Morristown National Historical Park

Sites Conference

Jockey Hollow, located in Harding Township along Route 202, hosted a Continental Army encampment where the entire Pennsylvania contingent mutinied, followed by an attempted mutiny by 200 New Jersey soldiers. Fort Nonsense, on a hilltop overlooking Morristown, is thought to have held a signal fire and earthworks. The Ford Mansion in Morristown served as George Washington's quarters during the severe winter of December 1779 to May 1780, the coldest on record for New Jersey; Theodosia Ford and her four children shared the house with Washington, his staff including Alexander Hamilton, their servants, and sometimes family members, while Martha Washington visited from Mount Vernon.

The adjacent Washington's Headquarters Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from September to June and seven days a week from July to August, 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM, featuring three exhibit rooms, a sales area, and a video titled "Morristown: Where America Survived" (New Jersey Network, 2009); the Ford Mansion is accessible only by guided tour starting at the museum. The New Jersey Brigade Encampment Site, south of Jockey Hollow in Bernardsville, housed about 1,300 Continental Army soldiers during the 1779-1780 winter.

Park history

In April 1932, the National Park Service recommended making the Continental Army's winter encampment sites of 1776-77 and 1779-80 a Federal Historical Reserve, proposing Jockey Hollow and the Ford Mansion. A January 1933 conference with NPS representatives, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, and Morris County civic and business leaders drafted a bill for a national historical park with "the rank and dignity equal to the scenic program in the West. In March 1933, during Herbert Hoover's presidency's final days, the 72nd Congress established Morristown as the first National Historical Park.