"Jason, our middle son, came to me one day demanding to have a room of his own," recalls Rosemary. "He was sharing a room with his brothers, and as the more serious guy, he was annoyed by their antics."
So his parents set out to find a family home that would be affordable on a college teacher's salary - Fred was a philosophy professor at Rutgers University at that time, and the budget was tight. But the Abbates also wanted a house that would suit their taste for older architecture in a town where they were determined to stay.
The couple - natives of New Haven, Conn., who moved to New York while Fred was studying for his doctorate at Columbia University - had never heard of Moorestown before hunting for their first house here.
In their more-informed second search, they came upon a property that was in foreclosure. Yes, Fred was a bit worried about the fix-up this house would demand - he was admittedly more conversant with Plato and Aristotle than with Black and Decker.
But the couple signed on the dotted line nonetheless and moved into the two-story, four-bedroom home in December 1978. Jason got a room of his own.
The first order of business was a renovation of the kitchen, and while it was going on, the family refrigerator resided in the living room. It was daunting, but well worth the effort - Rosemary, a local actress and former executive for the March of Dimes, is a legendary master of Italian cooking. (Another kitchen update was done in 2004.)
Their happiest early surprise: a second reading of the plot plan revealed that their lot was far larger than they'd realized and contained the "kissing tree," a weeping beech with a reputation for being the site of many first kisses in Moorestown.
