By Somerset County Board of Freeholders
Looking for a unique but inexpensive family outing? Somerset County’s Weekend Journey through the Pastnot only offers you and your family free admission to 26 historic sites throughout the county, but all sites are close to home.
Participating sites, listed below, will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10. Admission to all locations is free of charge.
“In addition to being a fun and educational outing for adults and children alike, the Weekend Journey gives us a chance to highlight the progress made on the restoration of some of our historic sites,” said Freeholder Patrick Scaglione, liaison to the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission.
This year’s tour includes three sites – the Brick Academy in Bernards, the Andrew Ten Eyck House in Branchburg and the Van Veghten House in Bridgewater – where significant restoration work has been done since last year. “We’re pleased to be able to share our pride in preserving and continuing to make these gems available to future generations,” Freeholder Scaglione said.
This autumn weekend will feature interpreted tours led by costumed docents; special collections and exhibitions; period military drills and re-enactments; traditional blacksmithing; 19th-century firefighting wagons and apparatus; a gravestone-carver re-enactor discussing the folk art of gravestone carving and the significance of traditional motifs; opening of a new exhibition, “Swing with Hollywood and the Stars,” at the U.S. Golf Association Museum; music, arts and crafts; period-dance performances; antiques sales; guidance for genealogical research; daily chores of 18th-century life; colonial games for children; military history; demonstrations; local-history videos; live theatre; participatory activities; interesting period architecture; and access to some sites not generally open to the public.
Be sure to enter the wayfarer’s quiz to win a $25 pre-paid gasoline gift card. Anyone who visits four or more participating historic sites on Oct. 9 and 10 is eligible for the prize drawing. Answers to the wayfarers’ quiz are prominently posted at individual participating sites. Offered again this year will be a convenient on-line entry form at www.SCHistoryWeekend.com
Printed guides identifying participating sites, locations and interesting facts about each will be available at all sites during the weekend to guide your journey. For advance details, along withsuggested tours, travel directions and contest information, visit the official event website at www.SCHistoryWeekend.com.
With the money you’ll save on admission and gasoline, you might consider stopping along the way between site visits for a leisurely lunch or dinner as you journey through Somerset County’s beautiful countryside in its autumn splendor.
So, mark your calendar and invite your children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors to join you on this enjoyable journey back in time at any or all of the following 2010 participating sites:
– Bedensville School House, Skillman (Montgomery)
– Boudinot-Southard-Ross Property, Basking Ridge (Bernards)
– Brick Academy, Basking Ridge (Bernards)
– Codington Farmstead, Warren
– First Reformed Church of Rocky Hill
– Gen. John Frelinghuysen House/Raritan Public Library, Raritan
– 1830 Griggstown School House, Princeton (Franklin)
– Kennedy-Martin Stelle Farmstead, Basking Ridge (Bernards)
– Kirch-Ford Terrell House, Warren
– Mount Bethel Meeting House, Warren
– Old Millstone Forge Blacksmith Shop & Museum, Millstone
– Old Presbyterian Graveyard, Bound Brook
– Relief Hose Co. No. 2/Raritan Firehouse, Raritan
– Daniel Robert Mansion/Somerville Borough Hall, Somerville
– South Branch School House, Branchburg
– Abraham Staats House, South Bound Brook
– Andrew Ten Eyck House, Branchburg
– U.S. Golf Association Museum/Frothingham Mansion, Far Hills
– Jacobus Vanderveer House, Bedminster
– Van Horne House, Bridgewater
– Van Veghten House, Bridgewater
– Vermeule Mansion, North Plainfield
– Vermeule-Mundy House, Green Brook
– Wallace House, Somerville
– Washington Rock, Green Brook
– Wyckoff-Garretson House, Somerset (Franklin)
This popular annual event, now in its fifth year, is an initiative of the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission in collaboration with representatives of many local historical organizations and municipalities, the Somerset County Board of Freeholders, the Somerset County Business Partnership, artists and arts organizations, and the local tourism industry.
Funding has been made possible, in part, from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, through the Arts in Non-Traditional Venues continuing initiative of Somerset County’s State/County Partnership Local Arts Program.

