From The Hammonton News — A proposed plan to use part of the Batsto Mansion as office space for state workers has drawn the ire of some volunteers at the historic landmark.

A $2 million renovation project at the mansion is nearing completion and plans to use the building’s servants quarters for state offices and a parking lot outside the building have surfaced in recent weeks, according to Vera Stek, a Green Bank resident who has served as a volunteer tour guide at Batsto Village for three years.

“Certainly this wasn’t one of the original plans when they released the money to do the work,” Stek said. “This seems crazy to the volunteers who are concerned and upset about it.”

Batsto Village is notable for its use as an iron works, which made munitions for use by George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War.

Philadelphia businessman Joseph Wharton substantially renovated the village’s 32-room mansion in the late 19th century. Wharton died in 1909 and the state purchased Batsto for use as a tourist attraction in the 1950s.

The mansion has housed an office for a historian position at the village, Stek said.

“It really was just the use of a desk in one of the rooms,” Stek said.

According to Department of Environmental Protection Spokesperson Dana Loschiavo, the office use there will essentially continue.

“It’s been office space (since) we’ve owned it. It’s never really been interpreted as servant’s quarters. It never really looks like anything but storage. There will just be different people in there,” Loschiavo said Tuesday. “It’s not like we’re adapting a new use there.”

As for parking outside the mansion, Loschiavo said “nothing has been decided.”

But Stek said she feels the current proposal would damage the character of the building.

The offices are targeted for the oldest portion of the mansion and would prohibit the area from being accessible for tours, Stek said.

“Even though we never let people in there, it was very typical on tours to open the doors to connect the rich section of the mansion to the service wing and let people peek in,” Stek said. “Even looking through the door you could see the difference — the narrower staircase and the smaller rooms and everything.”

Stek said the office personnel would be transferred from another state-owned building located just three miles east of the village on Route 542.

That could pose another problem, she said.

“When you have that building abandoned, it could go into disrepair and (be) burned down or vandalized,” Stek said.

Stek already has made numerous telephone calls on the matter and has started a letter writing campaign to legislators across the state.

“People, when they come to Batsto, always say how peaceful and quiet it is here,” Stek said. “I don’t think you’ll get that ambience if you to the mansion and you see a parking space right in front of it. It takes a little bit away from the experience.”

Loschiavo said the mansion should reopen for tours in time for the Oct. 19 Country Living Fair, an annual event that atracts thousands of visitors.