Open: Please check the website for the seasonality of the park
*Located in Van Saun Park at the entrance.
My review on TripAdvisor:
The historic marker of the Washington Spring
The Washington Spring, a 1/2 area within Van Saun County Park, is associated with General George Washington and the movement of his Continental Army through this area of Bergen County during the Revolutionary War.
The small section of Van Saun County Park is one of the more quieter places to visit and one of its most historical. The pathways work their way around the springs and the plantings and flowers are especially nice in the early to late Spring months. It really is a beautiful walk.
The entrance to the Washington Spring
The pathways in bloom
History of the Washington Spring:
The hollow between hills known as “Slukup” until it was changed to the more pleasant-sounding “Spring Valley” in 1832. In the Dutch Frisan language “slukup” described a boggy area. The local Banta family was from Friesland in northern Holland and one of the area’s earliest settlers. Natural springs feed the streams in this area that flow through Van Saun Pond and eventually into the Hackensack River. The park’s land was part of 300 acres owned by Albert Zabriskie in 1686. In 1695, he sold 224 acres to Jacob Van Saun of New York City.
The spring running through the garden area.
The road to Slukup, now Howland Avenue, served as the border between Jacob Van Saun’s farm to the south and son-in-law Christian Dederer’s farm to the north. Hendrick C. Banta, who owned a cider mill in the Steenrapie area (River Edge), lived west of the Mill Creek that flows through the park.
Ferns along the pathways
On September 4, 1780, General Washington moved the troops of the Continental army, numbering approximately 14,000 into a strategic encampment west of the Hackensack River between New Bridge in the south and Kinderkamack to the north in Steenrapie. They were part of the defense to challenge the British military stronghold on Manhattan and prevent any intervention with the landing of allied French troops in Rhode Island. Hendrick Banta reportedly sold a barrel of cider to these troops “every other day”. His 10 year old son, Cornelius, reportedly saw General Washington on his horse three times. During one of these sightings the General was watering his horse at the spring, giving rise to the name “Washington Spring”.
The Washington Spring pathways
On September 17th, General Washington, General Knox and the Marquis de Lafayette, who was headquartered at the northern end of the encampment in the area known as “Soldier Hill” in Oradell, left for Hartford, Connecticut to meet the recently arrived French commanding officers. The rest of the Continental Army decamped on September 20th.
Sitting area and monument in the Washington Springs
The Bergen County Park Commission was created in November 1946 and in 1987 because the Division of Parks. Recreation and Cultural Affairs. Van Saun Park, whose 140 acres include Washington Spring, was created in 1957. Also, within the park is the Bergen Zoological Park, that opened in 1960. Open year round during park hours and is surrounded by accessible pathways.
The Spring area, which is right off the parking lot leading to the zoo, is beautifully landscaped with benches, pathways and flowering plants like azaleas, rhododendrons and flowering trees. In the early spring, the look around the Spring is quite colorful and picturesque. It is a nice way to spend the afternoon, walking quietly around the paths and see where the General once watered his horse. The entrance of the Spring is under plants but becomes a stream further down. Another part of the great history of Revolutionary War and the part New Jersey played in winning the war.
The spring running through the woods
*Disclaimer: this information is taken directly from the Bergen County Division of Cultural & Historic Affairs pamphlet. The Spring is part of Van Saun Park as you drive in and watch for the signs. It really is a beautifully landscaped part of the park and its historical influence in the war should not be missed. (2015 Bergen County division of Cultural and Historic Affairs. The Bergen County Division of Cultural & Historic Affairs received an operating grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.
There is a real beauty and quietness to the Washington Spring.
I go to The Cloisters on a pretty regular basis, and they have interesting walking tours and lectures especially in the warm months. If you like Medieval or religious art, this is a museum that is worth visiting. It is out of the way and be prepared to walk up a hill but in the summer months, the view of the Hudson River is spectacular, and the gardens are beautiful.
The Cloisters in Fort Tyron Park
Don’t miss the walking tours and gallery talks at the museum. I have recently been to a series of walking gallery talks dealing with the history of Medieval arts. There were discussions on Medieval art between Christian and Muslim religions, Traveling the Silk Road and its influences on art in the regions and the collection and how it has improved and grown over the years. It seems there has been a uptick in this type of art.
This section of the shine is on a permanent loan from Spain
The building is just beautiful as it was created from pieces of religious sites all over Europe. Many of the doorways, cloisters (archways), stone work and fountains and windows come from churches that had been destroyed by wars over the past 600 years. Bits and pieces of all of the these buildings are displayed in the architecture of the museum itself. Some are on permanent loan to the museum from foreign countries.
Don’t miss the famous “Hunt of the Unicorn” tapestries that are on display here. They are quite a spectacular exhibit.
The ‘Hunt of the Unicorn’ tapestries
Be sure to visit the outside terraces of the Cloisters to see the views of the Hudson River below and the beautiful gardens of Fort Tyron Park where the building is located. It is a sea of green lawns and woods and beautifully landscaped flowering paths.
The Cloisters Gardens in the winter of 2022
The Cloisters Gardens in the Spring of 2024
The view from the gardens of the Hudson River
The view of the Hudson River in Spring 2024:
There is a nice café on property but there is also a small restaurant row on Dyckman Avenue at the foot of the park right near the subway stop. There are also many terrific Spanish restaurants on Dyckman Street as you walk down the block towards Fort George Hill.
‘Christmastide’ at The Cloisters:
I recently went to the Cloisters for a very interesting walking tour called “Holly & Hawthorne: Decorating for a Medieval Christmas” in 2019 and a similar tour in 2022 entitled “Holiday Decorations at The Cloisters” the use of plants like holly, mistletoe, pine and ivy were used in the winter months to decorate the churches and homes of the people until the Puritan influences took over.
Sampling of the plants used at the holidays in Medieval times.
(Part of the description of the tour in the guidebook-credit to the Met Cloisters):
“The wreaths and garlands that deck The Cloisters from early December until early January are made from plant stuffs associated with the Medieval celebration of Christmastide. This great feast embraced the twelve days between the Nativity and the Epiphany, which commemorated the visit of the Three Kings to the infant Jesus.
The Candelabras of the Cloisters.
Because pictorial representation of medieval Christmas decorations are rare, the Museum’s designs are based on evidence gleaned from carols, wassails, romances and artworks. Medieval churches and halls were decked for the season, a practice with roots in ancient custom. The early Church had banned the use of evergreens because of their ties with pagan winter festivals, such as the Roman Saturnalia. By the Middle Ages, these plants had been given Christian interpretations and were used to celebrate the feast days of the Church calendar. Bay Laurel, associated in ancient times with victory, became a symbol of the triumph of Christ and of eternal life.
By the Middle Ages, holly and ivy had been thoroughly Christianized, although mistletoe remained suspect. Ivy was identified with the Virgin and the red berries of the holly with the blood of Christ. The holly and ivy carols still sung today spell out these meanings older associations derived from pre-Christian winter festivals.
Apples and nuts, stored for winter consumption, were a conspicuous part of the Christmas feast, as they are today. It was also the custom in winter to wassail fruit and nut trees, to encourage them to bear plentiful crops in the coming year. Fruits and nuts were ancient symbols of fertility Christian meanings; in a medieval poem on the Nativity.
The Cloisters decorated for Medieval Christmas
The tour guide discussed by touring the paintings and tapestries where these symbolic plants took shape during this time. She even explained how ivy when it reaches sunlight that its shape goes from a three leaf shape to a heart shape which was symbolic during the Middle Ages. The gardens were a good source of inspiration for the holidays.
The stonework was decorated with garland and holly and flowering plants
The Cloisters decorated for Christmas
Don’t miss walking the halls and cloisters to look at all the decorations for the holidays. The museum keeps them simple and elegant but it really does put you in the holiday spirit. The use of flowering plants during the holiday season was not just related to the holiday season but they gave a nice smell to this musty churches and added a bit of cheer to the environment as well.
The flowers and pine when you enter The Cloisters
The “Holiday Decorations at The Cloisters” walking tour: December 2022:
The altar at The Cloisters
The Medieval plants for decorating the church including Bay Laurel, Myrtle, Rosemary and Cyclamen.
The flowers decorating the windows. Roses and pine.
Decorated altar candles
Decorated Altar Candles
Decorated Altar Candles
The Fruits and Ivy that decorate the archways at The Cloisters is changed regularly. Each of the ivy vines was encased in small water tubes that had to be changed each week.
The Christmas wreaths were decorated with fruits, ivy and pinecones
Along the walls and floors of The Cloisters were potted plants that would have been used to decorate churches during this time period. The flowering plants gave The Cloister such a nice smell and would have lighted up the inside rooms from the gloom of winter.
The hallways were lined with winter greens
The winter greens that lined the hallways of The Cloisters
The decorative winter greens lining the walls of The Cloisters
The orange tree was a symbol of gold and prosperity.
The Medieval door decorated for the holidays.
The tour guide also pointed out for the story of Christmas depictions of the three wise men in art all over the building and its importance in the holiday season. The story continued to develop on the three ‘kings’ who visited the holy child.
She explained that over the years it went from three ‘visitors’ wisemen’ that was loosely translated in older text to the modern development of ‘three kings’ from the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. In 2024, I took a holiday tour on “Three Kings Day”, the celebrated the three kings and their visitation of the holy child.
The three Wise Men and the Virgin Mary
The three Wise Men and the Virgin Mary and Child as depicted in the painting
The three Wise Men in a more modern depiction. It seemed that the story morphed over time from three Kings, one being older, one younger and one with a darker complexion became a King from each continent to represent the diversity in the church and the spread of Catholicism.
The “Adoration of the Shepherds”
The Virgin Mary with the Christ child and the three wise men in the “Adoration of the Shepard’s”.
The “Adoration of the Magi”
The stained glass window of the “Adoration of the Magi”.
The “Thirty-Five Panels” of the Three Wiseman”
The Three Wisemen from the “Thirty-Two Panels”
The stained glass window of the “Three Scenes of the Infancy of Christ”
The “Three Scenes of the Infancy of Christ”
The “Christ is born as Man’s Redeemer” Tapestry.
The small section of the tapestry with the Three Wisemen.
Walking through the Cloisters during the holiday season.
The tour guide went onto explain that in more elaborate feasts, the utensils and items used during ceremonies would have been of the most elaborate that the church could show.
Elaborate vessels. plates, challices and specters used in ceremonies
Elaborate drinking glasses
I toured the Cloisters again in 2023 and saw the same symbols of Christmastime in the halls with elaborate floral displays and beautiful potted floral arrangements all over the building.
The hallways of the Cloisters decked with flowering plants.
The “Winter Roses” with other flowering plants.
More flowering plants lining the walkways.
Flowering displays
The winter plants of the Cloisters.
The Candelabra’s were quite elaborate.
I thought this Dragon painting was very interesting.
The Dragon Sign.
The Dragon Painting.
Spain 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith” tour in 2021:
I visited again this Christmas holiday season in 2021 to see “Spain 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith”, where the Catholic and Muslim Kingdoms of Spain influenced each other in the manner of decoration and art borrowing from each other. It was interesting to see how the two communities used each other’s art over time to develop an interesting hybrid of design that was both colorful and intricate.
“Spain 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith” artworks
Another tour of the Cloisters that I attended was on the ‘Four Medieval Flowers: The Lily, Iris, Violet and Rose’. It was interesting how society of this era used the former Pagan and Roman/Greek symbols in their Christian religious art.
You see the Rose in the stained glass to represent strength and honor
You will see the meanings in the tapestries, stained glass art and in the sculpture to represent purity, rebirth and sexual symbols of the time. It seemed that the artisans of the time used ancient meanings to convey something that they could not out and out talk about.
In the “Hunt of the Unicorn” Tapestries you can see flowers such as Lilly, Violet and Iris woven into the work which may have meant it was a wedding present to the new owner. The tour guide said there was meaning in lots of the works which may have had a different purpose originally. It was a tour steeped in symbolism.
The Spring and Summer Time visits to The Cloisters and the Gardens:
The Cloisters in the Spring and Summer months is very different. The Gardens are in full bloom, the views of the Hudson River are still amazing and the flowers look and smell so beautiful. There are three sets of gardens in the Cloisters, the potted plants on the deck facing the Hudson River and the two Cloisters on the first level and the one in the Trie Cloister where the cafe is located. Each has their unique plantings.
The potted plants on the deck of The Cloisters in the Spring of 2024
As pretty as some of these plants are some are poisonous so you have to watch out.
The view from the back decks of the museum of the Hudson River
The view of the Hudson River
The gardens in The Cloisters
On Sunday, August 10th, I took an extensive garden tour of the separate Cloisters in each parts of the museum. The tour talked about the use of the Cloisters gardens of the past and they were used for herbs, remedies and for the simple pleasure of beauty, color and relaxation.
The religious symbols in the gardens
The gardens have been planted with historical accuracy but as the tour guide explained, to keep the gardens in bloom from the early Spring to the late Fall, you have to add different plants for color.
The beauty of the gardens in bloom
The beauty of the gardens in the Spring of 2024
The gardens were very popular over the weekend
Some of the Cloisters gardens produce fruits, vegetables and herbs that the staff can take home. These gardens show not just how beautiful they look but how people used them for every day purposes.
The gardens were popular that day
The beauty of the gardens
The gardens in the Spring of 2024
These walking tours at the Cloisters happen at 12:00pm and 2:00pm on the weekends when in season.
The beauty of the Cloisters
The herb gardens in the summer in 2025
The Cloisters Mission:
Welcome to The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Set on a hilltop with commanding views of the Hudson River. The Cloisters is designed in a style evocative of medieval architecture specifically for the display of masterpiece created during that era. Arranged roughly chronologically and featuring works primarily from Western Europe, the collection includes sculpture, stained glass, tapestries, painting, manuscript illumination and metalwork. The extensive gardens feature medieval plantings, enhancing the evocative environment.
The Gardens at the Cloisters in bloom
History of the Museum
John D. Rockefeller Jr. generously provided for the building, the setting in Fort Tryon Park and the acquisition of the notable George Grey Barnard Collection, the nucleus of The Cloisters collection. Barnard Collection, the nucleus of The Cloisters collection. Barnard, an American sculptor whose work can be seen in the American Wing of the Metropolitan, traveled extensively in France, where he purchased medieval sculpture and architectural elements often from descendants of citizens who had appropriated objects abandoned during the French Revolution. The architect Charles Collens incorporated these medieval elements into the fabric of The Cloisters, which opened to the public in 1938.
Romanesque Hall
Imposing stone portals from French churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries open onto a gallery that features rare Spanish frescoes and French sculpture.
Fuentiduena Chapel
The twelfth-century apse from the church of San Martin at Fuentiduena, Spain and the great contemporary fresco of Christ in Majesty from a church in the Pyrenees Mountains dominate the space. Sculpture from Italy and Spain enriches the chapel, which is the setting for a celebrated concert series.
Saint-Guilhem Cloister
The fine carving of this cloister from the monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert, near Montpellier, harmoniously and playfully adapts the forms of Roman sculpture in a medieval context. The plants depicted in the sculpture, acanthus and palm, are growing in pots near the small fountain. The gallery also features early sculpture from Italy, Islamic Spain and elsewhere in France.
Langon Chapel
Architectural elements from the twelfth-century church of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg at Langon near Bordeaux form the setting for the display of thirteenth-century French stained glass and important Burgundian sculpture in wood and stone.
Pontaut Chapter House
Monks from the Cistercian abbey at Pontaut in Aquitaine once gathered for daily meetings in this twelfth-century enclosure known as a chapter house. At the time of its purchase in the 1930’s by a Parisian dealer, the column supports were being used to tether farm animals.
The distinctive pink stone of this cloister, featuring capitals carved with wild and fanciful creatures, was quarried in the twelfth century near Canigou in the Pyrenees Mountains for the nearby Benedictine monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. The typical cloister garden features crossed paths and a central fountain from the neighboring monastery of Saint-Genis-des-Fountaines. Both medieval and modern species of plants are grown in the garden. In winter, the arcades are enclosed and fragrant potted plants fill the walkways.
Early Gothic Hall
With thirteenth-century windows overlooking the Hudson River, the gallery features stained glass from France’s great churches, including Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris. Sculptures and paintings from France, Italy and Spain evoke the great age of cathedrals.
Nine Heroes Tapestries Room
From an original series of nine hangings created about 1400 for a member of the Valois court, the tapestries portray fabled heroes of ancient, Hebrew and Christian history, including the legendary King Arthur. It is among the earliest sets of surviving medieval tapestries.
Unicorn Tapestries Room
With brilliant colors, beautiful landscapes and precise depictions of flora and fauna, these renowned tapestries depicting the hunt and capture of the mythical unicorn are among the most studied and beloved objects at The Cloisters. Probably designed in Paris and woven in Brussels about 1500 for an unknown patron, these hangings blend the secular and sacred worlds of the Middle Ages.
Boppard Room
Stained glass from the fifteenth-century Camelite convent at Boppard-am-Rhein dominates one end of the room. Fifteenth-century panel paintings and sculpture from the Rhineland and northern Spain, a brass lectern, domestic furniture, Spanish lusterware, tapestries, metalwork and sculpture further evoke a sacred space.
Merode Room
One of the most celebrated early Netherlandish paintings in the world, the Merode Altarpiece, painted in Tournai about 1425-30, forms the centerpiece of this gallery. The altarpiece, intended for the private prayers of its owners, represents the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary taking place in a fifteenth-century household. Details of the scene are echoed in the late medieval furnishings of the room in which other works made for private devotion are also exhibited.
Late Gothic Hall
Large fifteenth-century limestone windows from the refectory of the former Dominican monastery in Sens, France, illuminate the hall, which showcases sculpture and altarpieces from Germany, Italy and Spain as well as a great tapestry from Burgos Cathedral.
Gothic Chapel
Beneath richly colored stained-glass windows from fourteenth-century Austria carved images from royal and noble tombs of France and Spain fill the chapel-like setting.
Glass Gallery
Silver-stained glass roundels decorate the windows of the Glass Gallery, complementing small works of art, many made for secular use, with their lively, sometimes worldly subjects. Carved woodwork from a house in Abbeville, in northern France, forms a backdrop for paintings and sculpture.
“Bonnefont” Cloister and Garden
Long thought to be part of the abbey at Bonnefont-en-Comminges, the elements of this cloister come instead from other monasteries in the region including a destroyed monastery in Tarbes. The herb garden contains more than 250 species cultivated in the Middle Ages. Its raised beds, wattle fences and central wellhead are characteristic of a medieval monastic garden.
Trie Cloister and Garden
The gardens at the Trie Cloister
The stone cloister elements were created primarily for the Carmelite convert at Trie-sur-Baise in the Pyrenees. The garden is planted with medieval species to evoke the millefleurs background of medieval tapestries, such as the Unicorn series.
The Cloisters Trie Cafe is a seasonable restaurant that overlooks the Cloisters Gardens. This offers sandwiches , pastries and beverages and is a bit over-priced.
*Please note that the prices in the restaurant do go up every year so please look to the website for updated prices.
The Treasury
An array of precious objects in gold, silver, ivory and silk reflects the wealth of medieval churches. Illuminated manuscripts testify to the piety and taste of royal patrons such as Jeanne d’Evreux, Queen of France; jewelry and a complete set of fifteenth-century playing cards suggest more worldly pastimes.
The Gift Shop:
Even the gift shop was decked in the holiday spirit
The gift shop has all sorts of themed items from the Medieval era.
The gift shop at The Cloisters
*Disclaimer: This information is taken right from the Cloisters pamphlet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Please call the museum before visiting to see if anything has changed with the hours or days open. It is well worth the trip uptown to visit The Cloisters. Take the A subway up to 190th Street and take the elevator up to Fort Tryon Park and walk across the park.
Don’t miss this little hidden site in Old Tappan, NJ. The Baylor Massacre site holds a rich history in the county and in the country’s founding. It will make you realize what an important role that the State of New Jersey had in the Revolutionary War and the lives sacrificed to win the war. My hats off to these brave men and women who helped fight for our freedom.
The Baylor Massacre site in the Fall
This quiet little park sits off to the side by the river and you will need to take time to walk the paths and enjoy the reading the signing. The sacrifice that these men made during the war effort and the way they were treated by the British in the act of war was deplorable. That and the fact that their own countrymen from Bergen County turned them into the British was unbelievable.
The Baylor Massacre history:
After midnight on September 28, 1778 during America’s Revolutionary War, the brutal surprise attack by the British forces on the sleeping men of the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons began. Today this is known as the Baylor Massacre. Nowa County-owned historic park and burial ground, the Baylor Massacre Site is located along the Hackensack River in River Vale in Northern Bergen County, New Jersey.
In the Autumn of 1778, British General Cornwallis occupied southern Bergen County with a force of 5000 soldiers. Their purpose was to gather and forage for food to feed the army that would be garrisoned in New York City during the upcoming winter. Bergen County, with its fertile land and industrious Jersey Dutch farms, was a major source for food for both armies during the Revolution.
The Third Continental Light Dragoons, under the command by Lt. Colonel George Baylor, was one of four regiments of dragoons authorized by the Continental Congress. On the 27th of September, these 104 officers and men were dispatched to watch the bridge over the Hackensack River at the intersection of modern Rivervale and Old Tappan Roads to support General Wayne and his men in Tappan, New York.
The British forces were lead by General Charles “No Flint” Grey, who earned his nickname in the 1777 battle with General Wayne’s Pennsylvania troops when he ordered his men to remove the flints from their muskets to prevent an accidental gunshot and to use bayonets to insure the surprise of a nighttime attack. These tactics were used again in River Vale.
Grey’s men used their muskets to club and their bayonets to stab the sleeping dragoons. Eleven were killed immediately. Three more including 2nd in Command Major Alexander Clough (Washington’s Chief of Intelligence for the Hudson Valley), died of their wounds in Tappan the following day. Records indicate that as many as 22 men died some several weeks later. Two officers and 37 men, most of who were wounded, managed to escape into the night. One British soldier was killed when shot by a dragoon.
Grey’s men quickly gathered their prisoners and captured American equipment and continued up North. Fortunately General Wayne had been alerted of the movement of the British and had evacuated Tappan. The next day a detachment of the Bergen County Militia was dispatched to River Vale to locate any survivors. Finding six of the dead patriots at the bridge and fearing the possible return of British troops, they hurried to bury them in three abandoned leather tanning vats by the river.
The burial location was passed on by word of mouth for many generations. The only physical maker was the abandoned millstone from the tannery. Abram C. Holdrum removed the millstone from the site around 1900. For many years it was displayed in from of the local Holdrum School.
In 1967, a local resident became alarmed that a new housing development would destroy this historic burial site. Through careful research the approximate location of the burials was identified. County Freeholder D. Bennett Mazur was contacted and as a result, the County sponsored an archaeological dig that located six sets of remains. The County eventually acquired the site and dedicated it as a County Park. In 1974, the patriots’ remains were re-interred in the park and the original millstone was donated to serve as their gravestone.
In 2003, the County dedicated new interpretive panels and accessible pathways at the Baylor Massacre site. It is open year round during daylight hours.
WWW.BERGEN.NJ.US
Disclaimer: This information was taken from the County Pamphlet: 2015 Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs. The Bergen County Division of Cultural & Historic Affairs received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State. I give them full credit for this information.
The Baylor Massacre site in the fall of 2022
The Park in the fall months
Note from the Blogger: it is easy to miss the site so watch for the markers. For those interesting in the historical background of the Revolutionary War and New Jersey’s role in the war, take the time to visit this and other sites around Bergen County, New Jersey. They may be small but very significant.
Watch this interesting video that someone posted on YouTube.com
The grounds of the park
The grounds of the park in the fall
The site in the early Spring of 2025
The information signs of the site
The pathways by the river
The gravesite and memorial
The pathways around the park
The pathways around the park
The historic marker in the early Spring
In April of 2025, I took my students from Bergen Community College to the site for a project that we were working on for the ‘Bergen 250’. Most of the students did not know this place existed.
A talk with Colin Knight from the County Historical Division with my students
Me with my students at the Baylor Massacre site
A group picture near the county marker and garden with my students
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Team Project Spring 2026: “The Graveyards and Cemeteries of the Revolutionary War Veterans”
The first two sites that I visited with this Team in the Spring of 2026 was the Baylor Massacre site and then the Haring Farm Cemetery down the road. The irony about the site is that all my students were from Bergen County and none of them had been here before. I had taken my previous ‘Bergen 250’ class here as well as our next stop, the Haring Farm Cemetery just a few blocks away.
My Team tour of the Baylor Massacre site
The Team tour of the site
Tour of the Baylor Massacre site
Touring the Baylor Massacre site
The Team picture at the Baylor Massacre site
I returned to the Baylor Massacre Site again in 2026 when my students were doing another project for the Bergen 250, mapping the historic cemeteries and graveyards of the Revolutionary War Veterans. Here is the group shot from that trip.
*Bloggers Note: because of the size, location and time of year these sites are open, the hours and cost to get in can change since the blog was written. Please check with the site’s website or call the site before you visit. Things change over time.
My name is Justin Watrel and welcome to ‘VisitingaMuseum.com’, a trip through cultural sites, small unique museums, historic mansions and homes and pocket parks & community gardens in New York City and beyond its borders. I created this blog site to cross reference all the cultural sites that I came across when I was traveling through Manhattan for my walking blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com”.
Historic New Bridge Landing
I was inspired by all these sites that I had missed over the years and never knew existed in New York City and its suburbs. Many of these being in Bergen County, NJ where I live. I found that most people feel the same way. The only way you would know that these sites existed is by walking past them.
School House Museum in Ridgewood, New Jersey
So I created this site to showcase all these smaller, largely unexplored ‘gems’ in Manhattan, the rest of New York City and places outside the greater New York City area. I concentrate on smaller, more off beat cultural sites that you might miss in the tour books or may just find by passing them on the street. This has lead me to becoming a member of the Bergen County Historical Society in Riveredge, NJ as well as other cultural sites in the area.
The Aviation Museum in Teterboro, New Jersey
There is so many interesting historical sites, parks, gardens and homes to explore that I want to share it with all of you. They are tucked behind buildings and walls, locked behind gates or hidden behind trees only for you to want to discover them.
Ringwood Manor in Ringwood, New Jersey at Christmas
I want to give these smaller and unique ‘gems’ more exposure and ‘sing their praises’ to an audience (namely out of town tourists) who might overlook them. It is hard for a lot of these cultural site because of the lack of volunteers or volunteers getting older or the absence of money to properly advertise these sites.
Juan Leon’s work at Gallery Bergen on the Bergen Community College campus in Paramus, NJ
So join me in the extension of “MywalkinManhattan.com” with my new site “VisitingaMuseum.com” and share the adventure with me. Join me also on my sister blog sites, “DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com” and ‘LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com’ for restaurants and small shops.
The Dyckman Farm in Washington Heights in Manhattan
These sites featuring all sorts of small restaurants, bodegas and bakeries, where a quality meal can be had for $10.00 and under and unusual stores with unique merchandise that just stand out in their respective neighborhoods. It is important to support small business owners especially in this economy.
Lucy the Elephant in Margate, NJ
So, join me here as I take “MywalkinManhattan” to some unique and special historical sites and open spaces the New York Metropolitan area and beyond.
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 