Check out the Scranton Manor, a popular N.J. bed & breakfast, that is up for sale

When Darren Muso and Chris Pozarycki were renovating the bathrooms in their 1800s manor home they had to bump out a few walls.

That meant disturbing the original plaster crown molding. Not wanting to lose that nearly 200-year-old character, they worked with a carpenter to create a mold of the moldings and had matching ones cast.

“A lot of people would’ve put the walls up and called it a day,” Pozarycki said. “We maintained everything as much as we could.”

Their lovingly renovated eight bedroom, seven full- and one half-bathroom colonial on 5.7 acres in Oxford is listed for sale for $1.15 million.

The two men bought the home, known as Scranton Manor, in 2013 from a couple who had lived there since the 1970s. The home was well maintained but outdated. So Muso and Pozarycki have spent the past 11 years modernizing it while preserving its original character.

All the while they have used the home as a business, a bed and breakfast and a place to hold tea parties, dinners, family reunions and other events. Many of their overnight guests held weddings at The Loft at Jack’s Barn, their other business.

But at the age of 62, Pozarycki and Muso are starting to eye a simpler life that gives them more time with their grandson. So they’ve decided to sell Scranton Manor. “It’s a very special house that you need a special person to buy,” said Rebecca Meyer of BHHS Fox & Roach Hunterdon County, the listing agent. “Looking for that person is not easy.”

The home has been featured in at least four social media groups for people who like old houses, she said.

“People have posted talking about the chandeliers and the pocket doors,” she said.

The home also has four marble fireplaces plus a brick, gas fireplace in the kitchen.

And it has a rich history.

Scranton Manor is located behind Shippen Manor, which is now a museum. The patriarch of the wealthy and prominent Shippen family, Dr. William Shippen, was a physician who was rumored to have Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and George Washington among his patients. The family is credited with starting the town, then known as Oxford Furnace. Shippen had the Georgian-style Shippen Manor built and later built Scranton Manor for his son, Joseph Shippen.

Muso and Pozarycki bought the home from Richard and Inga Maximoff. Richard Maximoff is a Grammy-nominated violist and a member of the acclaimed Hampton String Quartet.

“We’ve taken it from the 1970s to the 21st Century,” Pozarycki said. “With modern air conditioning, heating, making the fireplaces operable. Every room was renovated, painted, all the floors were redone.”

They even found pieces of the home’s history that were long-stowed in the basement. Parts of four fireplace screens were discovered. “As we were working we would find things and say, ‘oh that’s what that is,‘” Muso said.

He pieced the fireplace screens back together and had a local welder reassemble them.

“Somebody else would’ve just thrown them in the garbage,” Pozarycki said.

The main floor of the three story home has the kitchen, a library with 12-foot ceilings framed with bookcases, dining room, living room, parlor and music room.

The parlor and music room have pocket doors between them so they can be used as one room or broken into two.

During dinner parties, Muso said, they use different rooms for different courses. “It really depends on the mood,” he said. “We try to use each room ... to get a different vibe throughout the night.”

There are four bedrooms on the second floor and four on the third floor.

The 5,750-square-foot home actually had nine bedrooms, but one was converted into a dressing salon for bridal guests to do their hair and makeup.

The home is zoned as a residence but has a variance to operate as a bed and breakfast.

“It could be a great vacation home for somebody, a bed and breakfast or a great place for a small non-profit to host events,” said Meyer.

The home sits on 5.68 acres but the owners also have another 8-acre attached parcel that could be purchased.

It’s located about 8 minutes from Belvidere, 25 minutes from the Pennsylvania state line, and near trails, parks and the Delaware River.

“I think the buyer will be somebody with an entrepreneurial spirit that can live there and work there and run a great business,” Meyers said.

Are you an agent, buyer or seller who is active in this changing market? Do you have tips about New Jersey’s real estate market? Unusual listings? Let us know.

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Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com.