Politics & Government

October is Lawrence Township History Month

Several events have been planned during the month, including a "groundbreaking" lecture about slavery in Lawrence Township, as well as a bus tour of township historical sites for all fourth-graders at Lawrence Intermediate School.

Saturday, Oct. 1, marks the beginning of the third annual Lawrence Township History Month and several events have been planned to help residents learn more about the township’s 314-plus years of history.

Perhaps the most anticipated event of the month is the Lawrence Historical Society’s annual Mary Tanner Lecture which will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23, at Rider University.

The lecture series is named in honor of a longtime trustee of the historical society and is free and open to the public. This year’s lecture – entitled “Slavery and Abolition in Lawrence Township, New Jersey” – will be given by Rider University professors Brooke Hunter and Roderick McDonald.

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In talking about the upcoming History Month events at the Lawrence Township Council meeting last week (Sept. 20), Lawrence Township Historian Dennis Waters called the lecture “a groundbreaking piece of research by two professors from the history department of Rider University. They have dug into the details of census data, courthouse records and other primary sources to document the extent and nature of slavery in Lawrence – who the slaves were, who the owners were, where they lived, what they did, how they were freed, and how they adjusted to freedom.”

Between Oct. 7 and Oct. 13, all 300 fourth-grade students from Lawrence Intermediate School will take part in a bus tour of historical sites around Lawrence Township, including the Lawrenceville Main Street area, the , the , the , and the Revolutionary War site at the Shabakunk Creek near Notre Dame High School where, in January 1777, marching to fight Gen. George Washington in what was to become known as the Second Battle of Trenton.

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Each student will be given a copy of A Guide to Lawrenceville’s Historic Landmarks donated by the township. Two bus-loads of students will go out each day, with Waters riding on one bus to serve as a guide and Daniel Ben-Asher, editor of the landmarks guidebook, traveling on the other bus to answer students’ questions.

The school outings are being funded by a grant from the Lawrence Township Education Foundation – “the first of what we hope will be many grants to support local history in our public schools,” Waters said.

Other History Month events include:

  • Free tours of the will be given on Saturday, Oct. 1, from 10 a.m. to noon. Earlier this year a was held to mark the 250th anniversary of the house, which is located at the end of Meadow Road, off Princeton Pike.
  • During between 12:30 and 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2, representatives of the historical society will staff a table at which residents can find the answers to their local history questions.
  • On Sunday, Oct. 16, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the 1761 Brearley House, the public can meet and ask questions of  Michael Mills, the architect who supervised restoration of the house a decade ago, and archaeologist Ian Burrow who supervised past archaeological digs on the property.

 

Beyond History Month events, Waters spoke of a project that is currently underway involving the cartography department of Rutgers University and the online history website New Jersey Digital Highway.

“As with many towns in New Jersey, the history of Lawrence in the 20th century is one of gradual suburbanization and that story is well-documented in the archived site plans that are on file in the [township] engineering office. That file goes back to the 19th century. We’re partnering with Rutgers using their high-resolution scanner to scan all of these site plans and key them into a township map that will be placed online. And then this can become a tool for land use planning and research, for families who want to know a little bit about the history of their neighborhoods, and for everyone in between. The people at New Jersey Digital Highway think it could also be a model for other towns in the state to follow. It is obviously a long-term project but we’re off to a good start.” Waters said.

“Plans are also underway for adding some history right here in the [Lawrence Township] municipal building,” Waters said during last week’s council meeting. “[Township Manager] Rich Krawczun has set aside the two blank walls opposite the construction and planning offices for historical displays. And the historical society has begun preliminary work on how to compress the 300 year history of Lawrence into a few dozen square feet.”

Waters said the historical society is also planning to update some of the historical markers around town “to reflect the latest scholarship on the events leading up to the Second Battle of Trenton,” and noted that on Jan. 2, 2012, the of Col. Hand’s delaying tactics against the British will take place.

He noted that this year also marks the 50th anniversaries of both Ben Franklin Elementary School and the . On Nov. 15, Waters will give a talk at the library about its history.

Calling Lawrence history a “team sport” he thanked a number of people for their various contributions and added, “I would like to again thank council and the administration for your ongoing belief in the power of history to help strengthen our community.”


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