GOODSPEED HISTORIES – Page 94 – New Jersey History and Genealogy

Fisher-Reading Mansion

August 16, 2015 By Marfy Goodspeed in Fisher, Flemington, Hunterdon, Larison, Reading Tags: architecture, Downtown Flemington, Going, houses, portraits

The Reading Mansion — The Fisher-Reading Mansion at 119 Main Street, Flemington, NJ,  photograph by the Historic American Buildings Survey, 1936

Beautiful, isn’t it? One of the most extraordinary buildings to be found in Flemington, a town with more than its share of great old buildings. It is an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture.¹

Rittenhouse Road

August 8, 2015 By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Twp, Rittenhouse, Sergeantsville Tags: early settlers, maps, roads

Map of Rittenhouse and Buchanan Roads, from Google Maps

There is an odd sort of road in Delaware Township, running south from Sergeantsville, that I have often wondered about. It is called Rittenhouse Road, and for much of its length, it runs straight as an arrow, then suddenly does a zigzag before ending at Sandy Ridge Road.

Quite often the very straight roads in Hunterdon County were created as a result of the early, large proprietary tracts that forced roads to run along their borders. But that is not the case here. This road ran through the middle of Daniel Robins’ 700+ acres, surveyed in 1722.

A Barn Raising Was A Big Event

August 1, 2015 By Marfy Goodspeed in E. T. Bush, Fulper, Green, Historians, Rittenhouse, Sergeantsville Tags: architecture, old ways

Feeding Fifty Men Was Not Uncommon on Such an Occasion
Eatables in Great Abundance

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
originally published by the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, July 24, 1930

Note: I have included the punctuation as it appeared in the original article, even though I disagree with the editor’s use of commas, and wonder if that was how Mr. Bush wrote it. Also, when Mr. Bush refers to “the young generation,” he means people born in the late-19th and early 20th-century. Mr. Bush was born in 1848.