Farmhouses at Holly Ravine Farm will be demolished as Cherry Hill turns nearly 23 acres into open space.

The large, bright yellow farmhouse atop a woody ravine dates to 1928, when dairy farmer and former Mayor John C. Gilmour Jr. married his girlfriend, bought a cow and founded what came to be the Holly Ravine dairy farm at Springdale and Evesham roads in Cherry Hill.

Gilmour's nearly 100-year-old home and a 55-year-old house next door soon will be demolished as Cherry Hill Township begins to transform the 22.54 acres it bought last year for $3.87 million into preserved open space. Demolition contractors visited the property on November 10 and bids to tear down the houses are due next Tuesday.

"The demolition of the two buildings starts the next exciting chapter of the Holly Ravine Farm," Mayor David Fleisher said in a statement. "Over the coming months we will be finalizing the plan to allow passive use by the public, as well as likely agricultural use consistent with the farm’s legacy."

Gilmour died in 1993 at 85 and his wife, Eva Davis Gilmour, died at 102 in 2011. 

Many Cherry Hill residents were outraged in 2023 when Caddis Healthcare Real Estate announced plans to build a senior-care complex on the site of the farm, promising to remove just 36 of the more than 1,000 trees. 

The developer's acknowledgement of Cherry Hill's protection of existing trees wasn't enough. The farm property already had been partly carved up when the Holly Ravine dairy bar on the corner of the farm was torn down and The Shoppes at Holly Ravine Farm were built in 1989 at the Springdale-Evesham intersection.

Fleisher and other elected officials responded to the protest and secured the money to buy the farm, negotiate with the Gilmour family and preserve it forever as open space.

Several mature trees — including what appear to be old Beech and Fir trees — surround both houses and they will be preserved, Brian Bauerle, the mayor's chief of staff, told 70and73.com. Demolition plans show the existing trees will remain.

"There are a few smaller and less-mature trees either too close to the homes to be preserved during demolition, or diseased that will likely need to be removed," Bauerle explained. "However, all trees removed will be replaced on site. It remains a priority to preserve the mature trees on site."

Bauerle said no one was occupying the houses when the Township took over the property. The Township researched the buildings and "we made sure there was no historical significance," he said, including confirmation with the New Jersey Historical Commission.

The yellow and brown Gilmour farmhouse has a 1928 sign at the peak of the front roof. The back of the house, which faces the ravine, is four stories tall, including the ground-level basement. 

Septic systems serving each property will be drained and demolished. A small swimming pool, half-filled on Wednesday with junk tossed in, will be demolished with the house.