Event
Washington Association of New Jersey-150 years of preservation
Fee:
Free.Location: LAT/LONG: 41.000000, -74.000000
Washington's Headquarters Museum, 30 Washington Place, Morristown NJ
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Description
A special exhibit in the Washington’s Headquarters Museum commemorates the 150th anniversary of the creation of the Washington Association of New Jersey. In 1872 Henry Augustus Ford died. The last owner of the Ford mansion left directions in his will for the mansion and grounds to be auctioned off. Many felt selling off the Ford mansion, where General Washington spent the winter and spring of 1779 1780, to be a less than dignified ending for such an historic house associated with America's founding. In fact, many newspapers picked up the theme of outrage over the proposed sale. At the auction on June 25th 1873, four gentleman came together to purchase the mansion and grounds. These four, Theodore Randolph, Nathaniel Halstead, George Halsey, and William van Vleck Lidgerwood, decided the best way forward with the mansion for its preservation was to form an organization--the Washington Association of New Jersey--to run the mansion as a historic house museum. For the next sixty years, the Washington Association ran the mansion and grounds as a memorial to General Washington and the Revolutionary period. In 1933, the Washington Association turned the mansion, grounds, and museum collection over to the new Morristown National Historical Park. Today, the Washington Association remains a committed philanthropic partner of the park.
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