Rockingham's Evolution & House Reopening!

84 Laurel Avenue,Franklin Township NJ 08528

07 July, 2021

Description

REOPENING! Come along on an exploration of Rockingham from the outside and, for the first time since March 2020, the INSIDE! REOPENING! Rockingham served as General George Washington's final wartime headquarters in later 1783 but that is only part of the story. The property had multiple owners over its three-hundred-plus-years-long history, changed in size and scope and was moved three times. Come along on an exploration of Rockingham’s history, it’s changing architecture and address, varied owners and property lay-out with help from the exterior of the house itself, maps and period images. ALSO, for the first time since March 2020, we will be stepping INSIDE the house as well to focus on General Washington's stay, including who accompanied him and what occurred at that time in the house's history! FACIAL COVERINGS are REQUIRED during the inside house portion of the tour at this time. Extreme heat and steady rain shortens the outside portion of the tour. Meet on the south (front) stone porch by the blue flag, facing the garden. Rockingham served as General George Washington’s final wartime headquarters in the latter half of 1783 while Congress met nearby in Princeton. Washington wrote his Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States here just before receiving news that the definitive Treaty ending the Revolutionary War was signed. The earliest section of the house was built around 1710 and was added to in the 1760s by John Berrien, a trustee of the College of NJ (present Princeton U.) and colonial NJ assemblyman & Superior Court Justice. Rockingham is a NJ State-owned & -operated Historic Site that maintains a fine collection of 18th-century furnishings and Washington military reproductions, and includes a Colonial kitchen garden and Dutch barn.