Wednesday, April 16, 2014

TAVERN TOUR ALERT -- MAY 10TH, STOCKTON INN

The Tricentennial Tavern Tour seems to have a life of its own and a growing fan club.  We have disappointed a lot of people, sadly, with the limited number of seats available at each tour. 




Good news:  the Stockton Inn Tavern Tour, offered on May 10th, has 15 more seats than prior tours.  That's good news for folks who want to go and good news for those of us trying to make everyone happy!




Also, our intrepid Tavern Tour du Force (come on -- that was a most excellent groaner!!), Pete Kinsella, is also working hard to create additional Tour opportunities not listed on our Campanelli Calendar nor on our website.... yet!




STOCKTON INN TAVERN TOUR: THE DETAILS:


Join us as we ramble down to south county, the Borough of Stockton, home to that most famous wishing well.... We'll meet up at that small hotel at noon.  Feasting on another wonderful menu created especially for the Tricentennial Committee, we'll be treated to a double feature of talks:  David Reading, a direct descendant of Governor John Reading, will offer a history of the early settlement of Stockton and environs, and Dennis Bertland (see more about Dennis below) will tell three fascinating true tales of the Stockton Inn.  Intrigued?  maybe intrigue!




We're holding the cost for the third tour to $40 per person, and of course we prefer cash and checks.


When, you ask, are tickets going to be going on sale?  Saturday April 19th at the Flemington Choir School, 3 Chorister Place, Flemington.  We do NOT take advanced reservations for these tours.  The Choir School will be opened at 9:30 am that morning to accommodate the rush.  It closes at it's usual 2 pm -- but, we assume all of the tickets will have sold by then.  Our website will post the sold out status as soon as we can once tickets are gone.




Tour number 1 sold out in 3 hours; Tour number 2 sold out in 2 hours..... hopefully with 55 tickets available, they will last a little while longer.......?
If you get frozen out of the Tavern Tour or just don't want to spend $40 -- You can spend a morning with Dennis Bertland --- yes, the SAME Dennis Bertland for FREE-- where? when? how? you ask:  APRIL 19TH!  INSTEAD OF TRYING TO GET TAVERN TOUR TICKETS GO FOR A HISTORIC WALK - VILLAGE OF COKESBURY As part of the Hunterdon County Tricentennial Celebration, please join us for a Walking Tour of the Cokesbury Historic District, sponsored by the Clinton Township Historical Preservation Commission and the Tewksbury Township Historic Preservation Commission. The tour will begin with a talk by Dennis Bertland, the Historic Preservation consultant for both municipalities, in the meeting room of the Cokesbury Methodist Church at 9:30 am.  The talk will cover the origins of the village and its development as a local hub of commerce for the surrounding agricultural community.
A walking tour of the village will follow, with Dennis Bertland pointing out various historic structures and brief histories of them. Following the tour attendees are invited back to the church for refreshments and a question and answer period. Handouts with highlighted information will be available. Please contact Ted Bozzi, Chairman of the Clinton Township Historic Preservation Commission for additional information.
Meet at the Cokesbury Methodist Church, 230 Cokesbury Road, Lebanon, NJ 08833
9:30am-12pm
FREE

Friday, April 11, 2014

"MAY" We Entice You? NEW TICKETS AVAILABLE!

May has brought Hunterdon County more than just flowers!  We have new events available now!  Now ticketing all of May EXCEPT the Tavern Tour --- SORRY... you just have to be patient!




If you've been enjoying our Migration Settlement Pattern Series, the last two of six are now available:  Stephanie Stevens, a renowned expert on the Dutch settlement in Hunterdon -- the earliest settlers of Hunterdon County -- will speak to us on May 13th.  This is an extraordinary opportunity to hear one of the Country's -- NOT just County's experts on this topic. 




May 20th brings the last of the Migration Pattern with the South County Settlement of (Coryell's Ferry) Lambertville and the other tiny river communities as told through their important role during the Revolutionary War by Lambertville Historians John and Barbara Hencheck.




We have a beautiful, provocative lecture with our special municipal partners at the Holland Township Historical Society on "The Spirit of Place" on Friday night, May 2nd.... come out to West County and have dinner in one of our lovely river towns' cafes, restaurants or bistros and then head to the talk at the Reigel Ridge Community Center in Milford (Holland Township)... dessert is compliments of our friends at Shop Rite.




Our great friends Dan and Marty Campanelli who made our gorgeous calendar and Dan of course painted "Blue Skies" for us -- the signed and numbered watercolor of the Courthouse (fyi, we still have about 100 of these left -- a great gift that will only become more valuable over time!) are also experts in the topic of Hunterdon County (and New Jersey) samplers -- those little squares of linen stitched out by young women (and some young men!) as part of their education.  Dan and Marty are curating a major exhibit of New Jersey samplers for Morven Museum after their successful show and book on Hunterdon's Historic SamplersThis is their FIRST public lecture on the topic!  And we have it exclusively for the Hunterdon Tricentennial!


Finally, in celebration of National Poultry and Egg Month -- and in celebration of Hunterdon's agricultural roots, we bring you a tour and talk at the Flemington Old Egg Auction -- a venerable place this blogger remembers walking to with her grandma to get fresh eggs!  Entitled "Egg-citing History" (we just love those groaners!) we are sure that there will be lots of old timers present who actually had a family stall to sell their eggs and will chime in with a few good tales of their own.  This one is not to be missed and that is no yolk!  And we promise: ticketing for the next Tavern Tour -- Stockton Inn -- IS coming soon!







Thursday, April 3, 2014

Lindbergh Tours! Lindbergh Play! and more.....

78 YEARS AGO TODAY, APRIL 3RD, BRUNO HAUPTMANN WAS EXECUTED FOR THE KIDNAPPING AND MURDER OF CHARLES LINDBERGH, JR......


THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY CHANGED FLEMINGTON FOREVER AND PUT HUNTERDON COUNTY ON THE MAP.  LITERALLY.


THE HUNTERDON TRICENTENNIAL'S "TWO WEEKS OF LINDBERGH" continue at the end of April and May with two very significant events:  Lindbergh House and Kidnapping Tours and the fabulous play "Charles Lindbergh: The Lone Eagle".



GOING ON SALE IN THE AFTERNOON OF APRIL 4:



On Friday, April 25 and Friday, May 2, two tour groups (a 9:30 am and 1:30 pm tour) will board our bus for a special ride back in history to the early 1930s in Hunterdon County.  Led by Lindbergh expert Jim Davidson, you will enter the house and see where Charles, Sr., Anne and baby Charles, Jr. lived.  Jim will also show us where the ladder was placed and describe the kidnapping.  We will then travel to see where Charles, Jr.'s body was found and, while Jim holds our attention with riveting stories about the kidnapping case, take us to see the homes of various person associated with the case.  Snacks will be provided on this trip.  There is a $5 per person fee.  We should be back to our cars by noon. 





The Lindbergh House is under the operation of the State of New Jersey and has very limited access and no longer allows visitors on weekends.  Consequently, we are working on securing two more Fridays this summer to allow families to bring their children and teenagers on the tour while they are out of school on break.  Reservations may be made through our website www.hunterdon300th.org or by calling us at (908) 788-2030, but will only be confirmed upon receipt of payment.




PLEASE NOTE:  THERE ARE VERY LIMITED RESERVATIONS BEING TAKEN FOR THE HOUSE TOURS; IF YOU CANNOT GET TICKETS NOW, PLEASE KNOW WE ARE WORKING ON TWO MORE TOUR DATES FOR THIS SUMMER WITH FOUR MORE OPPORTUNITIES.  PEOPLE SIGNED UP ON OUR WAITING LIST WILL GET PRIORITY FOR ANY ADDITIONAL LINDBERGH TOURS ADDED.














On Saturday night, May 3rd at 7 pm and Sunday afternoon, May 4th at 3 pm, join us for an extraordinary One Man Show that the Tricentennial Committee brought up from Florida!  "Charles Lindbergh: The Lone Eagle" is an amazing production where actor Steve Carroll brings Charles Lindbergh to life.  Reeve Lindbergh, the last surviving child of Charles and Anne and President of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, wrote Mr. Carroll to express her thanks after attending a command performance of the play in New York at the 75th anniversary of her father's famous flight to Paris.  "I was indeed impressed by your performance, which I found moving and very thoughtful, with a fresh perspective on my father," Lindbergh wrote.  "It meant a lot to me.  It makes people think."




This is NOT the kidnapping trial show that played at the Historic Courthouse for years.  This show is in two acts: the first act about Lindbergh's early years, learning to fly, barnstorming, finally his daring feat of crossing the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis to his marriage to Anne Morrow.  The first act ends with the happy couple building Highgrove House in Hopewell NJ and having their first child, Charles, Jr.  Act Two opens with the kidnapping and trial.  It continues into the darker years of Lindbergh: the allegations of his Nazi affiliations and his extra marital affairs.  Tickets are available at the North Branch of the County Library, the Main Branch of the County Library, the County Clerk's Office at the Hall of Records and at the Flemington Choir School (Saturday's only).  Tickets are $10 for adults; $5 for children; and there are 13 special jury seats per performance for $15 each -- the ultimate Lindbergh experience as these are the original jury seats during the trial itself!




We mentioned Jim Davidson as our tour guide; don't forget to reserve your seats for the 5 free lectures Jim is giving at the historic Courthouse.  About half of the tickets have been taken and you don't want to miss this series!






One more Lindbergh bit:  Saturday afternoon, May 3rd, between the hours of 3 pm and 6:30 pm, the Flemington Methodist Church on the corner of Main and Maple is having an open house.  This church hosted and fed the Lindbergh press corps and a host of hundreds of visitors coming to Flemington.  The will have a Lindbergh display and memorabilia available to be viewed and our friend, John Newton who played Lindbergh in the play about the trial, will be around to discuss Lindbergh's life and the trial.  Refreshments will be available and this is free to the public.  Whether you have tickets to the Saturday night show or not, stop by and see the church where Walter Winchell and many other prominent newspaper and radio personalities hung out.






An extra for April:  we have added a new lecture on Sunday afternoon, April 13 entitled "Voices in 1778:  The American Army in Hunterdon:  Prelude to the Battle of Monmouth" -- this is going to prove to be a very provocative and perhaps controversial discussion -- fun, right!




And please don't forget that April is National Poetry Month and we have a fabulous free night of great poetic tributes to our County of Hunterdon on April 26.  This is going to be a wonderful evening and we suggest you have a lovely dinner in the County Seat first and then stroll over to the Historic Courthouse for the poetry reading.  Dessert is on us afterwards thanks to our super friends at Shop Rite!