Maple Lawn, seen here in a c.1913 postcard, still stands at 30 East Craig Street in Basking Ridge, NJ.  It is an impressive Victorian house in the Second Empire style featuring a Mansard roof. 

Architectural surveys (c.1990s) and John C. Smith’s historical map of Basking Ridge date the house to around 1865.  However, the building is noticeably absent from the 1873 Beers Atlas of Somerset County, and a later date of construction is likely. 

Daniel D. Craig (1825-1891) of Basking Ridge, a banker with National Iron Bank in Morristown, appears to be the earliest owner.  In 1889, he sold the property to Meyer L. Sire and Lou, his wife, of New York City.[1]  Mary A. Collins of Brooklyn, N.Y., bought the property from the Sires in 1892[2] and was the owner when the postcard was printed. See THSSH Archive Record.

In 1921, Mary A. Collins, then of Basking Ridge, sold the house to Herbert H. Hankinson (1879-1942) and his wife Gertrude.[3]  Herbert, or “Bert” Hankinson managed the Walescott kennel for Francis G. Lloyd in Bernardsville and bred Scottish terriers.  Their son Norman G. Hankinson (1911-1983) was assistant postmaster in Basking Ridge and president (1978-1982) of the Basking Ridge Historical Society (now THSSH).

By 1948 (left), much of the ornate trim on the house had been replaced.[4]

[1] Somerset Co. DB W6:389.

[2] Somerset Co. DB H7:318.

[3] Somerset Co. DB I18:271.

[4] Real Estate Listing #2476, Ellsworth Dobbs Inc., Bernardsville, NJ