The Finns Point Lighthouse is located in the Fort Mott State Park and the afternoon that I was there which was the third Sunday of the month of June, it was not open. In fact, it looked like it had never opened for the day.
The gift shop/information center had a sign from 2019 with the hours of operation and the steps were not well cared for and the gardens around the building were over-grown. The lighthouse itself is behind a fence that you can look at but not enter and from what I read online is not open even when it should be if it is too hot or too cold because conditions inside can be impossible. The lighthouse and the Visitors Center will reopen for the 2023 season.
The Finns Lighthouse Visitors Center is now open in 2023
Still, the lighthouse has a majestic look to it and must have some views when it is open. If it is not open, take time to visit Fort Mott and the State Park, which offers spectacular views of Delaware Bay and the surrounding grounds. Take time to explore the fort and the where the guns were mounted. Very interesting.
Fort Mott also has a very good Visitors Center and small museum inside to see the history of the fort, artifacts from the fort and from the war years and all sorts of interesting information on the area.
The Finns Point Lighthouse
The History of the Finns Point Lighthouse”
(From the Friends of the Finns Point Lighthouse website-modified):
(Please read the above Friends Website for the complete history in detail of the ligthouse)
Soon after the 1638 landing of the Finnish colonists near the present site of Wilmington, DE, a small group of settlers crossed over to the east bank of Delaware River, where the land was though to be more fertile and established farms. One group selected land near the sweeping turn in the Delaware River and this area remains known to this day as Finns Point.
By an act of Congress in 1875, $55,000 was set apart for two pairs of range lights to help vessels transition from Delaware Bay into the Delaware River. Port Penn Range, located in Delaware, would guide traffic along the shipping channel from Ship John Shoal to Ready Island, while Finns Point Range would help vessels continue upriver, passing between Reedy Island and Baker Shoal.
Lt. Colonel William F. Reynolds of the U.S. Corps of Engineers oversaw construction of the front and rear range lights at Finns Point. The front light was located near the banks of the Delaware River and was displayed from a frame dwelling of the following description: “one and one half stories high with shingle roof, double weather-boarded on outside and lathed and plastered inside. Its rests on stone walls founded on wooden piles. The first story is divided into three rooms with the hall and stairways to the second floor and cellar and shed over the back door, porch and bay window in the front. The second story is divided similarly to the first, with a step ladder to lantern on the third floor, a gallery supported by brackets surrounds the lantern on front and sides.”
The illuminating apparatus for the front light was a fourth order range lens manufactured by Barbier & Fenestre in Paris, which focused the light from a fourth-order Funk Heap Lamp with one wick. In 1882, a “wooden screen painted white, with open spaces so as to show horizontal stripes” was placed atop the front lighthouse’s red tavern room to make the structure more conspicuous during the day. The daymark was removed in 1897.
The lighthouse sign
Three acres of land, roughly one and a half miles inland from the front light, were purchased from Joshua and Mary Dickinson on April 20th, 1876, as the site for the rear range light. To provide a focal plane higher than that of the front light, the project plans called for a tall, wrought iron tower to be used for displaying the rear light. The Kellogg Bridge Company of Buffalo, NY was contracted to manufacture the components of the wrought tower, which were then transported to Salem, NJ by railcar. From Salem, teams of mules pulled large wagons loaded with pieces of the iron tower to the construction site.
A frame keeper’s dwelling was built just west of the tower, along with a wood-framed privy and an oil house. The first keeper of Finns Point Rear Range Light was Edward Dickerson, who started serving on December 8th, 1876, even though the light was not lit until April 2nd, 1877.
The lighthouse sign
Fast forward to the 1970’s when the old dwelling was razed because it was unsafe, but locals showed an interesting in the lighthouse and having it moved. Resident Betty Husarik formed the “Save the Lighthouse Committee”. They faulted in moving the lighthouse but placed it on the National Register of Historic Sites in 1978.
In 1981, the committee set out to Washington DC to meet with their local congressman and the drive resulted in a contract for $33,600 being signed between the US Fish and Wildlife Service, on whose land the tower now stood and K & K Painting Company of Baltimore to have the tower repairs, sandblasted and painted. An open house was held at the tower on October 14th, 1984 to honor the determined effort shown by the “Save the Lighthouse Committee” and others in restoring the tower.
Today it is opened for limited tours and special events.
Open: Sunday 1:00pm-4:00pm/ Monday-Saturday Closed/Museum is open from April-December/The Auxiliary buildings are closed when the museum is closed. The community is welcome on Sundays when the museum is open and for community events. Please check the museum website on this.
I got to the Church Landing Farm in plenty of to tour the house and the grounds. What an interesting museum that is full of surprises. When they unlock the auxiliary buildings to show you the displays, they are a real wonder of fascinating artifacts each with its own theme.
The sign welcoming you to the Church Landing Farm-Pennsville Historical Society
The house was built by Daniel Garrison between 1840-1845 and was the home for five generations of the Garrison family up to 1973 when the last living relative, Anna Locuson died and did not leave an heir. In 1991, Atlantic City Electric worked with the Pennsville Township Historical Society to open this as a museum.
As I toured the floors with the docent, I noticed all the beautiful antiques. These items are all donations to the home. The only items of the Garrison family are portraits and pictures that were donated by the family over the years. On the lower floors are the kitchen, the Living Room and the Dining Room all decorated in a Victorian style. The kitchen looked like it was from the 1920’s with all sorts of kitchen items from a period of the 1880’s to the 1920’s.
When we toured the upstairs bedrooms, one was decorated with children’s furnishings and toys. The other bedroom was decorated for adults and had once served as the Master Bedroom for the home. The house also has a complete Research Library for people to find genealogy about their families who lived in town and of Pennsville, NJ.
When you tour the outside auxiliary buildings, this is when the museum really shines. When each building on the property is opened for the tour, you get to see the whole collection of artifacts. There is a small one room schoolhouse on the property that served the community from 1837-1919, a period outhouse and a piece of art from the old electrical building that was located on the bay.
The outdoor buildings that show the displays
Each of the buildings has its own theme. One of them is dedicated to the high schools with all their uniforms and trophies, yearbooks and pictures of various sports teams. There is all sorts of spirit equipment and high school artifacts.
Another is a floating Fishing Cabin that was moved to the ponds and lakes when people wanted to ice fish and all the equipment you needed to perform the task. There was another shed that had all sorts of Military artifacts from various wars along with items from the local fire and police departments as well as the VFW. There was a display on the “Sunbeam”, the local paper of Pennsville and its former editor.
The outdoor sheds
The most impressive building display was of the Riverview Beach Park, a former amusement park that was located in the current park until 1969. The display has all sorts of artifacts that include signs, old ride cars, signs, pictures, maps and items from the games. The are all sorts of items such as prizes that were won, pamphlets and signs from the park. It really brings the old park back to life.
One of the sheds is used as Santa’s House during the holidays as well as the house will be fully decorated for the Christmas holidays. Santa and his wife make an appearance at the busy open house. I was able to visit the decorated home and buildings in 2023 and there is a magical wonder to the museum at the Christmas holidays.
Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Pennsville Historical Society
I was able to tour the grounds though and walk through the small gardens. The grounds had the most spectacular views of the Delaware Bay and the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I am sure much of this did not exist in that time frame but still it is the most amazing view especially on a sunny day like I had. The sun has the most amazing shine on the water from this direction.
The Church Landing Farms grounds and view of the Delaware River and the Delaware Memorial Bridge
Even when the house is not open, still take time to tour the grounds and visit the outer buildings. It is a nice walk around the property.
The Church Landing Farmhouse during the summer months.
I took an extensive tour of the house in December when it was decorated for the Christmas holiday season. The house, grounds and outer buildings were all decorated for the Christmas holiday season with a hugely successful Open House on the first weekend of December. This is when this museum is highly under-rated with the amount of time and effort put into decorating every inch of this property. The display of Christmas decorations is dazzling! What a tour!
The Church Landing Farmhouse during the Christmas holidays.
The front of the Church Landing Farmhouse.
The theme this year is “Toy Soldiers”.
We entered through the kitchen and Gift Shop area of the house towards the back and I have to say that every room was decorated to the hilt with beautiful trees and decorations. There was not one corner of the house that was not decorated beautifully and tastefully.
The museum gift shop just off the kitchen.
The kitchen in the Church Landing Farmhouse.
The kitchen at the Church Landing Farmhouse.
The Christmas tree in the kitchen of the Church Landing Farmhouse.
I was lucky in that I had a personal tour with the President of the Historical Society and she took me room by room explaining who designed and decorated the rooms and the detail work that went into them. We went room by room to see all the decorations.
The Living Room was decorated with all sorts of interesting decorations.
The Living Room tree with Santa standing guard.
The Christmas tree in the Living Room
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The Living Room during the rest of the year
The next room we visited was the Music Room with its piano as the center of the room and a beautiful Christmas tree off to the side of the room.
The Music Room at the Church Landing Farmhouse.
The Music Room Christmas tree
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The Parlor during the rest of the year
The next room was the Dining Room set for Christmas dinner.
The Dining Room set for Christmas dinner.
We then entered the room that Santa met all the visitors when they were at the Open House. The area was just off the foyer and was the first room that greeted visitors once they walked through the front door.
The Santa Room with a train set.
Santa and Mrs. Claus seats in the front parlor of the house.
The decorated staircase and hallway of the First Floor.
The Upstairs hallway with dolls.
Bedroom One
Bedroom One
The Bedroom during the regular months
Bedroom Two
The Bedroom during the regular months
The new dollhouse that was donated
The Upstairs bathroom
The Elf in the bathtub
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The bathroom during the year
I thought this was quite unique was to see an elf in the bathtub of the upstairs bathroom. This little guy amused many visitors when he was just laying there in the tub with a smile on his face.
The nutcracker was standing guard when I returned to the first floor.
After I had toured the entire house, the three of us visited the smaller outer buildings that had also been decorated for the holidays. These included the Schoolhouse display, the Amusement Park display, the Military display and the High School displays. Each was decorated with their own them and was unique in its own way.
The Amusement Park display in the Riverview Beach Park building:
The Amusement Park display.
The Amusement Park display
The Amusement Park display with one of the original carousel mirrors.
The Riverview Beach Park Display in the Amusement Building.
The Amusement Park display.
The Amusement Park display.
The display of the original park
The Amusement Park display
The Amusement Park display
The Amusement Park display
The next building we visited was the Military display in the Veteran’s Building. Every corner of the room was decorated to the hilt and honored local members of the local military.
The Military Building
The Military Building
The Military Building
The town history building
The next building was dedicated to the local schools and bands. When it is not decorated, you can see all the Alumni objects from the local high schools including uniforms, composite pictures and trophies.
Pennsville School display
The High School displays.
The School displays.
The Christmas tree inside the High School building
The Town and High School History building
The High School display
After we left this small set of buildings, we went to the old Schoolhouse display on the other side of the farmhouse. That was set up as a school room circa 1900.
The Schoolhouse by the side of the main farmhouse.
The inside of the School House.
The Stuffed Animal display
After I had finished walking around the buildings with the President and one of the Board Members, we toured the property really quickly. On such a beautiful sunny afternoon, I really had a great view of the Delaware River and the Bridge.
The Gazebo with a view of the Delaware Memorial Bridge in the background.
A close up view of the house as I was leaving.
The last thing the ladies showed me was the Totem Pole that they had created for the site. I thought the carvings were really original.
The Totem Pole of the Pennsville Historical Society property.
Carvings on the Totem Pole.
Carvings on the Totem Pole.
Carvings on the Totem Pole.
It was an amazing tour in a very underrated museum that has so much to see and experience during the holiday season. This display closed as of the last week of December before Christmas and if you have not experienced this year, I suggest making a trip starting next December to see this magnificent display of Christmas trees and decorations that dazzle the eyes with their colors, designs and sheer glitter. It was one of the best Christmas displays I have seen in a long time.
The History of the Church Landing Farmhouse/Penn Township Historical Society:
(From the Pennsville Township Historical Society website):
The Church Landing Farmhouse was built in 1840 by Daniel Garrison. In 1991, the Atlantic City Electric Company provided structural renovations to the house and a group of dedicated volunteers from the community restored the farmhouse and grounds to their current glory.
The Church Landing Farmhouse grounds currently house a 130 year old Floating Fishing Cabin, a 100 year old Wash House owned by Pennsville Physician Dr. James, the 100 year old Perry Farm Privy (the farm is located on the Pennsville-Salem Road), the Riverview Beach Park Museum, a 1929 Art Deco Tile from the original Deepwater Generating Station building, a one room Schoolhouse, and the historic records that features PMHA, Salem and SCCS Yearbooks, local genealogy, Township Obituaries (2010-2020), Federal NJ Township Census Records and local history.
The Art Deco Tile from the Deepwater Generating Station Building
The displays at the museum feature newspaper clipping and a section on local newsman Bill Gallo Jr., police, fire and military from the area, high school yearbooks and displays, ferry and excursion ships, antique looms, sewing machines and spinning wheels, antique tools and church records.
The Church Landing Farm estate from the parking lot
The Bay lawn in the Summer of 2024
Visiting in Christmas 2024:
I returned again for the Christmas Open House in 2024 to see another dazzling array of decorations and Christmas trees.
The Church Landing sign was decorated for the holidays
Every inch of the house and grounds was decorated for the holidays
The main house looked very festive for the holiday season
The Gazebo overlooking Delaware Bay
Since I got to the site when the estate first opened, the first thing I did was visit Santa and Mrs. Claus in their Santa shed. What nice, engaging, people they both were, and we were able to have a nice conversation about the care of elders in modern society today. I never realized the Claus’s were so insightful on current issues.
Santa’s Shed at Penns Landing
Santa and Mrs. Claus holding court in the private shed
Me giving Santa my list of wishes and telling him that I was not naughty
The beautiful decorations in the shed
I moved onto the Amusement Shed that I enjoyed touring over the summer. the decorations here were really elaborate.
The Amusement Park shed decorated for the holidays.
The bumper cars decorated for the holidays
The rides and amusement decorated
The rides and amusements decorated
The rides and amusements were nicely decorated
I then moved to the Military Shed which I barely recognized with all the decorations.
The patriotic colors of the holidays
Santa figures bowing and dancing
The unique trees
The Military Christmas
The Marching soldiers in the Military Shed
After touring the sheds, I toured the historic house on the property. Each room was more impressive than the next.
The entrance to the Church Landing Farm Home
The first-floor reception room
Taking pictures in the Reception Room
The Staircase decorated on the first floor
The Living Room piano
The decorations in the Living Room
The Christmas Tree in the Living Room
Decorations in the Parlor
Santa’s in the Parlor
Gingerbread houses in the Parlor
The Parlor decorated with Santa’s and Christmas trees
Decorations in the Kitchen
The selection of cookies and refreshments to enjoy the afternoon of the Open House
The beautiful trees in upstairs bedroom
The larger tree in the bedroom
The decorations in the second bedroom
The decorations in the second bedroom
The decorations in the third bedroom
The decorations in the third bedroom
A visitor in the decorated bathroom
The little bathing in the bathroom
The Christmas tree on the second floor landing
The Christmas tree on the landing
The Christmas tree on the landing
I finished touring all the beautiful decorations in the main house and then I visited the small schoolhouse in the yard to see its decorations.
These are the delightful decorations in the schoolhouse
The schoolhouse decorated for the school holidays
The Church Land Farmhouse decorated for the holidays
The Church Land Farmhouse decorated during the holidays in 2024.
It was a very nice afternoon and there was a lot going on with a car show, beautiful decorations and wonderful refreshments in the kitchen for people to enjoy. The Pennsville Historical Society always does such a wonderful job with the decorations.
There is a true beauty to a historical cemetery with its old tombstones, its interesting artwork on the grave sites and the history behind the famous families who are buried there whose homes we tour and roads and parks that are named after them. The cemetery is located right in Downtown Salem, which serves as the County Seat for the County of Salem.
It was also home to one of the oldest oak trees in the country which fell in 2019. The over 500 year old oak tree has been part of the original virgin forest and is said to where town founder, John Fenwick, met with the Lenape Indians for the establishment of a settlement and for peaceful negotiations.
The family plots at the Salem Oak Cemetery
All that is left of the tree now is the rotting stump but three of its saplings still exist on the grounds and they look about two hundred years old. They grow majestically amongst the gravesites.
The family plots line the aisles at the cemetery
Inside the cemetery, the graves bear the names of founding fathers of the Town of Salem and prominent families who once made up the population with names such as Thompson, Reeves, Abbott, Wister, Bacon, Griscom, Waddington, Sickler, Lippencott, Goodwin, Bullock, Woodnutt and Bassett.
You will see these names on artifacts in the Salem Historical Society such as clothes, business document and household items. There names and influence still hold a position in the community.
The Salem Oak in the Friends Burial Ground before it fell in 2019 (Salem County Historical Society)
This is the spot where founder John Fenwick met with the Lenape Indians in 1675.
Take time to walk amongst the family plots and pay your respects to these important families who were once the founding members of both the community and of the great State of New Jersey.
The Friends Burial Ground plaque
The cemetery’s spot in Downtown Salem, NJ
The Salem Oak Cemetery in Downtown Salem, NJ
The cemetery is part of the Women’s Heritage Trail
I was very impressed by the Nicholas Gibbon House when I took a tour one Saturday afternoon. There were no large crowds to deal with and the parking is perfect with plenty of room to move around. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with all sorts of seasonal flowers surrounding the house. When I visited, I thought I was mistaken, and it was someone’s home. There was a lot of care put into both the exterior and interior of this home.
The fields around the Gibbon House.
Nicolas Gibbon was a local merchant who moved to Greenwich in 1730 and continued to live here until the 1760’s. The tour guide explained to me that the townspeople would not let him build a church here (it was a Quaker region) so he and his wife decided to move out of the area. Richard Wood and his family moved into the house in 1760 and lived in the house until the 1920’s. Over that time, parts of the house were modernized and rebuilt. The Wood family later in the generations founded the WaWa store chain.
With the exception of the Nicolas Gibbon’s nephew and his wife’s portraits, all of the furnishings are not originally from the house. The downstairs is set up with a formal dining room and parlor area fully furnished in Victorian era furniture, paintings, rugs and silver. The silver collection of the house is very elaborate and some of the pieces came from the Hershey family of Pennsylvania.
The family portraits of the Gibbon nephew and his wife.
The library and study have rare books that were used for research as well as a working fireplace that was used for both light and heat. Downstairs is the kitchen with a large hearth and all the equipment and serving items for kitchen and dining use for the home.
The Parlor of the Gibbon House.
The Library at the Gibbon House.
The tour guide explained to me that during some of the past fundraisers, the hearth was used to cook foods of the time period that were served for events.
The Kitchen of the Gibbon House was used for cooking fundraisers.
The Kitchen Hearth is quite large.
Upstairs you have an elaborate master bedroom with all sorts of formal furnishings for an upper middle-class family living in the area.
The Upstairs bedroom
The Master Bedroom upstairs at the Gibbon House.
What was the interesting part of the second floor of the home was the “Everything Room”, which contained an extensive collection of toys and dolls, Civil War historic items, period clothing, bonnets, top hats and parasols, an extensive collection of quilts and Hair Art which was a Victorian tradition of making art from the hair of the dead.
The Everything Room at the Gibbon House has all sorts of Victorian artifacts.
There was a collection of ‘Sewing Samplers’, which is how young women learned how to perfect their sewing skills which was part of their domestic training for being a housewife.
The Everything Room on the second floor of the Gibbon House.
The collection of the house really gave a glimpse into the lives of people from the 1840’s until almost WWI. How much life has changed but not too much.
The Everything Room at the Gibbon House.
History of the Gibbon House:
In 1730, Nicholas Gibbon who had inherited more than 3000 acres of land nearby, bought a 16-acre lot in Greenwich on which he built a replica of a London Townhouse he had admired. The brick, fired on the property, was laid in the Flemish Bond pattern brought from Kent, England: this design is achieved by using a red stretcher and blue header producing a definite and attractive pattern. Rubbed brick is a further architectural feature, outlining each door and window opening as well as being used to emphasize the four corners of the house.
The Upstairs bedroom at the Gibbon House
The home, appropriately furnished with products of 18th and 19th century artisans contains a reception hall, a paneled dining room, a formal drawing room and a kitchen dominated by a huge walk-in fireplace in which demonstration of colonial open-fire cooking are conducted.
The walk-in fireplace at the Gibbon House.
There is a small store on the back porch where post cards, gifts and a fine collection of books and pamphlets on the history of the area may be purchased.
The Master Bedroom.
On second floor, in addition to a bedroom, are exhibits of 19th century locally made, rush seated. “Ware” chairs, children’s toys, dolls and clothing as well as Civil War artifacts donated by local families.
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 