Eleven of Warren County’s historic sites will be open for a self-guided tour, featuring family activities at each location, on the weekend of Nov. 6 and 7.
Maps and guides will be available at each site. For more detailed information about the tour, visit https://www.warrenhistorytrail.org/.
Shippen Manor The county’s official house museum is in Oxford, built by the Shippen brothers who owned Oxford Furnace with their partner, ironmaster Jonathan Robeson. All three men were from prominent Philadelphia families. The Georgian-style stone mansion is where the Shippens stayed when they visited their investment.
Located on a terraced hill overlooking the village of Oxford Furnace, the manor (pictured above) was built as the iron master’s residence in c. 1754 on the four-thousand-acre estate of Dr. William Shippen, Sr. and his brother, Joseph Shippen, Jr..
Oxford Furnace and the surrounding historic district are listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Built in 1741, it was the third furnace in Colonial New Jersey and the first located where the iron ore was mined.
During their tenure as owners, the Shippens provided the furnace workers, many of them indentured Scots-Irish servants, with shelter and food for the nine months of operation each year. The large basement kitchen at the manor fed the workers. By the time of the Revolutionary War, the operation at the Furnace was large enough to support on-site workers who lived in small log cabins on the property.
Dr. William Shippen, who eventually became the estate’s sole owner, was also a member of the Continental Congress and counted among his worthy patients Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, George Washington, and Generals Gage, Howe, and Lafayette. His son, Joseph William Shippen, ran the furnace property for ten years until his death in 1795. Dr. Shippen Sr.’s other children, William Jr. and Susan, became the owners of the property when their father passed away in 1801.
A later owner was William Henry III who introduced the first “hot blast” in 1835, an innovation that cut production time by sending pre-heated air into the furnace. The furnace passed into the hands of three prominent brothers in the 1840s: Charles, George, and Selden Scranton, before they moved to Pennsylvania. Iron furnaces were starting to use coal as fuel rather than charcoal, and the brothers invested in railroads. The furnace never lacked for anthracite coal from the mines of Pennsylvania.
The Oxford Furnace, after suffering structural damage, was “blasted out” for the final time in 1884, rendering it inoperable. Nearby Furnace #2 was constructed in 1866, operated until 1921 and razed after standing abandoned for more than 50 years. The original furnace stack and engine house were stabilized and restored in 2001.
The furnace and manor were transferred from state to the county ownership in 1984. After extensive restoration, the Shippen Manor Museum opened to the public in 1995 with rooms representing various eras of its history. Costumed docents lead tours, military reenactment groups set up camp on the lawn, and local historians tell the story of life during the 18th through 20th centuries.
The museum at 8 Belvidere Ave., Oxford, will be open for visitors only on Sunday, Nov. 7, from noon to 4 p.m.
Plane 9 West
Just outside of Phillipsburg, the Morris Canal met Plane 9 West, the longest of 23 inclined planes that conquered the unprecedented 1,674-foot change in elevation along the canal’s journey from the Delaware to the Hudson River at Jersey City.
Years after the canal ceased operation, Jim Lee, Sr., a railroad conductor from Phillipsburg, was so fascinated with the Morris Canal that he bought the property and moved his young family to the plane-tender’s house. Lee began to excavate the remains of the canal plane and the powerhouse that operated it, eventually becoming one of the foremost experts on the Morris Canal. After Lee’s death in 2007, the county and canal buffs, including Lee family members, came up with a management plan for the property and turned part of the house into a museum with displays of canal artifacts. A visit also includes a walk around the property to see remnants of the inclined plane and a trip through the low tailrace tunnel into the chamber which contains a rare instance of the innovative turbine machinery that distinguished the Morris Canal from all others.
477 County Route 519, Stewartsville
Morris Canal Greenway
Van Next-Hoff-Vannatta Farmstead
The Van Nest-Hoff-Vannatta Farmstead reflects three centuries of agricultural practices and rural architecture. The farmstead exemplifies the region’s largest farmsteads, properties that clearly express the success of their owners.
The initial tract of land was 768 acres and settled circa 1763 by John Van Nest, who constructed the core of the stone farmhouse. The land was transferred to John and Abel Hoff in the early 19th century and the house was expanded circa 1810. In 1856 William M. Vannatta obtained the southern half of the then 590-acre property. A summer kitchen sits in the southern yard of the farmhouse. It was built about the same time as the 1810 addition and has a large fireplace for open hearth cooking demonstrations. An outhouse and smokehouse sit just to the east of the farmhouse. Three wagon houses, built and altered throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, line the gravel drive leading to the massive barn, built circa 1824. The barn has a heavy timber frame and is a unique hybrid of building styles with an integral timber hay chute and a central swing post shaped like a turned column painted blood red.
The main farmhouse and summer kitchen will be open for trail visitors, 10am – 4pm. There will also be fiber arts demonstrations throughout the weekend.
3026 Belvidere Road (CR 519), Harmony Township
Harmony Township Historical Society
Ramsaysburg
Accessible to road and river traffic and commerce, about 50 acres along the Delaware River in newly formed Knowlton Township appealed to brothers James and Adam Ramsay in 1795. The location, complete with a tributary cascading from the mountains into the Delaware River, held unlimited potential. Eventually owned by James, the hamlet of Ramsaysburg prospered and for 80 years his family served the community with a tavern, store, post office, sawmill, blacksmith and hotel. The river supplied transportation for logs t the sawmill and lumberyard, and the power of its tributary powered the mill. The Ramsays took advantage of the main road and opened a hotel, which also capitalized on the appeal of the river. The family supported several tenants, including those who farmed the land, and likely employed several servants.
The development of the railroad village of Delaware cut into Ramsaysburg’s business. The buildings at the 12-acre historical park — a tavern, barn, cottage, smokehouse and shed — represent the activity that occurred at the homestead during its heyday. Although they’ve seen their share of abuse and neglect, the remaining structures are relatively true to their original form.The site is listed on State and National Historic Registers as an example of the cultural changes wrought by the extraordinary confluence of river, railroad and highway innovations. The site also provides links to the area’s abundant cultural resources to be found in historic villages and along scenic byways.
Open 10am – 4pm both days for trail visitors. Saturday, Nov. 6: Docent tour of grounds.
Sunday, Nov. 7: Riverside Fall Festival.
140 Route 46, Delaware
at the intersection with Ramseyburg Road
Roseberry-Gess House
Another set of brothers settled in Phillipsburg around 1750. John Roseberry gained stature when he married the daughter of William Phillips, for whom the town was named. In 1787, Roseberry added to his holdings with the acquisition of a home confiscated from John Tabor Kempe, a Loyalist who left town during the American Revolution. The Georgian house displayed gracious and symmetric proportions. Constructed with rough-cut quarry stone between 1765 and 1783, the house features a five-bay, two-story plan representative of an emerging prosperity in the Colonies. An attached one-and-a-half story kitchen was added in 1815.
Later, the home came into the possession of Walter Gess and his family, who preserved many of the original features of the house while modernizing it for their needs. In the early 1970s, the Phillipsburg School District, which purchased the property as part of the site for a new middle school, proposed demolition. But citizens campaigned for the rescue of the oldest building in town, having it placed on both the National and State Historic Registers. Persistent vandalism and general municipal apathy delayed much-needed repairs for decades. With renewed interest and help from the community, and with county, state and federal grants, the Phillipsburg Area Historical Society has facilitated major restorations to the exterior of the house, along with the complete interior reconstruction of the adjoining kitchen. The Society is now focused on projects to install heating for the planned use of the bank cellar and first floor, restoration of the first floor as well as ADA compliant bathroom and building access.
540 Warren Street, Phillipsburg
Phillipsburg Area Historical Society
Asbury
By 1784, two gristmills stood along the Musconetcong River at Halls Mills., named for their owner. That same year, English preacher, Francis Asbury, pledged Methodist loyalty to America, securing acceptance by George Washington and validation to spread Methodism throughout the New Jersey frontier and beyond. By the turn of the century, Halls Mills was renamed for Asbury, who, as the first American bishop, set the cornerstone for the United Methodist Church there in 1796. By 1807 there were about 40 homes in or near the village.
In 1865, an impressive stone mill rose to replace one of Hall’s originals, high above the river where it bends sharply to the southwest and with an imposing water wheel. One of the mill owner’s relatives was a local farm boy named Harry Riddle, who became intrigued by the growing industrial applications of graphite, a naturally occurring crystalline form of carbon that was finding ever more uses in the emergent metallurgy and manufacturing industries of the day.
Although graphite was not mined locally, Riddle knew where he could refine the crystals down to their useful slippery consistency. In 1895, he leased the flour mill, hired a miller and adapted the machinery to process graphite.Increasing the mill’s output fourfold in three years enabled him to purchase it outright in 1903, and buy a second mill across the river five years later. “Plant No. 2” became the primary workhorse for Asbury’s production, while the original mill saw intermittent use until its eventual closure in 1970.
In 1999, the Riddle family donated their original mill, along with three-and-a half acres of property and two other buildings to the Musconetcong Watershed Association (MWA). Removal of interior items other than the original mechanical milling assembly and with layers of graphite residue has taken years, but structural repair is near completion. New windows and Dutch doors have been installed to match the mill’s 1906 appearance and the building’s exterior stucco has been replaced except on the back wall, which was covered by a storage shed, and where an ADA compliant elevator tower will be built. Classroom and meeting space will eventually occupy the ground floor, along with exhibit space that will interpret early mill and agricultural technology. The upper floors will serve as MWA office space.
Come enjoy an activity station for children as well as some Covid-appropriate snacks during Trail Weekend!
10 Maple Ave, Asbury
Musconetcong Watershed Association
908/537-7060
Rutherfurd Hall
Rutherfurd Hall is representative of the American Country House Movement in the early 1900s, when the wealthy built great estates outside of hot, crowded cities. The Rutherfurd estate straddled Allamuchy and Green Townships in Warren and Sussex counties since 1758, when Walter Rutherfurd married Catherine Alexander and joined in ownership of this portion of her family’s extensive properties. Passed from generation to generation, the family holdings were greatly expanded at the end of the 19th Century by John Stuyvesant Rutherfurd (who changed his name to Rutherfurd Stuyvesant in order to qualify for a wealthy uncle’s inheritance) and his youngest brother, Winthrop Chanler Rutherfurd. John expanded Tranquillity Farms, increasing the ancestral estate to 5,000 acres and tripling the original 1763 house in size to what became known as the Stuyvesant Mansion. Winthrop (1862-1944) built the home known by the family as the “Big House,” Rutherfurd Hall, designed by Whitney Warren. The 18,000 square foot Tudor country house has 38 rooms and was built in 1902. Rutherfurd Hall’s brick exterior, and its interior woodwork, fireplaces, ceilings, and original furnishings, echo the English Tudor period, the cultural era to which the Rutherfurd family traces its lineage.
After Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd, mother of his five children, died in her late 20s, Winthrop married Lucy Mercer who later became something of a celebrity for her relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Rutherfurd Hall was preserved when owned by the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Charity beginning in the 1950s. It is a State and National Historic Landmark. The Order sold the property in 2008 to the Allamuchy Township Board of Education, shifting the estate from private to public ownership .The infirmary added by the nuns in 1959 is now a public elementary school, while the mansion, behind and adjacent, serves as a museum and educational facility, focusing on the history from 1902 to 1930 and serving as a venue for arts classes, lectures concerts, fairs and festivals Rutherfurd Hall.
Open on Saturday, Nov. 6, 11am – 4pm, for tours starting on the hour. Closed on Sunday, but visitors can do a self-guided tour on the exterior, overlooking Allamuchy Pond.
1686 Route 517, Allamuchy
Friends of Rutherfurd Hall
908/852-1894 x338
Moravian Village of Hope
When Moravian missionaries arrived at of Jenny Jump Mountain, they enjoyed the hospitality of Samuel Green Jr. and his family, who were so taken by the Moravians that they joined the faith and eventually offered 1,000 acres of their land on which to build the planned settlement called Hope. Founded in 1769, this village with its collection of fine old stone structures is, in itself, a museum. The Moravians constructed a gristmill with a race that diverted water from the Beaver Brook for its power, mechanics’ shops, a store, a distillery, tavern, tannery, and a church, along with private homes. Most of their buildings were sturdy stone structures, many of which have survived. The Moravians departed in 1808, but many of the buildings have been restored and adapted for commercial businesses or homes.
The Hope Historical Society first met in June 1954 in the old Moravian Mill. Their present, permanent, home is the “little house by the side of the road” on High Street (Route 519) next to the stone arch bridge over Beaver Brook. At the bicentennial of the founding of the village in 1969, the Society placed plaques on all homes and other buildings in the community that predated 1830.
After the village was named to the state and national Registers of Historic Places in 1976, residents decided a local historic ordinance and commission would be the best way to protect the historic structures. An inventory of Hope’s historic district found a number of deteriorating structures and inspired members of the historical society to form Help Our Preservation Effort (H.O.P.E.). The organization developed an archive and documented each historic structure within the district. Visitors can find a well-designed brochure for a self-guided walking tour of the village at the Hope Museum.
During Trail Weekend, there will be self-guided walking tours with representatives at prominent buildings to offer historical facts.
Vass Farmstead
One of Hardwick Township’s early settlers was John Vass, who was born (tradition tells us) at sea, during his parent’s immigration from Germany in 1764. Vass started life in Philadelphia but was, as a youth, indentured to a Hardwick resident. By 1802, he was a farmer with many children from three marriages. Vass purchased a farm of 550 acres including White Lake.and built a log cabin for the large family. After his third wife, Hannah, died in 1804, John married Margaretta Flock who produced six more children, including son, Isaac.
In 1812, Vass built a two-story cut stone house with four large fireplaces, a dining room, side hallway with a simple but elegant stairway and a double parlor. There were two large bedrooms and a birthing room on the second floor. An addition was added to the main block containing a dining room-kitchen. Later he roof was raised to provide more sleeping space. The main rooms were large with high ceilings..
John Vass was able to purchase six other farms where he placed each one of six sons to work. Upon his death he willed each farm to the son who was situated on it, and it was Isaac who acquired the original farmstead in 1852. During Isaac’s ownership the Knickerbocher Ice Company of Pennsylvania bought a small piece of property on the lake’s to build an ice house with a 20,000 ton capacity. The owners of the ice mill also processed marl, the white mineral product of shells on the lake bed. The lime-rich sediment was originally used as fertilizer and soon became an additive in the manufacture of cement.
The farmstead remained under Vass family ownership for more than 150 years, finally passing to dairy farmer, George Ripper, in 1922 A succession of owners who the property for various purposes. By the mid-1990s the house and barns, vacant for years, and had fallen into disrepair. The farm acreage and declining buildings were sold again in 1997 when the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, Warren County Freeholders, New Jersey Green Acres and several foundations pooled resources and deeded ownership to the Conservancy and the State of New Jersey.
Much of the site is under the control and supervision of the State Division of Fish and Wildlife. The Vass Homestead was entered into both the National and State Registers of Historic Places, in 1999. The Hardwick Township Historical Society has acquired a number of preservation grants in order to stabilize and preserve the house and barn. The Warren County Freeholders use White Lake for passive recreational pursuits and continue to partner with the Hardwick Township Historical Society in the preservation of the farmstead structures.
97 Stillwater Road (CR 521), Hardwick
Hardwick Historical Society
Blairstown
In 1839, the village of Gravel Hill renamed itself in honor of its most celebrated citizen, John Insley Blair. Around 1820, still in his teens, Blair moved to the hamlet and became a storekeeper. At age twenty-three, Blair became the postmaster of the local office and, at age twenty-six, he married Anne Locke with whom he established a homestead at Gravel Hill. Later, John I. became interested in flour and cotton production, eventually operating four flouring mills at one time and buying up real estate until and his local landholdings became substantial.
Blair’s life, which spanned more than 40% of America’s history,reflects the country’s development from a segmented rural society to a cohesive industrial nation designed in no small part by the railroad and financial networks that he facilitated. Despite his accomplishment as one of the world’s wealthiest men, (his fortune was equivalent to $43 billion in today’s money) Blair, known to townsfolk as “plain John I.,” sustained a simple, unembellished lifestyle in his beloved village.
The Blairstown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. Highlighted by the stone grist mill, built in 1825, almost half of the primary buildings within the District were built during John Blair’s lifetime, and the boom period following his construction of the Blairstown Railway in 1877. Since State Route 94 bypassed Main Street, buildings “in town” have suffered few contemporary updates. The two-story porches that remain on many of the storefronts are reminiscent of late 19th and early 20th century main streets. There is ample signage and a map/brochure for a walking tour.
November 6: Self-guided walking tour. Maps at Old Mill plaque, 12 Main Street.
November 7: Guided talks 12-3 pm. Meet at Old Mill
Blairstown Historic Preservation Committee
Shimer Mansion
It requires some imagination to envision the once-quiet place where the Shimer Mansion rose in 1850. Far from a remote house, it was built on a bluff overlooking the well-traveled Easton-Brunswick turnpike and was the centerpiece for a 120-acre rural estate about a half-mile east of Morris Canal Lock 10 in the Green’s Bridge section of Phillipsburg.
As it followed the Lopatcong Creek out of town, the canal was likely visible from the third story of the stylish Italianate residence, built by banker and gentleman farmer William B. Shimer. Some 150 years later the historic house stood abandoned until the Pohatcong History and Heritage Society took on stewardship through a generous donation by the Carpenter Family in 2015. The group is working to restore the property as a community center and gallery for local artists.
401 New Brunswick Ave, Phillipsburg
Pohatcong History and Heritage Society
Due to space constraints, Inside Warren edited portions of this article, which was provided to us.
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