan, $400,000 in total. Those waterfront items are listed as proposals. At the Sept. 21 meeting, the minutes noted that bay-beach bulkhead repairs were waiting on insurance payments.

A second piece of Maris Stella is also headed to the park. The stone wall that ran along the Boulevard and framed the drive into the oceanside property will be taken apart by a stonemason in a "systematic" order so it can be rebuilt accurately, according to Knightly. Plans call for the wall to go back up along the Boulevard as a pedestrian entrance to the museum and Sunset Park. The wall that marked the way into a private retreat would become the way into a public one.

Gieger described where he expects the museum to fit, telling The SandPaper it "will be a wonderful addition to the newly renovated Sunset Park for all to experience," and calling it a "town vault" for one of the oldest towns on Long Beach Island.

What Stands Between the Cottage and Memorial Day 2027

Getting the house to the park took one day. Turning it into a museum by the opening date the Society has set takes several more steps.

1. Putting the roof back on. The original rafters, removed so the house could clear the wires, are to be reinstalled now that the structure is at Sunset Park.
2. Reworking the interior. Kevin Knightly, chair of the Historical Society, told The SandPaper the inside is "beautiful … very well done," but the rooms will change so the old layout does not limit the new use. The goal, he said, is "the same look and feel as the historical house, but [with] maximized space for viewing."
3. Rebuilding the stone wall stone by stone as the pedestrian entrance on the Boulevard.
4. Raising the renovation money, which falls to the Society under the arrangement recorded in October.
5. Building a collection for a museum that, as of now, has a building but no exhibits.

The first three items are construction and depend on crews and schedules. The last two depend on people around Harvey Cedars.

The Exhibits Are Still in Local Homes

The Society's own telling of the town's history shows how much material a museum here could hold. Its site cites a 1751 land deed that describes this stretch of the island as "a hammock and clump of cedars called Harvest Quarters," which it says gradually became "Harvey Cedars." It traces whaling crews who watched for right whales from a 30-foot lookout tower nicknamed the "owl's tree" until the industry ended in the 1830s. It also notes that the borough was incorporated on Dec. 11, 1894, as High Point and took the name Harvey Cedars in the early 1930s after the Postal Service asked it to end mail mix-ups with another New Jersey town.

Most of that history survives in papers, photos and objects. The Society's donation page asks for exactly those, documents, objects and images tied to Harvey Cedars, and specifically mentions a shoebox of old photos. Anyone with something to offer can reach the Society through its contact page, by email at [email protected], or by mail at 13 E. 77th Street, Harvey Cedars, NJ 08008.

Volunteers are also on the list. The Society is looking for help with cataloging, events, outreach, curation and the welcome desk. It describes its membership and volunteer programs as still developing and asks interested residents to get in touch so it can match them to a role.

Money given before the end of the year goes further. An anonymous donor is matching gifts dollar for dollar through year-end, up to $25,000, as part of what the Society calls its Keepers of History campaign. The borough's Sept. 21 commissioners' minutes also record that matching offer. Founding donors will be listed on a plaque at the museum in three tiers: Archive Fellows at $1,000 to $2,999, Memory Keepers at $3,000 to $4,999, and Founding Chroniclers at $5,000 and above.

As of mid-November, about seven weeks remain in the matching window, and about six and a half months remain until Memorial Day weekend. In that time, the cottage that sat out of public view at Maris Stella for decades will need its roof, its rooms and its first exhibits.

At Coastal Living Real Estate Group, we follow stories like the Kane House because LBI's history lives in its houses, and this one now belongs to the whole town. If you are thinking about the history of your own Harvey Cedars home, including when it was built and what it has seen, we would be glad to talk it through. Request a Complimentary Coastal Market Evaluation.