Historic Happenings Blog

Great Fall Perennial Plant Swap Saturday, September 22 - Plant intake from 8:30-10 a.m. & Plant selection from 10-11:30 a.m. Tatum Park, Middletown – Use Red Hill Road entrance.  Bring perennials in one-quart, one-gallon or two-gallon containers and take home the same size and number of plants. Please label all plants. Houseplants may also be exchanged, but no annuals please.  FREE!   

Friday, September 21 – Somerset County UNCORK YOUR CREATIVITY AT PAINT & SIP FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 AT THE JACOBUS VANDERVEER HOUSE     Bedminster, NJ… Relax and unwind with friends while learning to paint with professional artist and educator Priscilla Flores, Friday, September 21, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Bedminster’s historic Jacobus Vanderveer House & Museum. Participants will learn painting styles and techniques, while creating their own masterpieces using acrylics on canvas. Cost of the program is $35. Museum members $25. Includes supplies for painting and sipping. Registration required.  Visit  https://jvanderveerhouse.givezooks.com/events/copy-of-paint-and-sip   or call 908-396-6053.     Priscilla Flores is a visual artist and New Jersey-certified art educator, working with paint, photography and clay. She has instructed students throughout Somers...

Open House Barn Dance Friday, September 21 from 7-9:30 p.m. Thompson Park Activity Barn, Lincroft Give square dancing a try during this fun, family-friendly barn dance. Open to ages 12 and up; under 18 with adult.  FREE! 

Constitution Week Presentation and Exhibition Welcome remarks from New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way Dr. Jonathan Mercantini, Acting Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Kean University, speaking on William Livingston and the New Jersey delegation to the federal constitutional convention Friday 21 September, 11am New Jersey State Archives 225 West State Street, 2nd Floor Trenton, New Jersey — The New Jersey State Archives and the New Jersey Historical Commission are holding two observances for Constitution Week. Led by the New Jersey State Archives and the New Jersey Historical Commission, the celebration begins Monday, September 17th, with an exhibition of the first page of New Jersey’s 1787 Ratification of the United States Constitution. This beautiful parchment contains the full text of our country’s charter, beginning with the iconic words “We the People …” The display will be located in the State Archives’ Manuscript Reading Room on the 2nd Floor of 22...

Thursday, September 20 – Mercer County Pulitzer Prize Finalist Alice McDermott: The Ninth Hour  discussion/signing Thursday, September 20, 7:00 p.m. $15.00,  includes  paperback copy of  The Ninth Hour In collaboration with the Princeton Public Library, Morven is delighted to present National Book Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize Finalist Alice McDermott for the paperback release of her critically-acclaimed  The Ninth Hour,  “haunting and vivid portrait of an Irish Catholic clan in early twentieth-century America” ( The Associated Press ). Morven Museum and Gardens, 55 Stockton Street, Princeton; 609-924-8144

Tuesday, September 18 – Morris County Madison Historical Society Presents “Reading Thomas Jefferson’s Mail.” On Tuesday, September 18,  Dr. Barbara Oberg will speak at the Madison Historical Society on the “Reading Thomas Jefferson’s Mail.”  Dr. Oberg’s presentation will take place in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library beginning at 7:15 PM. Light refreshments will be available from 7:00. The presentation is open to the public, and there is no admission charge. Dr. Oberg’s will discuss what we learn from reading Jefferson’s correspondence, which is what she says her job as the General Editor of  The Papers of Thomas Jefferson  has been about. As she observes, “Some of those he got when he was President were absolutely nutty; some were very serious, as he wrote about the early days of the American nation; some are personal and very touching.”      The Thomas Jefferson Papers was the nation'...

  Monday, Septem ber 17 -- Essex County Martin Luther King, Newark, and the Cool Spring of 1968  at 6pm Panel Discussion led by Mark Krasovic, PhD in The Chase Room, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, NJ. Please RSVP by September 13 to  NewarkHistorySoc@gmail.com Open to the public at no charge.

September 17 -- Hunterdon County Fashion During WW 1 Presented by the Monday Clothing Group  at the Red Mill. We will show you wonderful examples of Downton Abbey-type dresses from this time worn right here in Hunterdon County.  Do you have some family clothing you could share at the meeting?  56 Main Street, Clinton; 908-735-4101

  Tuesday, September 25 – Morris County     Janet W. Foster Presents Pattern Books: Printed Precedents in American Architecture     Morristown and Morris Township Library hosts noted architectural historian and teacher Janet W. Foster on Tuesday, September 25 th  at 7 p.m. in the library’s lower level meeting room.  Books, serial publications, and advertisements play an outsize role in the transmission of architectural ideas and innovations in America. Since the first Georgian-inspired houses of the 18th century appeared in colonial settlements, Americans have been using printed sources.  Often grafted onto deeper traditional building practice and locally available materials, the result is a creative and distinct architecture that influenced housing, civic buildings, and religious buildings up to the Second World War. Janet W. Foster will explore the role of pattern books, particularly ...

Sunday, September 16  - Westfield, Union County Penmanship & the Quill at the Miller-Cory House Museum What did we do in the days before word processing, texting, and spell check? In early America, learning to write properly took much practice and involved many materials and techniques. On Sunday from 2:00 - 4:00 pm, this program includes a display of early writing implements; children may try their hand at writing with a quill pen.  Admission is $4.00 for ages 13 and older, $3.00 ages 3 to 12 and free under age 3. The Miller-Cory House Museum is located at 614 Mountain Avenue in Westfield, NJ. For more information, call 908-232-1776 or visit  www.millercoryhouse.org .

Sunday, September 16 – Morris County Poets in the Garden 2:00 pm $10 per adult, FREE for members Rain or shine      Award-winning poets David Petruzelli and Professor Gail Holst-Warhaft share their work at Macculloch Hall, 45 Macculloch Avenue, Morristown .    Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy a selection of poetry. In the event of rain or excessive heat, program will be held in the Schoolroom Gallery.    For more information, please visit our  website , http://www.maccullochhall.org/summer-sundays/ Sunday, September 16  - Morristown, Morris County Poets in the Garden  On Sunday at 2:00 pm, award winning poets David Petruzelli and Professor Gail Holst-Warhaft share their work in Poets in the Garden at Macullouch Hall . David Petruzelli grew up in New Jersey. He is the author of  Everyone Coming Toward You  (Tupelo Press, 2005), selected by Campbell McGrath for the Tupelo Pres...

Sunday, September 16 – Union County     The Union Township Historical Society will host Rich Rosenthal at Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church on Sunday, September 16, at 2 pm. Rich will speak on  "The Precedents of the *Prefident – George Washington and the Creation of the Executive Office."       When George Washington was about to become the first President under the new U. S. Constitution, he said, “I walk on untrodden ground to shape America.” That he did! Every action as President--from the inaugural oath, through the establishment of the U. S. Treasury and financial system, to the creation of the Coast Guard, cabinet meetings, appointment of ambassadors and Supreme Court justices, his dealings with Congress, to his refusal to run for a third term--was a precedent.  There can only be one Number One--and George Washington was that Number One, setting the guidelines for all f...

Sunday, September 16  -  Morris Township, Morris County 1920s Country Fair & Harvest Festival Come one, come all to the country fair  at Fosterfields Living Historical Farm  with farm animals, wagon-rides, food trucks, live music, crafts, exhibits, demonstrations, period games, wood-burning cook stove demos, and hands-on activities. This annual event attracts hundreds of people! Fun for the entire family from  12:00 noon - 5:00 pm. Admission: $8 per adult, $7 per senior (65+), $6 per child age 4 - 16, $4 per child age 2 & 3. FREE per child under age 2. Friends members are half price with a current membership card.  Fosterfields Living Historical Farm is located at 73 Kahdena Road, Morristown, NJ. For more information, visit  www.morrisparks.net .

Saturday - Sunday,  September 15 - 16  - Cape May, Cape May County Civil War Weekend at Historic Cold Spring Village The Civil War comes to life at Historic Cold Spring Village’s annual Civil War Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, from 10:00 am - 4:30 pm. Visitors can tour Union and Confederate camps and meet authentically clad and equipped military and civilian reenactors who will discuss the everyday lives of Civil War soldiers and the roles civilians played in supporting them. Stirring battle reenactments will occur both days at 2:00 pm, and vendors of reproduction period merchandise will be found on “Sutler’s Row.” The Village, which re-creates a rural community in the 1800s, serves as the perfect backdrop in presenting this event to the public. The Village is located on Route 9, three miles north of Victorian Cape May and a mile and a half west of the southern terminus of the Garden State Parkway. Admission during the season is $14 for adults and $12 for children ages 3 to...

Saturday - Sunday, September 15 - 16 - Hardwick, Warren County Millbrook Days at Millbrook Village Are you tired of the fast pace of the 21st century? Step back to a quieter time where the high price of gas, credit cards, cell phones, and computers are not found. Experience Millbrook Days where Millbrook Village comes alive as it was over a century ago on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Volunteers in period clothing will demonstrate 19th century crafts and trades recreating the atmosphere of a late 19th century rural farming community. Try the stilts, jump rope or roll the hoop. There will be kid’s games throughout the village. Marbles, checkers, ring toss, tug of war, sack race and corn husk doll making to name a few. Kids of all ages can join the fun. No batteries needed! Millbrook’s “residents” will be busy plying their trades and doing everyday chores and activities. Woodstove cooking, butter churning, spinning yarn, weaving, natural dyes, gardening, lace making, ...

Sunday, September 16  - Raritan Township, Hunterdon County The Dark Side of the Sourland Mountains  Learn all about the sordid history of the Sourland Mountains in a free program by East Amwell Historian Jim Davidson on Sunday at 10:00 am during the Hunterdon Land Trust Farmers’ Market. “Up until recent times the Sourlands were not only inhospitable, but downright dangerous to wander around in,” Davidson said. “They did not get the nickname ‘the hills of missing men’ or ‘the Bermuda Triangle of Central Jersey’ for nothing.” The Dark Side of the Sourland Mountains features fascinating tales of missing men, bootlegging, and murders. Davidson will describe the ax murders of Richard Wyckoff and his housekeeper and the infamous Put's Tavern. You’ll also learn why Charles Sutphin warned Charles Lindbergh not to build on the mountain, along with some of the strange, little known events associated with the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. This program will run in the Dvoor Farm wagon h...

Saturday,  September 15  - Cape May, Cape May County Ghosts of Cape May Trolley Tour Family Friendly Take this spine-tingling, 30-minute evening trolley ride through the streets of Cape May with a guide who relates the paranormal findings of medium Craig McManus on Saturday at 9:00 pm. Admission is $12 for adults, $8 for children (ages 3-12). Tours leave from the Washington Street Mall Information Booth at Ocean Street. Sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC). For more information, call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278 or visit  www.capemaymac.org . ----------------------------------- Saturday,  September 15   - Cape May, Cape May County Underground Railroad Trolley Tour On Saturday at 10:15 am, c limb aboard our newest trolley tour to hear true tales of Cape May’s connection to the Underground Railroad. Hear how enslaved people in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia braved strong currents and stormy seas to free themselves, gu...