Bedminster, New Jersey

With the long awaited JVH addition to open late this fall ith the snip of a ribbon, the new $320,000 addition to the Jacobus Vanderveer House that everyone has been watching go up as they pass the house on Route 202-206 will open in late November. Immediately work will get under way to fill the expanded house with exhibits and artifacts to tell the story of the Pluckemin Artillery Encampment. And several rooms will be furnished to interpret the residency of Gen. Henry Knox and his family.

Fundraising for this next phase of the museum project has already begun for a proposed opening sometime in late 2008. “This is a very significant step for us,” said Jim Cline, president of The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House. “It means we will be able to start designing exhibits interpreting the Pluckemin Encampment and the stay of Gen. Knox and plan for the opening of our museum.” Construction began on the Visitor Center/ Kitchen Wing addition in October after more than a year of fundraising and grant seeking. We have been very lucky in keeping costs down through donated labor by Castle Ridge Construction Company of Bedminster and Frank R. Holtaway & Son, Inc., the engineering company run by Bedminster Mayor Bob Holtaway, a member of the JVH Board. All construction has been supervised on a strictly volunteer basis by Bedminster architect Jay Petrillo, another JVH Board member. Architects are Holt Morgan Russell of Princeton, who helped restore the original part of the house. They have provided a seamless transition from the original house to the recreated addition, the footings of which were found during archaeological excavations several years ago.

The interior, naturally, does not have all the architectural details of the original house, but the 18th century Dutch colonial flavor comes through in the windows, moldings, and flooring. “I am very pleased with the look of the addition,” said architect Marilou Ehrler. In a nod to the modern era, the new addition has a visitors’ reception room, lavatories, a kitchenette, and office space — much to the delight of all Board members. The addition is handicapped-accessible. A committee is hard at work researching the kind of furniture, textiles, and decorative arts that may have been in the house in 1778 when the Vanderveer family lent it to Gen. Henry Knox and his wife Lucy for the duration of the Pluckemin Encampment. Any pieces that Knox may have brought with him when he moved down from Boston are especially high on the committee’s list.

In the meantime, a group of academics and professionals is attempting to catalogue the many artifacts found during an archeological dig at the Pluckemin Encampment between 1979 and 1989. From these artifacts we will pluck the best to be part of the museum’s permanent exhibit. In the coming months look for many more upgrades and changes at JVH!

Tour the new addition at Colonial Christmas, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 and 2, 2007

The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, division of the Department of State.

Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House
PO Box 723
Bedminster, NJ 07921

Tel: 908-212-7000 ext. 611

Submitted: July 31, 2007