A Historical New Jersey Day

After a couple days at the Jersey Shore, we moved the motor home 32 miles in-land to full-hookups at Timberland Lake Campground near Cream Ridge, New Jersey. That puts us right in the center of the state. While staying in central New Jersey, we have a road trip planned to visit some historical sites. The first stop is Trenton, where we found another state house undergoing some major renovation. In fact, the entire front of the state capitol is shrouded in scaffolding with a backhoe digging up the front lawn. We have seen pictures of the glittering gold dome of this state house, but it was under wraps today. The capitol wasn't exactly looking its best for our visit.

It isn't just the front facade that is undergoing major work. Our tour guide took us to this side view, where she explained that the New Jersey capitol has been added to like leg-o blocks over the years. It looks like the leg-os don't fit together very well, as we saw different styles and colors of exteriors in the additions. Because New Jersey has chosen to add on instead of starting over with a whole new state house, this is the second oldest continuously used state capitol in the U.S. Maybe when all of the renovation is over, it will be beautiful.

We did get to tour most of the inside of the building, including both houses of the legislation.

This elaborate light fixture in the senate is one of the crown jewels of the entire state house. It is so big that it has to be lowered to the ground to change bulbs and clean it.

The senate looks like a very ornate marble room, but we would find out later that New Jersey cut some corners when they built their capitol.

For example, they cut some space up in the gallery of the Senate. Mark couldn't sit here long with his knees jammed into the back of the seat in front of him.

We also found that the marble wasn't really marble. It is actually scagliola, a method of painting a surface to make it look like marble. When we looked more carefully, we could see seams down the back of this "marble" column that was cracking apart.

The tour guide explained that much of what looks like wood is not wood. This is actually concrete, painted to look like wood--on top of the concrete painted to look like marble.

The central dome section of the state house was--you guessed it--closed to the public because of renovation. We have a picture because our tour guide gave us a postcard with a picture of the rotunda. 

She mentioned (and we have to agree) that the color choices in the dome make is look like a fried egg.

We've read that Amish quilts always include a misplaced square because only God is perfect. The craftsman working on the state house must have agreed with that philosophy. You can look at the stair case rail to see the imperfection.

This stain glass window is actually on the ceiling of a public area in the capitol. It includes some of New Jersey's most famous landmarks. We could use this window as a check list of places we hope to visit before we leave the state.

"What is New Jersey" is the answer to the Jeopardy question "From what state capitol can you see another state out the window?" Through that window down the hall in the New Jersey state house we could see Pennsylvania. That question was actually used on the Jeopardy game show.

After our state house tour, we explored the downtown area of Trenton. Across the street is the state's World War II memorial, honoring the "greatest generation" of veterans.

We also stopped by the New Jersey State Museum, and then The Old Barracks Museum. We could have spent much more time seeing the historical sights of Trenton, but we had more places to explore in western New Jersey.

Our next stop would take us over one of the narrowest two-way bridges we have ever crossed. We almost touched mirrors with the vehicles we were meeting as we crossed this river bridge. We're sure glad that we were in the pickup today, instead of the motor home. By crossing that bridge, we were in Pennsylvania.

That bridge is crossing the Delaware River, and that is why we are here. This is where General George Washington's army of 2,400 continental soldiers crossed this river on December 25, 1776. He devised that plan to secretly move his troops to surprise attack the enemy troops camped 9 miles away on the other side of the river in Trenton.

We are visiting the Washington Crossing Park, a Pennsylvania state and national historical site. It includes some old buildings that are currently undergoing refurbishment thanks to the Toyota Foundation. 

A few displays were open, including the barn where the Durham boats are housed. We got to see examples of these boats that were used for that night-time river crossing in 1776.

We watched the film at the visitor center, and learned a lot about that trip across the Delaware River, and its ramification to the American Revolution. Up to this time, the new American army had lost all of its battles to the better trained and equipped British forces. We have seen the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware in our history books at school, and it was part of the film. It was interesting that a display also noted the inaccuracies in this famous painting. A few of them are: ice forms in sheets on the Delaware, not chunks like painted; these Durham boats were designed to haul cargo--not people--so no seats were in the boats, so everyone would have been standing; a boat this size couldn't have held that many passengers; the "Betsy Ross flag" in the painting was not used by the army at this time; etc.

We crossed that narrow bridge again, to put us back in New Jersey and the Washington Crossing state park. It was 4:00 a.m. when the Continental Army assembled again on this side of the Delaware River to begin their nine-mile march to Trenton to battle the British forces. 

A raging winter storm made things more difficult for these tired and hungry and very cold soldiers. They weren't allowed to light fires to warm up, or even to speak lest the enemy forces should learn of their advances. They marched through this very path on that night that would change history. It was a very educational and inspirational visit!

On this day filled with historical visits, we are now headed to the Howell Living History Farm. This has been a working farm for over 200 years. When the Howell family donated it to this New Jersey county, they agreed to keep it running and looking like it did around 1900.

A working farm has to have a milk cow, and we arrived about the time she needed to be milked.

A working farm needs horses to pull plows and wagons, and these were beautifully brawny animals.

A working farm needs chickens, and these hens have been working all day long.

We were there when the eggs needed to be gathered, and they asked Denisa to help. We found 12 eggs this afternoon. Denisa hasn't gathered eggs since she was a little girl visiting her grandparents' farm.

A working farm needs a herd of sheep, and these woolly creatures were looking for shade with their wool coats on this warm summer afternoon.

One thing a working farm in 1900 doesn't have is air-conditioning. We enjoyed our time at this working farm that Mercer county provides as free to visitors. They seemed very happy to have us this afternoon, but we were hot and ready to move on to our next location.

We moved on to another historical site--the Clarke family farm just outside the city of Princeton, New Jersey. After the battle win in Trenton after Washington's crossing of the Delaware, the two forces met again here on January 3, 1777.

It was in this open field in front of the Clark house that the Battle of Princeton was fought. We are running into lots of American Revolutionary historical sights here in New Jersey.

Princeton, New Jersey, is probably best known for the historical university that has been here since 1746. 

We finally found a parking place, and then took a walk around this campus filled with beautiful Gothic buildings.

We didn't have a guide or a map, as we wandered from one historical building to the next. It is evening by now, so we have no guidance from the visitor center.

But it was pretty easy to find the centerpiece of the campus--the Princeton University Chapel. This building is huge, and you can barely see Denisa standing on the right side of the big front doors. We had read about its beautiful interior and stain glass windows. But it was closed except to students with IDs. So we were forced to admire it from the outside.

While the buildings are lovely, we were surprised that the grounds were so plain. It has been a dry and hot summer here in New Jersey, and the grass on campus was brown and crispy. The only flowers we found was this bed of handsome lilies.

This has been a very full and busy historical New Jersey day. We've seen the state capitol city, Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, a 1900's working farm, the battlefield from the Battle of Princeton, and toured an Ivy League campus. Whew--we're worn out! Who knew that history could be so tiring?!?