The Lakeview Mansion, once home to Jamesburg’s most illustrious family, is showing its age.

The Lakeview Mansion in Jamesburg could reopen to the public in November, if repair work takes place on schedule. Paint is peeling off the white clapboards of the 23-room home. The forest-green shutters are faded. Sections of the building sag because of a sinking foundation. An 8-foothigh chain-link fence surrounds the 1.75- acre property across from Lake Manalapan.

But help is on the way. More than a year and a half after Lakeview was closed to the public, repairs are slated to begin on the historic home, sections of which are the oldest in town.

“We’re not happy we’re not in there,” said Elliot L. Stroul, a member of the Jamesburg Historical Association.

Members of the association are the “caretakers” of the building, but the borough owns the house and the property, according to association Vice President Stephen R. Philpitt.

Most of the items in the house, including furniture, clothing, photos and books, have been trucked away and are now in storage, which costs roughly $2,000 a month. A number of studies had to be done before work could begin, because the building is listed on both the state and national Registers of Historic Places.

“A lot of money is tied up in storage and soft costs,” Stroul said. “That’s what’s taking so long,” he said. “It had to be done. It just takes time. The town is doing it, not the historical association.”

The mansion could possibly reopen to the public in November, if all goes well.

The building has been closed for more than a year and a half, after the main center bearing wall beam was deemed structurally unsafe. Temporary supports have been placed in the base and all upper floors of the 1832 section to take the weight off the main wall beam.

“You can’t have people falling through the floor,” Philpitt said.

Jamesburg has received a total of $892,000 in grants from the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders to use for mansion upgrades so far.

The oldest part of the house dates back to 1685, which was built by Scottish settler William Davison. Other additions were added in 1790, 1832 and 1870, bringing the total number of rooms to 23.

The bulk of the additions were built by James Buckelew and his wife, Margaret, to make room for their six children and Buckelew’s need for “large-scale” entertaining, according to the historical association’s booklet on the house.

The large, two-story section of the house was added on in the 1830s.

Buckelew was Jamesburg’s most illustrious citizen, according to Philpitt and Stroul. He was an astute businessman, actively involved in transportation and agriculture. He owned cranberry bogs, a brickyard, and 4,000 acres of land. He was the original contractor for the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1831 and the Jamesburg and Freehold Agricultural Railroad in 1853. He and his sons also organized the First National Bank of Jamesburg in 1864, built the first public school, and donated land for two churches and Fernwood Cemetery.

The Buckelew heirs sold the house in the early 1900s to Albert and Emma Paxton, who ran a boarding house, often renting out rooms to local teachers. The Paxton era came to an end in the 1970s, when the heirs had all died off.

Robert Mendoker, founder of the historical association, spearheaded the effort to acquire the house back in the 1970s. He and others were able to procure state and local funding to buy the mansion, which was deeded to the borough. Since then, Lakeview Mansion has served as a multipurpose museum.

The construction work on the mansion will be done in three phases, Stroul said. The first will involve shoring up the foundation, installing a new boiler in the basement, and repairing the slate room. The existing porch will be removed, a French drain system will be installed and a new roof added, he said.