430 Green Ln.--Paul Estate

This is an exuberant example of Victorian architecture! It is an 1830 Italianate villa-style house with a melange of details including wrap-around veranda, an Italianate-inspired campanile (originally designed to provide visibility and security during the Italian city-state era), Second Empire hooded windows, Gothic vergeboard and stick detail on the facades. It was built by Dr. George Green to impress from the town-level before the trees grew up. The architect, builder, and owner were each only 34 years old at the time of construction. This impressive home is built on one of the oldest building sites in town, formerly hosting a double log house occupied by various people--including Robert Hoops (see Tour Site #14).

Thomas Paul was the patriarch of the estate. His son, J. Marshall Paul, was born in Belvidere in 1800. J. Marshall Paul became a renowned physician, studying in Paris and practicing in Philadelphia. In 1846 he inherited the estate, gave up his practice, and retired to Belvidere. He was an elder in the presbyterian church, and in 1855 he erected the Stadelman Institute next door at 418 Green Lane, in which he placed scientific apparatus, a sizeable library, and a reading room with newspapers and periodicals. It was intended for lectures and entertainment of a scientific and theological instructive nature as well as "for an habitual resort for the youth of the town of Belvidere." It was used as a meeting place for various churches betwixt buildings and some meetings, but in general his intentions for the space failed and he remodeled it into a home and offered it to Second Presbyterian as a parsonage.

The original house was later owned by Henry Deshler, who moved from the stocking business in Emmaus, PA, to being the bookkeeper at the Belvidere Woodworking plant, a president of an unproductive copper mine in PA, and eventual owner of a 1913 U.S. Patent for a coin-operated vending machine--"Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for parking meters." So, every time you plunk those quarters or slide that credit card into a parking meter, you can thank Henry Deshler of Belvidere, NJ.