Welcome to the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum Online!
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Check out our blog, The Tavern Keeper at http://thetavernkeeper.blogspot.com/
Welcome to the official website of the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum, one of New Jersey’s premier 19th century taverns and hotels, restored today to its 1820’s appearance. The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum is a new museum of early tavern life and stagecoach transportation, opened to the public in June 2001. The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum is a recipient of a General Operating Support Grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a Division of the Department of State.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Contact David Walker, Program Manager, at (732) 381-0441, or e-mail mdtavernmuseum@aol.com
Upcoming Events
SUMMER HISTORY DAY CAMPS – Monday-Friday, July 13-17 and July 20-24
ANNUAL ANTIQUES AUCTION - September 12, 2009
July 13-17, 2009: Archaeology
July 20-24, 2009: Revolutionary War
Our Archaeology camp is a hands-on opportunity for children to learn how archaeology is used to learn about the past. The archeology camp is related to the museum’s ongoing tavern yard research program, of which archeological research goes “hand-in-hand" with documentary research. Campers are introduced, by a certified Archaeologist, to the methodology for excavations, excavation techniques, measuring and recording of artifacts, and a description of artifacts and mapping. Campers perform their own excavations in the tavern yard, working in groups of five, in five excavation units. The campers go on a trip, which is included in the price of the camps, during the week. In 2008, campers visited the New Jersey History Museum in Trenton, New Jersey. On the final day of camp, the children present their findings to their families.
The final camp is The Revolutionary Experience. The camp interprets the years 1775-1812, and aims to teach campers about daily life, both at home and in the armies, during the American Revolution. Additionally, the period after the war, leading up to the War of 1812, a formative period that saw new radical transformations in social, political, and economic life, is also be covered. The camp is designed to make relevant the time periods in which the Association’s Abraham Terrill Tavern, and the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum played a vital part. The camp uses living history demonstrations and activities as the center of the teaching approach. Living historians, referred to also as reenactors, will also be on hand, which will include the following: a Lenni-Lenape Indian, Rahway citizen, Continental soldier, British soldier, Hessian soldier, and an African-American soldier. Activities such as candle making will also be used to instruct the campers on daily life during the period. The campers also go on a field trip during this week, and in 2008, campers visited Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The registration fee for the camps is $125 per camper per week. You may sign your child up for either one week, or both. If you are interested in enrolling your child, please call David Walker at (908) 967-2495, or send an e-mail with contact information to mdtavernmuseum@aol.com
Mission, Location, and Contact Info
The Merchants & Drovers Tavern Museum Association is dedicated to preserving the Merchants and Drovers Tavern (1795/1820) and to interpreting early tavern life. The tavern, located at the corner of St. Georges Avenue (Route 27) and Westfield Avenue, is recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey and listed in the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places. The Association also own and operates the Abraham Terrill Tavern as the Museum Gift Shop.
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1842, Rahway, NJ 07065
E-Mail: mdtavernmuseum@aol.com
Website URL: http://www.merchantsanddrovers.org
Window into the 19th Century
Welcome to the Merchants and Drovers Tavern, built around 1795 on the country road to Elizabethtown at the intersection of the road to Westfield. John Anderson purchased the building in 1798 and applied for a license to operate a "tavern at Rahway... in the house lately occupied by Squire Pierson as a store."
It was not long before Anderson, obviously a tavern keeper of some success, enlarged the tavern, expanding it laterally to the north. The building became the four-story federal style inn that stands today by the mid-1820s, probably shortly after Dr. David Craig bought the site in 1822.
In early New Jersey, taverns such as the Merchants and Drovers served a multitude of functions. In the absence of civic and other public buildings, this inn was utilized for government meetings, auctions, business transactions, patriotic celebrations and public entertainment. It also served as a stagecoach stop. Both travelers passing through and newcomers to the community could find accommodation. Here newspaper and traveler would impart the news of the day, and men of the neighborhood shared their stories in the club-like atmosphere of the taproom.
Operated continuously as an inn from 1798 until the mid-1930s, the hotel has remained substantially unchanged. Its two parlors, taproom, kitchen, long room, twelve bedrooms, and servant quarters have been painstakingly restored to their 1820s appearance and furnished with period antiques and reproductions.
To step across the threshold is to call upon the ghosts of the past and recapture the romance of another age.
Visitors to the Merchants and Drovers Tavern can experience the hospitality of the 1820s. The visitor may quench his thirst in the taproom, sit for a while in the parlor or, perhaps, try a bed for size at this "hands-on" museum. In addition to daytime hours and programs, the tavern is also open for evening candlelight tours and events. The 18th century Terrill Tavern, also on the property, houses the Museum Shop.
Living History Club for Children!
The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum is now accepting enrollments for its Living History Club for children, aged 9-17. The club’s aim is to supplement the local public school Social Studies curriculum, as well as to encourage students to continue learning about specific areas of history they have an interest in, whether ancient history or modern history. Within this club, children will be able to learn about and identify with a particular period of history that they find intriguing. The camp will also utilize field trips and living history reenactors from various periods of history in order to augment the children’s education and experience at the museum.
We are also looking for volunteers to help run and supervise the program. If you are a professional educator, college student, or plain history buff, we can use your help in teaching and promoting the study of history to our local children. If interested in enrolling in the program, please call David Walker at (908) 967-2495. The program is sure to continue to foster your child’s interest in history!
This is an exciting time here at the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum, and we don’t want you to miss out on great opportunities to become involved in history!
This spring and summer 2009 we will begin costumed interpretation of the tavern on weekends, with volunteer interpreters guiding our visitors throughout the tavern, and helping to bring their experience with the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum to life! We are also beginning the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum Living History Club for children aged 9-17 this upcoming fall, in conjunction with the school year and local school districts.
In order to offer the general public quality programs and events, we need your help! If you would like to become a historical interpreter, a volunteer within our living history club for children, or a volunteer in another capacity, give us a call now by phone at (732) 381-0441, or drop us an e-mail at this address: mdtavernmuseum@aol.com. Any amount of time you can volunteer is appreciated, whether it is one hour a week or ten!