EAST AMWELL — Five historic buildings will be on display when the East Amwell Historical Society conducts its first-ever holiday house tour on Sunday, Dec. 8.
The bus leaves the township hall parking lot at 2 p.m. for this two-hour tour. The final stop will be the Harvest Moon Inn on Old York Road, the former site of the Amwell Academy.
Tickets are $25 each, and all proceeds benefit the Historical Society. Prepaid reservations are required. To reserve a seat on the bus and for information, call Jim Davidson at 609-644-2592 or [email protected].
The tour features four private homes, which will be decorated for the season:
— The stone 1750 Landis House on Old York Road. Built by Henry Landis, this home is best known as the place where the Marquis de Lafayette recuperated and was treated by Dr. Gershom Craven.
— On Linvale Road the bus will stop at the Thomas Whitson home, also built around 1750. Quaker meetings were held here until his death in 1762. In 1850 a living room wing was added and it became a center hall colonial. Magnificent fireplaces, wide floorboards and newer additions will show off the holiday decorations.
— The Jacob S. Manners house, which dates back to 1840. Located in the village of Wertsville, the building was originally a two-family house until renovated nearly 20 years ago. Two additions to the original house give it warmth and charm and show off its antique furniture and collection of Santa Clauses and pottery.
— An Orchard Road house built atop a massive stone foundation of a barn that dates back to 1878. The first floor features an arched stone ceiling that was part of the original barn. The first owners chiseled their names in the stone. This stop will include a visit to a barn, which will be decorated for the holidays for its two horses.
The final stop is at Harvest Moon Inn for refreshments. The building is the former site of the Amwell Academy and was constructed in 1830 with stone hauled from Sandy Ridge and the Sourland Mountain. It closed in 1830, but reopened roughly 40 years later by the Dr. Cornelius Larison and his brother, the Rev. Andrew Larison, who christened the building “The Seminary of Ringoes.” This school operated until 1881.
Many of the older homes in this tour contain steep stairways and narrow passages, which may be difficult for some participants to maneuver.

