Somerville is the county seat of Somerset County, a borough with one ZIP code, 08876, that borders the Raritan River to the south. The village grew up around a church, a courthouse and a tavern at a crossroads after the Revolution, was a thriving commercial center by 1864, and became a borough in 1909. That same year the white marble Somerville Court House went up. George Washington stayed at the Wallace House during the winter of 1778 to 1779, when the Continental Army was camped at Middlebrook, and the Old Dutch Parsonage nearby was home to the Reverend Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, a founder and first president of Queen's College, now Rutgers.
Much of the borough has Victorian architecture, in several neighborhoods and along Main Street. Borough Hall is the Daniel Robert House, an 1888 Gothic Revival building listed on the National Register in 2008, and the James Harper Smith Estate, St. John's Episcopal Church and the old West End firehouse, now the Fire Museum, are register-listed as well. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024 counts about 6,100 homes in Somerville and dates 76 percent to before 1980, with 24 percent built in 1939 or earlier and the 1950s and 1960s at 19 and 18 percent. Building has picked up again since then: 16 percent of homes date from 2010 or later.
Somerville's Historic Advisory Committee promotes and documents the borough's architecture and makes consensus-based recommendations on conserving historic structures. We found no local historic district ordinance that reviews paint colors on private houses, so the color is generally the owner's call. If you live in a condominium or townhouse association, its rules on exterior finishes and front doors come first.
Victorian houses repay careful prep. Porch columns, brackets, spindles and window casings are hand-scraped back to sound paint, loose glazing and failed caulk are dealt with, and bare wood is primed before premium Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams finish coats. Inside, fine hairline cracks are filled and sanded as part of normal prep, and long-painted trim is sanded and re-coated rather than replaced. With three Somerville homes in four built before 1980, the federal lead rule matters too. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires a certified firm whenever paid work disturbs more than six square feet of paint in a room, or twenty square feet outside, on housing from before 1978, and NJ Painting Co. is not EPA Lead-Safe Certified. Where a Somerville house needs that much paint removed, you will need a certified contractor for it, and we say so before any work is scheduled.
We also repaint interiors, refinish staircases and kitchen cabinets, and repaint downtown storefronts and offices. NJ Painting Co. is family-owned and based in Morganville, and every Somerville estimate is free.
