Mission
Since 1949, Twin Maples has been the home of The Fortnightly Club of Summit and the Summit Junior Fortnightly Club, both of which are 501(c)3 charitable organizations and members of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs and the national General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The Fortnightly Club of Summit was established in 1893. Both clubs have a long and illustrious history of both charitable fundraising and hands-on charitable work and are described further below.
The members of both the Fortnightly Club, which owns Twin Maples, and the Summit Junior Fortnightly Club believe that Twin Maples is a unique and grand historic building with a long tradition of community service and should be preserved for the future citizens of Summit and New Jersey. To that end, in 2003, a group of senior officers from the Summit Junior Fortnightly Club joined the Fortnightly Club to revitalize Twin Maples and work to preserve it.
It was out of this desire to preserve Twin Maples that the club created a vision for Twin Maples’ new mission: “A Second Century of Service”. The goal of the new mission was to open the doors of Twin Maples for use by the other 200+ charities and non-profits in the greater Summit community, as well as others in the state. The first of our milestone goals was to renovate Twin Maples and reopen her doors and offer the house to other charitable organizations for their meetings, events and fundraising galas at costs that are far lower than commercial rental rates. By sharing Twin Maples with these other charitable organizations, we lower their fundraising costs, which in turn means that they will have the ability to pass on those savings directly to charitable causes. We can benefit many charities by sharing Twin Maples.
The Twin Maples Historic Preservation Fund
Our next goal is to establish an endowment to preserve the Twin Maples Estate for the future. We have planned a series of fundraisers to pay for additional restoration and preservation at Twin Maples. In addition, we have planned an advertising campaign to revitalize the business of renting the house for private and corporate events to help offset the on-going operating costs of the Estate.
Preserving and maintaining Twin Maples will be costly. Plans are well underway for several fundraising events for the Twin Maples Historic Preservation Fund. A capital campaign is still underway; early monies raised from that campaign have already gone to pay for Phase 1, primary renovation and restoration work that was completed in September 2007. And we were very pleased to learn recently that we have won grants totaling more than $65,000 from both Union County and The Manley Winser Foundation to help restore certain historic elements at Twin Maples in Phase 2 of the restoration, which will be completed before the show house designers begin their work this summer. The most significant of these elements is the grand balustrade that flanked both the north and south wings of the main house until last fall when it had to be removed to repair the roof; at that time it was determined that the old balustrade would need to be replaced with an historically accurate replica as the old spindles and railings were too far gone to repair.
The Twin Maples Centennial Show House
By far the largest of the 2007/08 fundraising events, The Twin Maples Centennial Show House, is being planned for the full month of October of 2008. The Centennial Show House is being run jointly with the Overlook Hospital Auxiliary. Proceeds from the show house will benefit both the Twin Maples Historic Preservation Fund and The Cancer Center at Overlook Hospital.
The Show House is being co-chaired by a member of the Fortnightly Club (the owners of the Estate), Heidi Evenson, as well as veteran Show House chairman and talented designer and owner of La Jolie Maison of Summit, Laurie Finn. Laurie’s grand vision for the event stems from years of participation in area show houses, as well as her stewardship as co-chairman of the highly successful show house held at Bel Air, former Governor Kean’s Estate. With Laurie at the helm, we have no doubt that the Twin Maples Centennial Show House will indeed be the jewel of all area show houses.
History of Twin Maples
Twin Maples is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places. Twin Maples was built in 1908, designed by a well-known New York and Montclair architect, Alfred F. Norris. Twin Maples was built in the neoclassical style like our nation’s White House, with the facade dominated by a full-height porch supported by classical columns. It was erected with the finest materials and details available at that time. In addition to the main house, there is a stucco Carriage House that originally sheltered carriages and horses in two large bays.
The Estate was sold by Gustav Amsink, reputedly the “wealthiest citizen of Summit,” to Mr. and Mrs. James Foley, a prominent New York attorney. Karoline Davis and James Foley had no children and occupied the home until his death in 1916. James Foley’s widow sold the home to Mr. and Mrs. Frederic N. Collins in 1918. Frederick Collins was president of James E. Ward & Co., steamship agents and brokers, and was known in downtown Manhattan as the “Sugar King” for bringing up sugar as cargo from the Caribbean.
The Collins had one daughter Lydia, and conducted a lively household entertaining extensively until he died in 1947 at the age of 90. Lydia attended Kent Place School in Summit and married Rev. Dr. W. J. deForest. Mrs. Collins sold the house in 1949 for $27,000 to the Fortnightly Club, which was founded in 1893 by Mary Burlington Wilcox, wife of Summit’s first mayor.
Since 1949, Twin Maples has been the home of The Fortnightly Club of Summit and the Summit Junior Fortnightly Club. A description of the clubs and their activities follow.
The Fortnightly Club and The Summit Junior Fortnightly Club
The Fortnightly Club and The Summit Junior Fortnightly Club organize and host numerous charitable functions for good causes. The Summit Junior Fortnightly recently raised over $75,000 for the Peterpaul Foundation, a children’s cancer charity located in Chatham, and over $200,000 for the NJ Community Foodbank in Hillside. Both clubs and their families volunteer regularly in the community by providing meals for SHIP (Summit Helping its People) and sorting food and clothing at the NJ Community Foodbank in Hillside. The Summit Junior Fortnightly Club also organizes an annual Tot Trot for the community, “kids running for kids”, benefiting a different local children’s charity each year. 2008 will mark the 30th anniversary of Tot Trot.
We are very pleased to support The Cancer Center at Overlook Hospital through the Twin Maples Centennial Show House.
For more information about the clubs, please visit the club websites at Fortnightly Club and Summit Junior Fortnightly Club .
