Colonial Brewer on Tap at Jacobus Vanderveer House & Museum During Weekend Journey to the Past - October 8 & 9, 2016

Colonial Brewer on Tap at Jacobus Vanderveer House & Museum During Weekend Journey to the Past
Saturday & Sunday, October 8 & 9, 2016

The Jacobus Vanderveer House, once the headquarters of General Henry Knox during the American Revolution, will be open for tours on Saturday, October 8, 2016 from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm and Sunday, October 9, 2016 from 12:00 noon - 4:00 pm during Somerset County’s 11th Annual Weekend Journey Through the Past.

Colonial brewer Rich Wagner will demonstrate and discuss beer making both days. Wagner will discuss how beer played a central role in the social, economic and political life of our regional ancestors. He performs the demonstration in period dress, and all of his brewing equipment is handmade with Colonial-era materials.

Rich is a regular contributor to Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, the American Breweriana Journal, the Eastern Coast Breweriana Association’s the KEG as well as other publications. He has published a book, entitled Philadelphia Beer – The Heady History of Brewing in the Cradle of Liberty (History Press 2012).

Tours of the Jacobus Vanderveer House throughout the weekend are free. For more information, visit www.jvanderveerhouse.org. The Jacobus Vanderveer House is located at 3055 River Road (in Bedminster’s River Road Park), Bedminster, NJ 07921.

Somerset County’s 9th Annual Weekend Journey through the Past, is an opportunity to step back in time and visit 26 historic sites countywide, which are open free to the public on Saturday, October 8, from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm and Sunday, October 9, from 12:00 noon - 4:00 pm. The annual autumn weekend features interpreted tours led by costumed docents; special collections and exhibitions; period military drills and encampments by living-history re-enactors; open-hearth cooking; colonial tavern life and games; and much more. For more information about Weekend Journey Through the Past visit: www.SCHistoryWeekend.com.


About The Jacobus Vanderveer House                                  

For more than two centuries, the Jacobus Vanderveer House, located in River Road Park, has been at the center of Bedminster Township’s rich and colorful history. It is situated on part of the 218 acres that make up River Road Park in Bedminster Township, Somerset County. 

Jacobus Vanderveer, Jr., son of Vanderveer, Sr., a wealthy Dutch miller, built a small Dutch frame-style farmhouse just west of the North Branch of the Raritan River on the northern outskirts of Pluckemin. In 1778, during the War of Independence, Vanderveer lent his home to General Henry Knox, who was to command a new artillery encampment and training academy being established by the Continental Army on a hillside above the village of Pluckemin. General Knox, along with his wife Lucy and family, occupied the house from the winter of 1778 through the summer of 1779.

The Vanderveer house is the only surviving building associated with the Pluckemin encampment, which is considered to be the first installation in America to train officers in engineering and artillery. General Knox established “The Academy” and subsequently created its successor, The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.  

The Jacobus Vanderveer House and property were purchased by Bedminster Township in 1989 with the help of Green Acres funding. The house was listed in 1995 on the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places. The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House is a nonprofit organization formed to restore and develop the historic site as an important educational and cultural resource. During the past decade, the Friends have restored the house, created historically accurate period room exhibitions, established historic collections, supported important research, and embarked on a program of education and interpretation to tell the stories of General Henry Knox, the Pluckemin military encampment and the community’s key role in the American Revolution.

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