Ongoing historical research on a variety of topics.
Views: 8,034 Map Identifies Historic Properties, Owners, Building Locations, Local History Including the Often Ignored Pluckemin Artillery Park With over 2,000 hours of painstaking research and countless renderings, the landscaping firm of John Charles Smith & Associates of Far Hills… Read More »Bedminster Map Project Reveals Historic Pluckemin Artillery Park
Views: 17,195 UPDATE:The Mr. Local History Project recently learned that the Sky Farm Historical Society, under Janice Gersky’s direction, is working to digitize its document and photo archives. It might be time to schedule a visit back to the Farm… Read More »America’s Oldest Clothing-Optional Club in Basking Ridge is Accepting Members
Views: 41,658 Noted High Society Playboy and Titanic Survivor Brings Notoriety to Bernards Township. It’s a fun story, but you have to hang in there. First, we must provide a little background about John’s father, who didn’t survive the Titanic… Read More »Titanic Survivor Astor and Basking Ridge
Views: 15,005 Founding Fathers Series turns Glen Beck into a History Teacher. No one knew how popular the Glen Beck Show would become. Commonly referred to as a TV shock jock (sorry Howard), no matter how you feel about the… Read More »Glen Beck Founding Fathers Series Needs General Henry Knox
Views: 5,605 Communicating Life Stories – Digital Storytelling Oral History Publishing in a Digital Age Technology is moving so fast that sometimes it’s tough to stay in tune with the latest trends. A high school history program teacher at Ridge… Read More »Communicating Life Stories – Digital Storytelling Oral History
Views: 10,645 The anniversary of America’s alliance with France was celebrated on the 18th of February at Pluckemin, at a very elegant entertainment and display of fireworks given by General Knox, and the officers of artillery. It was postponed to… Read More »The 13 Paintings at the Pluckemin Academy
Views: 10,647 Morristown – Where America Survived – a documentary aired on NJN. It should be replayed again Sunday, October 17, 2009 at 7:30pm on NJN. Morristown: Where America Survived is a thirty-minute High Definition documentary which revisits that winter… Read More »NJN Airs Morristown RevWar Documentary Film
Views: 25,354 Below are the original research notes as I had spent years researching contradicting information on the Widow White’s Tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Often I like to post research in hopes that other researchers can see what’s… Read More »What Happened to Mary White and Widow White’s Tavern
Views: 20,975 While attending a program entitled “Early American Schoolhouses” at the Brick Academy in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, the instructor passed out handouts that discussed rules for students, teachers, and punishments in 1872. Meg Wastie, program coordinator at the Museum… Read More »Student Rules Then and Now
Did you know that US Route 206 actually used to be Route 31 and what is US Route 202 was actually Route 32?
So now you tell your friend “Take Route 31 North Thru Bedminster
and Turn Right onto Route 32 straight into Bernardsville.” Huh. “Route 31 goes to Clinton right? Left? WRONG! Confused?
Travel back to 1935 and you definitely would have been.
Maybe you could travel down Mine Brook Road to Bernardsville and the directions read take Route 32 south to Bville and stop at the dairy. Or maybe you’re coming down from Chester and you wanted to visit the Brady’s Hamilton Farm in Peapack/Bedminster and you actually have to go down Route 31. Well that was actually the case right up until 1935 when the transition began to change these two crossroads across the Somerset Hills to Routes 202 and 206.
Have you ever had such a major roadway change names in your lifetime? Your whole psychic changes. Think about how much confusion there is when the Department of Transportation changes highway exits and how long it takes you to forget the old ones and replace it with the new numbers. Geeze, I think there’s still exit signs on the southern end of Route 202 South that still say Old Exit 2B.
Read More »Liar – Route 31 Did Go Thru Bedminster & Bernardsville
Views: 6,370 How General Henry Knox got a Profile on Facebook Hey General Washington, was the water cold when you were crossing the Delaware? Hey Socrates, do you really believe all of the stuff you came up with? Don’t go… Read More »Putting Historic Personalities on Facebook
Views: 8,222 The Accent of Money is actually the history of money – and worth the watch! A few years ago, PBS released a documentary called The Accent of Money, hosted by Niall Furgerson. Based on his book about the… Read More »The Accent of Money – Grab the Kids
The New Jersey Historic Trust is responsible for advancing historic preservation in New Jersey and establish stable sources of funding to support activities that contribute directly to the preservation and use of New Jersey’s heritage resources. We thought it’d be interesting to follow up on the discussion regarding the New Jersey Historic Trust and their distributions over the last decade.
The analysis was done just to observe the data and see if there are any interesting trends. The data was sent to us from Dorthy Guzzo, the Executive Director of the New Jersey Historic Trust in Trenton, New Jersey and we thank her for her efforts.
Views: 11,406 New Jersey Historic Trust Announces Grant Applications for 2008 February 27, 2009 TRENTON – The New Jersey Historic Trust today announced its recommended list for 2008 Historic Preservation Grants. The list of recommended sites will go before the… Read More »New Jersey Historic Trust Site Grants 2008
Views: 15,662 “The entertainment began with a discharge of 13 cannons at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.” The Grand Alliance Ball – Sunday, February 18, 1779 , Pluckemin, New Jersey Sunday, February 18, 1779 , Pluckemin, New Jersey One of… Read More »1779 – Grand Alliance Ball – Pluckemin New Jersey