LOWER TOWNSHIP — The meandering lane running alongside the canal known as New England Road offers some of the best views of Cape May that are not in Cape May.
This southern bank of the canal is technically in Lower Township, although for years people have mistakenly called it West Cape May (which is just south of this spot).
Whatever one calls it, this stretch between the borough bridge and Delaware Bay is known for scenic views and quiet pleasures.
One tidy, glowing home designed to help a family or guests enjoy every bit of those joys can be found at 569 New England Road.
From the curb, this one-story home offers a demurely old-fashioned facade, with sparkling white board-and-batten siding and a wide front porch with decorative brace beams.
This modest exterior sits amid a 28,743-square-foot lot resting nearly alongside the canal, surrounded by forest. The front door of this deceptively simple ranch opens to a clapboard-sided sitting room, all in that same stark white color but enlivened with dramatic cathedral ceilings and exposed center beams.
Although the house was built in 1960, it’s most recently been updated by a former designer for Ralph Lauren, who clearly used it as a gallery space for art and furnishings as well as a place to unwind away from the city.
There is no need to worry about matching colors or contrasting patterns: everything is white, from the floors to the three bright bedrooms and baths, to the kitchen, which does have a surprising pop of pattern and color thanks to a backsplash in shades of blue and brown over ochre countertops.
Each room is spacious and well-lit, especially the breakfast nook right by glass French doors leading out to the side yard.
On the other side of this small, flat sward of green is the property’s biggest surprise: a barn-turned-guesthouse that tops even the main house for simple luxury.
Updated just last year, this space is a special place for guests or in-laws, and is designed to be entirely self-sufficient. An open-plan great room includes another sparkling white kitchen, although this one is outfitted with retro-style appliances and a backsplash of white subway tile.
Everything is topped with more exposed beams overhead, with the addition of a medieval-style iron wheel chandelier, offering a round black contrast to all the angular white spaces underneath.
The bedroom in this unit brings the total on the property to four; with one primary bedroom for each building, two smaller bedrooms in the main house, and three bathrooms including the one in the barn.
The bedroom in the guesthouse is a long, private space that suggests a secret hideaway. The bath is large, with more white subway tile, a huge shower and a repeat of the touches of stark black in the fixtures and mirror over the vanity.
The showiest place in the entire property is probably the primary bedroom in the main house, which is large enough that the giant black four-poster bed currently residing within it feels like a separate room: a platform in the midst of an even larger gallery space.
The ensuite bath has a standing tub along tiled walls, inviting a long soak after a day of exploring the island on bikes or possibly going riding at the nearby horse ranch. This massive space holds only one double-door closet, which is fine because the entire finished basement is a giant closet.
Yes, there is a basement in this home barely a mile northeast of Higbee Beach, here where the banks of the canal offer some high ground above the fray.
Here was where one of the oldest colonies in the New World took root, although it had a Dutch name back then, so the underground spaces along this stretch of what is now called New England Road have been tested time after time.
The basement is also painted the same white shade, but everything in this vast underground network of rooms is devoted to storage. There is plenty of easy workspace under very bright recessed lighting — the same as in the rooms above, in fact — so it stands to reason this is a good place to draw, sew or create. Tidy pegboard covers the working surface of the basement ceiling, so maintenance and upkeep do not mean tearing out drywall, but the space feels bright and finished.
All of the necessary upgrades have already been completed recently, with multi-zoned heating and cooling, new septic and a well, and updated features throughout, so the basement is no longer the site of much construction, but instead offers a well-lit laundry room and racks of shelving. An old-fashioned staircase leads out to the exterior entrance, covered in a hatchway door.
The biggest draw of this property must be the property itself, so close to the photogenic end of the canal just minutes away. Privacy and birdsong are protected by the wooded lots all around and the screen of evergreen trees between this house and its closest neighbor.
At .66 of an acre, this lot offers a lot of room for gardens, flowering trees or a swimming pool, and the current owner has already acquired the permits for a resort-style 16×24 foot pool.
New England Road leads back to West Cape May and soon to everything people love about the cape: beaches, fine dining, shopping, natural beauty and entertainment.
All of this benefits from the highways that zip right back up to Philadelphia and New York for those who need an oasis within two hours of the cultural capitals. The 2,200 square feet of well-organized space could not be better located to provide a calm, spa-like center for relaxation and perhaps creation of something beautiful, even while entertaining.
