Morristown National Historical Park

Morristown National Historical Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historical Park
New Jersey Register of Historic Places
The Wick House at Jockey Hollow
Location	At jct. of U.S. 202 and NJ 24, Morristown, New Jersey
Coordinates
Area	1,711 acres (6.92 km2)
Built	1744
Architectural style	Georgian, Cape Cod
Visitation	222,395 (2011)
NRHP Reference #	66000053
NJRHP #	3381
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHP	March 2, 1933
Designated NJRHP	May 27, 1971

Morristown National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park, consisting of three sites important during the American Revolutionary War: Jockey Hollow, the Ford Mansion, and Fort Nonsense.

The sites are located in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey, near the junction of U.S. Route 202 and New Jersey Route 24.

With its establishment in March 1933, Morristown became the country's first National Historical Park.

Sites

Jockey Hollow, a few miles south of Morristown, was the site of a Continental Army encampment. It was from here that the entire Pennsylvania contingent mutinied and later, 200 New Jersey soldiers attempted to emulate them.

Reconstructed troop cabins.

Fort Nonsense occupied a high hilltop overlooking Morristown, and is believed to have been the site of a signal fire, along with earthworks.

The Ford Mansion, in Morristown proper, was the site of the "hard winter" (December 1779 – May 1780) quarters of George Washington and the Continental Army. That winter remains the coldest on record for New Jersey. Theodosia Ford, widow of Jacob Ford Jr., and her four children shared their household with Washington, his staff, including Alexander Hamilton, along with their servants and sometimes, their family members. Martha Washington traveled to Morristown to spend the winter with her husband.

Washington's Headquarters Museum, the adjacent museum is open to the public Wednesday thru Sunday from September–June and seven days a week from July- August from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM. The museum has three exhibit rooms and a sales area. A video production "Morristown: Where America Survived" (New Jersey Network/2009) is shown. The Ford Mansion is shown only by guided tour which begin in the Museum.

Park history

In April 1932, the National Park Service (NPS) published a report recommending that the site of the Continental Army's winter encampments in 1776-77 and 1779-80 become a "Federal Historical Reserve"; the report included two sites: Jockey Hollow and the Ford Mansion.

In January 1933, a conference consisting of representatives of the NPS, the Secretary of the Interior, and civic and business leaders from the Morris County area, drafted a bill supporting the concept of a national historical park, with "the rank and dignity equal to the scenic program in the West."

The bill for creating the Morristown National Historical Park was submitted in mid-January (H.R. 14302; S. 5469), with the support of Secretary Ray Lyman Wilbur, who called it "the most important park project before this department at the present time."

In March 1933, in the last days of Herbert Hoover's presidency, the 72nd Congress established Morristown as the country's first National Historical Park.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Morris County, New Jersey
• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

External links

• National Park Service: Morristown National Historical Park
  • NPS Museum Exhibit: Morristown
• NJ Skylands: Morristown National Historical Park
• StateParks: Morristown National Historical Park
• NY-NJTC: Morristown National Historical Park Trail Details and Info