Hamilton PPost ost Hamilton APRIL 2026
Community Educa�on and Be�er Health Programs located on page 2
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Abbott House tells story of America
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Hamilton mourns loss of longtime public servant
Pasta coming at ya
BY JIM FEDERICI Nestled on Kuser Road is a quaint dairy farmhouse landscaped with colorful shrubs and flowers. Any visitor to the farmhouse should be prepared to step into a pre-Revolutionary home that played a part in New Jersey history. Welcome to the John Abbott II House. The old part of the house was built in 1730. The house addition was built in 1840. John Abbott, Sr. came from England and owned 800 acres that encompassed land from the White Horse Circle to the at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton. He was a merchant who owned his own docks on the Crosswicks Creek at Abbottsville. Today the area is known as White Horse. His son John Abbott built a typical farmhouse on land given to him by his father. He never married and when he died, he left the home to his nephew Samuel. The house was sold in 1840 to Daniel Ivins. Ivins added a parlor onto house on the first level, and two bedrooms on the See ABBOTT, Page 14
Former sheriff Gil Lugossy was 90 BY RICH FISHER
Recently opened Hamilton restaurant Il Dono on Route 33 (formerly Tessara) has a new mural courtesy of artist Hope Gaburo. Read Thomas Kelly’s Fight in the Museum profile on page 36.
Towns look to boost economies with ‘Film Ready’ designation BY BILL SANSERVINO Lights, camera, action! Hollywood may soon be coming to a town near you. New Jersey recently added Hamilton, Hightstown and Robbinsville to its growing list of “Film Ready” communities, with the N.J. Motion Picture and Television Commission announcing March 11 that the
three Mercer County municipalities were among 15 statewide to complete the Film Ready New Jersey program. Princeton is also expected to join the list. The town continues to pursue certification as it looks to attract film and television productions. Past movies filmed there include “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “IQ,” “A Beautiful Mind,” and
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Oppenheimer.” The designation brings the statewide total to 58 Film Ready communities—a continued expansion of an initiative, which is aimed at capturing a larger share of the film and television industry’s rapid growth in the Garden State. The Film Ready program involves a five-step certification See MOVIES, Page 16
A while back I was roasted for the benefit of the Mooch Soccer Program, and one of the roasters was Gil Lugossy. The first to “attack” me was my mom, Dianne, who graduated from Hamilton High with Gil (it wasn’t West then, just Hamilton). Then it was Lugossy’s turn and you could see the crowd wearing expressions like “What, another old person?” The “old guy” started to talk and said “A lot of people don’t know, but Fish’s mom and I went to school together.” He looked down at her, smiled, and cracked “In fact, Fish could be my son.” The room erupted and with that, Gil was off and running. It was that playful sense of humor that defined the man as See LUGOSSY, Page 18
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