Rockingham State Historic Site

84 Laurel Avenue, Kingston, NJ 08528

(609) 683-7132

www.rockingham.net

While the Continental Congress was meeting in Princeton, Congress rented Rockingham from Margaret Berrien to serve as General George Washington's final Revolutionary War headquarters for two-and-a-half months in 1783. On October 31, 1783, Washington and Congress received the long-awaited news - the final version of the Treaty of Paris had been signed (September 3) and the thirteen colonies were indeed independent of Great Britain. As one of Washington’s last official acts, he wrote the Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States at Rockingham in late October, which was then delivered to the remaining Continental Army at West Point, New York on November 2, 1783.

The original two-story and lean-to gentleman’s farmhouse was built about 1710 and was enlarged into a grander home in the 1760’s by Judge John Berrien, NJ Supreme Court Justice. Physically relocated three times since 1896, the house is now preserved and interpreted as the temporary residence of George and Martha Washington because of a generous gift by a concerned citizen, Josephine Swann, in 1896. Rockingham State Historic Site offers a fine collection of 18th-century furnishings and Washington military & personal reproductions, a children's museum, a colonial kitchen garden, and a Dutch barn.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO

• Take a guided tour of the mansion house
• Visit the 18th-century kitchen garden during growing seasons
• Attend an event in the restored and reconstructed c. 1800 Dutch barn
• Take the kids to Rockingham's Annual Children's Day, which takes place every May