Drake House commemorates Washington's visit Wednesday evening

Special open house commemorates Washington's 1777 visit.

Plainfield's Drake House Museum will be open Wednesday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 to commemorate General George Washington's 1777 visit to the farmstead to consult with his officers during the Battle of Short Hills.

Here is the press release from the Historical Society of Plainfield --

In the Footsteps of General George Washington

The Drake House Museum will be open for special evening hours on Wednesday, June 25, 2014, from 6:30PM until 8:30PM to commemorate General George Washington’s visit to the Drake family farmhouse on June 25, 1777.
General George Washington consulted with his officers at the Drake House during the Battle of Short Hills, which was fought over the entire Plainfield area on June 25-27, 1777. Nathaniel Drake, his wife, Dorothy, and daughters Sarah and Phebe, were all patriots. The sons of the family, Abraham, Cornelius and Isaac, and son-in-law Benjamin Manning served in the Essex and Somerset Counties militia, and their freed slave, Caesar, was a wagoner with the Continental forces under Captain William Davison.

On exhibit will be a copy of a Hessian map from June 1777, showing the positions of Lord Stirling, Lord Cornwallis, and  Major General William Howe obtained from the US Library of Congress digital collection.  Copies of Caesar’s Revolutionary War service record obtained from the David Library of the American Revolution and New Jersey State Archives will also be on display.  Digital copies of orders and correspondence written by General Washington during June 1777, obtained from “The Papers of George Washington” online at The University of Virginia, will be available for review.

All are welcome to walk in the footsteps of General George Washington, to look up at the ceiling in the period dining room and view the wooden beams that General Washington saw when he visited the Drake House 237 years ago.

The Drake House Museum at 602 West Front Street (at the foot of Plainfield Avenue) is open to the public Sunday afternoons from 2:00 - 4:00 PM, and at other times by appointment. For more information, call (908) 755-5831 or visit the website at www.drakehouseplainfieldnj.org/.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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