April 17 , 2008 - Bedminster/Pluckemin

Luncheon & Speaker to be held at the Morris County Golf Club to support The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House

Luncheon/Lecture
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Morris County Golf Club

For Immediate Release:

Learn about decorating history at benefit luncheon May 7

BEDMINSTER TWP. – A museum curator and expert on decorative arts will be the guest speaker at a luncheon on Wednesday, May 7, for the benefit of the historic Jacobus Vanderveer House.

Ulysses Grant Dietz, senior curator of the Newark Museum’s Decorative Arts Department, will speak at the luncheon at the Morris County Golf Club .His topic will be, “From House to Home, 1750-1850, Transforming the Way We Live.”

The event will begin at 11 a.m. with a champagne reception, followed by the luncheon and lecture at noon. There will also be a basket boutique, luxury vendors and a selection of house and garden plants. The golf club is located at 36 Punch Bowl Road, Morristown.

Tickets are $95 per person, and can be reserved by calling the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House at 908-212-7000 ext. 616. All proceeds from the luncheon will support efforts to acquire period furnishings and design display cases for the Vanderveer House, which the Friends are transforming into a local history museum.

“Since we’re in the process of restoring an 18th century home for use as a history museum, Mr. Dietz’s lecture is particularly timely,” said Jay Petrillo, president of the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House. “We’re looking forward to learning from an expert on how people decorated their homes during this era.”

The curator of over 80 exhibitions, Dietz restored the Newark Museum’s 1885 Ballantine House, which serves as centerpiece of the decorative arts department. He is currently working on projects for the Newark Museum’s centennial in 2009, as well as a book on the White House.

Jacobus Vanderveer, son of a wealthy Dutch miller, built the house in 1772. In early 1778, Vanderveer and his wife were asked to lend their home to Gen. Henry Knox, who was to command a new artillery encampment and training academy being established by the Revolutionary Armies on a hillside above the village of Pluckemin. Knox and his wife, Lucy, occupied the house until the summer of 1779.

The Vanderveer House is now the only remaining building from that chapter in Bedminster history, as the artillery park and its academy – a forerunner of West Point – no longer exist. “It is truly a priceless piece of our history,” commented Petrillo, noting that the house is listed on the state and national Registers of Historic Places..

When opened as a museum in 2009, the Vanderveer House will display artifacts excavated during an archaeological dig at the encampment site, which is now surrounded by The Hills housing development. The museum will also interpret Dutch colonial life in America and the stay by General Knox and his family.

For more information about the luncheon or the Jacobus Vanderveer House, visit the Friends’ website at www.jvanderveerhouse.com.

 

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