Discovering hidden historical and cultural gems in Manhattan & Beyond
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Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. CEO/Co-Founder Professor Justin Watrel and his Executive Team outside the Wortendyke Barn in Park Ridge, NJ for a Team Field Trip.
Anna Hazzard Museum
17 Christian Street
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
(302) 227-7310
Open: Check website for seasonal hours
Admission: Adults $5.00/Seniors-Students-Active Military/Children $3.00
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Anna Hazzard Museum at 19 Christian Street
I got to take a personal tour of the Anna Hazzard house, a tiny museum in Downtown Rehoboth Beach that is part of the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society.
The little house shows the transition of Rehoboth Beach from a Methodist Revival Camp in its early history to its transformation to the beach resort it has become today. This small homes were used for only a certain amount of weeks in the summer months and shut for the rest of the year.
There was only a certain amount of space allotted so you could most people, who owned these types of homes were outside communicating with nature and enjoying the outdoors. The space inside didn’t allow for too much socialization.
This is the last of these type of homes being eventually replaced now by beach McMansions and homes on stilts in a changing weather pattern and shore erosion. It is interesting to see this example of how these beach communities have transitioned over the last hundred years from religious communities to luxury beach towns.
The History of the Museum:
(From the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society Museum website)
This museum boasts a Camp Meeting Era “Tent” structure, which houses a collection of artifacts and memorabilia pertaining to the early days of Rehoboth Beach as a religious retreat.
The historic sign
The information sign
A portion of this historic structure at 17 Christian Street dates back to 1895 and was the original home of Methodist minister Rev. Adams during the time of the Methodist Camp Meetings.
Once owned by Anna Hazzard, the first female licensed realtor in Delaware, it was later donated to the city by its last owners, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald James, and moved from its home on Baltimore Avenue to its current location (Rehoboth Beach Historical Society website).
The house from the side view
The inside porch
The inside porch
The museum is home to a large collection of Anna Hazzard’s hymn books. The collection includes the Epworth Hymnal and the New Songs of the Gospel.
The main room of the home
Additionally, visitors can see many other Methodist hymn books. In addition to this, Anna Hazzard’s original collection, the museum has recently installed a new exhibit on World War II (Delaware Digital Media website).
Family artifacts and old beach pictures decorate the room
The music box and sheet music
A look back to the other two rooms
The small office/personal space
The small writing desk in the house
The small kitchen and dining area
The full kitchen area
The antique kitchen appliances
The house is an example of the transitioning of this community from a religious retreat to a up and coming popular beach resort. The home is an interesting look at the communities past.
Perry Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society
Old Hook Road
Harrington Park, NJ 07640
(201)768-2615
http://www.harringtonparkhistoricalsociety.com/
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=241777
Open: Dusk to Dawn
Admission: Free
My review on TripAdvisor:
The historical significance of for the cemetery
The Perry family cemetery is a small family plot in Harrington Park, NJ and example of a time when families still buried their loved ones on property that family’s thought would be there for generations. Many generations of the family are buried here showing the family’s love of this land but like too many tiny cemeteries throughout Bergen County have been lost in time by the family buried there.
Today it sits quiet and respectful and somewhat over grown. Nature now surrounds it.
The Perry Cemetery History:
(From the Harrington Park Historical Society)
The Perry Cemetery is a small family burial ground located on what was the farm of David Perry (1809-1871). The Old Burying Ground cemetery is part of the land apportioned to Garret Huybertsen Blauvelt, son of one of the original sixteen grantees of the Tappan Patent approved by the Governor of New York in 1686. Although there are believed to be earlier ones, the first known burial was in 1722 and the last in 1905.
The Perry Family Cemetery sits quietly on a stretch of Old Hook Road
(From the Harrington Park Historical Society)
The Perry Cemetery is situated in the Borough of Harrington Park on Old Hook Road, east of Bogert’s Mill Road opposite the United Water Company building. David Perry had devised by his will, signed on July 18,1868 that: “the burying ground where the same now is, westerly of my dwelling house, of the use of 40’ square, I give unto all my children to be kept by them and their posterity as a place of burial forever.”
The Perry family tree of loved ones buried at the cemetery
(From the Historical Marker Database)
When David wrote his will, his great-grandson Perry Cole (1866-1867) already had been buried in the small plot. By the end of 1871, six members of the Perry Family had been laid to rest within yards of the family house. The last burial at the cemetery was that of David’s great-grandson, Claude Yeomans (1887-1940). There are a total of twelve people interred at the Perry Cemetery.
The untimely death of many members of David’s family is a reminder of the struggles and uncertainties that people of that period routinely endured. The property remained in the Perry Family until the 1920s when it was purchased by the Hackensack Water Company to become part of the Oradell Reservoir. The graves are laid out in four even rows facing East and the markers are either marble or granite.
The Perry Family tree starting with the marriage of David Perry to Catherine Blauvelt
Son Henry and Daughter Rachel’s tombstones
Patriarchs David Perry and his wife, Catherine Blauvelt Perry
The last David Perry to be buried in the family plot
The family plot facing the stream
The Patriarchs of the family stand in the middle
The newest graves in the cemetery
The latest burials in the family plot
Video on the Perry Cemetery from the Harrington Park Historical Society
Old Burying Ground/Blauvelt Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society
Tappan Road
Harrington Park, NJ 07640
(201). 768-2615
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1653309/harrington-park-old-burial-ground
http://www.harringtonparkhistoricalsociety.com/
Open: Dawn to Dusk
Admission: Free
My review on TripAdvisor:
The historical marker for the Old Burying Ground
The wall outside the cemetery
The Old Burying Ground known also as the Blauvelt Cemetery, is an interesting look at the burial rights of prominent farming families of early Bergen County and their forgotten legacy of their contributions to building not just the County to our Country as well.
Many of these families intermarried over time combining properties and farms that over time since the turn of that last century, have become lost corners of our county’s history due to growth after WWII of suburban communities.
It is interesting to see who the movers and shakers of these communities of the past whose descendants were still live in Bergen County. The sad part is that these distant family members may not know their own family history enough to visit these tiny pieces of history that hold members who fought in the Revolutionary War and contributions to the growth of businesses with names that have been reduced to well known street addresses. A lot of history lies in these tiny plots that dot Bergen County. Here you can see the ‘ghosts’ of the past and walk past their graves to hear their stories.
The entrance to the cemetery
The History of Burying Ground:
(from the Harrington Park Historical Society)
In use for nearly two hundred years, largely by the Blauvelt family, the earliest known burial was in 1722. The cemetery contains the graves of members of other early Bergen County families, veterans of the American Revolution and slaves. Some of the tombstones are inscribed in Dutch.
The description of the family plots
The grave of Patriarch Justin Demarest
The Blauvelt family plot of Patriarch Daniel Blauvelt
The graves of members of the Blauvelt and DeGraw families
The graves of David and Helen Blauvelt
The middle of the Blauvelt family plot
The cemetery from the other side of the Blauvelt family plot
The Blauvelt and Demarest family plots (damaged tombstones)
(From the Harrington Park Historical Society)
Abraham Quackenbush (1768-1854) and his wife, Elizabeth Myers (1770-1807)) are part of the Abraham Myers family burial plot at the Old Burying Ground. In the middle of the 18th century, Abraham Myers received a royal charter from King George III to build a grist mill on the Hackensack River which his grandson John Bogert later operated, and it thereby became known as “Bogert’s Mill.”
The Myers family members interred in the plot are Abraham Myers, his wife Cathrena Nederman, daughter Cathrena, daughter Elizabeth and Abraham Quackenbush, son John Myers and wife Rebecca Durie.
The Blauvelt-Eckerson-DeGraw family graves
Patriarchs David and Helen Blauvelt family plot
Video on the Cemetery from the Harrington Park Historical Society
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 