Visiting Morristown

A couple of months ago we visited our daughter in the USA; she was on a year’s internship in Morristown, New Jersey, and today she has returned home after a year and a fortnight away. She had a wonderful time, and so did we when we visited her. before she went there I had never heard of Morristown and we had a wonderful visit there, spending several days just wandering round the little town.

The centre of the town is the famous Green; this used to be the courthouse square – Morris County Courthouse and jail  dates back to the early 1760’s. George Washington spent two winters camped in what is now named The Morristown National Historical Park; he and his Continental Army camped there in freezing conditions, literally starved of supplies. Washington’s headquarters were at the Green in an old inn which no longer exists, Arnold’s Tavern. he stayed there from January to May in 1777, and again over the winter of 1779-80.

Fort Nonsense apparently so named because it was a nonsense that the troops should have had to build it and be stationed there. Great view over the little town

We would have liked to visit the museum, unfortunately it was closed, but we did take photos of the outside of it!

Morristown was one of the earliest places to be settled, although there were Native American people whose home and land this had been for thousands of years before they were evicted. Although the swedes and the Dutch were the first Europeans in this area, Morristown was the home of English settlers, many from Yorkshire.

We enjoyed our visit to the little town, loved just wandering round looking at the lovely houses and different buildings, taking breakfast in the Morristown pancake House, and lunch wherever we fancied and could meet our daughter in her break, and there weren’t enough evenings to try all the wonderful restaurants in the town!

By the way, the statues in my profile photograph are of the meeting between George Washington, the  Marquis de LaFayette, and Alexander Hamilton.