Things to do / Travel Guide
Visitors to the Jersey Shore will find plenty of attractions that facilitate a foray into the past. Historic villages along the coast offer quaint and interactive learning experiences while the Jersey Shore's military historic sites are guaranteed to get you fired up!
Historic Villages near the Jersey Shore
- Longstreet Farm in Holmdel Park gives a nice flavor of local farm life in the 1800's.
- For a place with an authentic air of what once was, try Allaire Village in Allaire State Park. Allaire Village, an iron-ore-working community that was extremely profitable during the 1800s, has been restored.
Today visitors can see a carpenter's shop, bakery, general store, foreman's cottage, chapel, and blacksmith's shop, all of which date back to the 1820s and 1830s. During the summer, costumed interpreters liven up these buildings by engaging in a flurry of 19th-century-era activities, from weaving and quilting to wood working and baking.
Tuckerton Seaport, in Tuckerton, is a 40-acre authentic seaport village with more than 16 different historic locations, such as Tucker's Lighthouse, Parson's Clam House, and Joe Dayton's Sawmill, that represent and demonstrate the trades and crafts that once characterized the Barnegat Bay region.
Designed to recreate a 1700s-era crossroads town, Towne of Historic Smithville in Smithville encompasses 32 restored and reconstructed buildings as well as stores selling colonial handicrafts along quaint pebble stone walkways and cobblestone paths.
Cold Spring Village, recreates an entire farming village.
Historic Homes and Buildings near the Jersey Shore
- Stephen Crane, was raised in Asbury Park, and his childhood home is being restored and is open to visitors.
- Covenhoven House in Freehold has a history going back to Dutch farming days. The mansion was occupied by the British in the Revolutionary war.
- St. James Episcopal Church in Long Branch, boasts of having been prayed in by seven Presidents.
- Ocean Grove's Victorian Great Auditorium, has hosted many events – religious and otherwise, during its 140 year history
- Cape May County Historical Society Museum (John Holmes House) is a late-18th-century home built by Irish farmer John Holmes. The building houses an assortment of historical artifacts including clothing, musical instruments, toys, and 18th-century furnishings.
- Beautifully restored with period furnishings, Emlen Physick Estate in Cape May is a splendid 1878 Victorian mansion. Impressive interiors include a square staircase and geometric mantelpiece. The estate is open to the public daily.
Historic Military Attractions near the Jersey Shore
- George Washington and Charles Lee, led the Continental Army to victory in the Battle of Monmouth. Visitors can view the battlefields and pay tribute to the fallen Revolutionary War soldiers at Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Manalapan, west of Freehold.
- Further north, and in view of the distant New York City skyline, Fort Hancock was a highly strategic defense site up until the 1970's. Visitors can see the gun batteries and bunkers that protected the entrance to New York harbor.
- Further south, in Lakehurst ,about halfway between New York City and Atlantic City, visitors with an interest in Navy history and actual artifacts would enjoy a visit to the Lakehurst Naval Engineering Station. This is also the site of the Hindenburg disaster.
Lighthouses on the Jersey Shore
Shed light on the Jersey Shore's maritime history with a visit to one of the 11 Jersey Shore lighthouses open to the public. Several of these beautiful and well-maintained lighthouses worth a visit:
- Built in 1764, the Fort Hancock/Sandy Hook Lighthouse is the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States.
- The Twin Lights Lighthouse of Navesink, near Sandy Hook, was the first twin lighthouse ever built. The structure, built in 1828, used the first Fresnel lens in the U.S. and was the first seacoast light in the U.S. to use electricity.
- “Old Barney,” the Barnegat Light, welcomes seafarers into Barnegat Inlet. Civil War general George Meade designed the lighthouse in 1835, and it operated for nearly 80 years.
- Looking for the tallest, and one close to Atlantic City? Absecon Lighthouse, at 171 feet and close to the boardwalk, is the lighthouse of choice.
- Standing like a white beacon at the tip of the Cape May Peninsula, Cape May Lighthouse is a beautifully-restored 1859 structure and one of the oldest continually operating lighthouses in the U.S. General Meade designed this one, too.
Historical Sites in Atlantic City, Wildwood, Cape May, New Jersey Shore
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