For past Newsletters click here
Current Newsletter: December 2024
View From the Porch
The first quarter of our 2024-2025 program year got off to a flying start
on September 25th when the Historical Society, in conjunction with Saving Historic Moorestown, sponsored a Witness House tour throughout the town. Witness Houses are buildings that were standing at the time of the American Revolution and so were “witnesses” to the many events that took place in Moorestown during our nation’s War of Independence. The house tour was designed by the two organizations to accomplish two primary goals — in addition to raising some much needed funds for both groups. First, to call residents’ attention to the importance of protecting buildings that are historically important to the town. As I mentioned in the last newsletter, there are a number of such buildings that could be at risk of demolition and, based on the feedback we received from those who attended the tours, the event served to raise awareness of their plight.
The second goal of the event was to kick-off the town’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. The Historical Society and the Township of Moorestown are partners with RevolutionNJ — a statewide organization whose goal is to help communities effectively tell true accounts of our history. A group made up of members of Township service organizations has begun meeting to plan out how we will celebrate this momentous occasion.
In all, over 500 people visited the homes on the tour, including the Smith-Cadbury Mansion, the home of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, the French-Hollingshead home, the town’s oldest, on Camden Ave., and the Cowperthwaite house on Kings Highway. See page 3 for more details about this event.
No sooner had the Trustees and volunteers come up for air than the annual Living History and Ghost Tours kicked off on Friday, October 11th. Under the leadership of Gary Ell and Julie Maravich, this year’s event attracted nearly one thousand visitors, many of whom were not from Moorestown, making it a big lift to the town’s economy as the attendees looked for places to eat and shop while waiting for their tours to begin. Once again, this year, many volunteers participated to make the event a success. Some volunteers played the roles of the historic ghosts, while others helped with set- up, clean-up, and registering attendees.
It does not appear that things are slowing down any time soon as we hit the winter months. On December 3rd, our New Jersey History Speaks lecture series will resume with a presentation by the team that is working on the West End Community Center Oral History Project (see page 2). On the following day, December 4th, Smith-Cadbury will be a stop on the 58th edition of the Cooks Tour. [Click here for tickets!]
This will be followed up by our annual Holiday Party on Friday, December 6th. Visit www.moorestownhistory.org for more information and be on the lookout for an invitation in your email.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Historical Society I would like to wish you all a happy holiday season.
Lenny Wagner, President
Lwagner559@comcast.net
To view a color PDF of this December 2024 Newsletter click here.
Top right: Model of Smith-Cadbury Mansion, built by Bill Rose. Image shows north side of the house with the restored side porch.
