Where Revolutionary History Lives

History is everywhere you turn in the River Towns. The list of sites below is selective and roughly chronological, since the histories of many sites extended long before or after the American Revolution. Some of these places have been formally recognized as historic sites and remain open to the public, with guided tours offered regularly. And while others no longer remain standing, their importance in the revolution has not been lost to history.

This was the first true industry started by Europeans in Bucks County, an iron-making furnace on the banks of Durham Creek (now Cooks Creek). Employing hundreds of workers during the revolution, including some slaves, the furnace produced both bulk pig iron for other forges and finished cast goods like pots and pans, stoves and firebacks, and cannonballs for the Continental Army. Though only a dozen or so workers were needed to run the furnace, scores were required to cut timber to make charcoal to fuel the furnace, and miners were needed to dig and deliver ore.

Visit: Only faint vestiges of the furnace operation remain, but a quaint gristmill now stands on the site. In an adjacent park is a replica of a Durham boat, the kind that shipped goods on the Delaware and carried Patriot troops across the river on Christmas night in 1776. durhamhistoricalsociety.org

Buckingham, Bucks County This handsome example of eighteenth-century architecture sits atop a rise virtually across the road from Peddler’s Village. The Friends, or Quakers, were, of course, opposed to war, which made the revolution awkward for many. During the war, Buckingham Meetinghouse was used as a hospital for soldiers who were wounded (a few) or sick (the vast majority). It was also used as a courtroom to try soldiers and some civilians accused of desertion or aiding the enemy. And the fields outside the meetinghouse often served as a continual encampment, since Buckingham was on York Road , which linked Philadelphia to New York, crossing the Delaware River at Coryell’s Ferry (from modern-day New Hope to modern-day Lamberville). buckinghamfriendsmeeting.org

Ringoes, Hunterdon County The only real Revolutionary War action in Hunterdon County was a shootout known as the Amwell Skirmish. It happened on December 14, when members of the Amwell militia, led by Captain John Schenck, ambushed some of the Queen’s Lancers, led by Cornet Francis Geary, who was killed. Some historians say this type of harassment may have kept the redcoats from noticing that the Continentals were hiding Durham boats on the Pennsylvania side. All of which might have contributed to the surprise at Trenton twelve days later.

Visit: There’s a stone monument and sign at Geary’s grave off Route 202 in Ringoes, at the end of a footpath near Geary’s Ridge Road .

New Hope and Lambertville In the 1700s, this was a busy and vital crossing on the Delaware River. Both villages were called Coryell’s Ferry, after Emanuel Coryell, who started his business in the 1730s. The rope-rigged ferry was used to transport people, horses, wagons, cannons, livestock—you name it—across the river. After Washington escaped the pursuing British by crossing at Trenton in early December 1776, he made sure all the boats were pulled over to the Pennsylvania side to stall the enemy in New Jersey. He ordered outposts all along the river, including Coryell’s Ferry, to keep an eye on them. Seventeen months later, over three days, nearly 14,000 American troops crossed again at Coryell’s, this time on their way to the Battle of Monmouth.

York and Durham roads (Routes 263 and 411), Buckingham Taverns were key in the eighteenth century—meeting places, gossip centers, travelers’ stops—and Bogart’s Tavern was central to Bucks County life. Opened in 1763, it was the headquarters of revolutionary committees and became headquarters for General Nathanael Greene in December 1776. This was where, on December 19, Greene set in motion the Christmas crossing with an order to send sixteen Durham boats to “Meconkea ferry.”

The tavern was significantly enlarged in the 1870s, acquiring a mansard roof, so it doesn’t look like it did during the revolution. The interior, however, holds vestiges of that past.

Over the decades, the tavern expanded into a hotel, and in 1913 it changed its name. It was saved from demolition in 2025 by developer Robert J. Welch, who bought the long-vacant building and nearly six acres. “The value,” Welch says, “is in the history of the building.”

1635 River Road, Upper Makefield Through December, Patriot troops camped out throughout Upper Makefield, knowing their enlistment would be up December 31 and perhaps wondering if General Washington had any big ideas. One such house and farm along Pidcock Creek, almost five miles from McConkey’s Ferry and just 300 yards from the river shore, was the home of a miller, Robert Thompson. Officers used the house, and sick or wounded soldiers convalesced there. Two Virginians who stayed on the grounds were wounded in the Battle of Trenton: William Washington, a distant cousin of George, and 18-year-old James Monroe, who, forty years hence, would be elected the fifth president of the United States.

Visit: Formally a part of Washington Crossing Historic Park (though five miles upstream), it’s a winner for history buffs and little kids (there are sheep). The grist mill at the farmstead has been restored and is run for demonstrations. washingtoncrossingpark.org

Upper Makefield Although no American soldiers died while crossing the frigid Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776 or at the Battle of Trenton the following morning, an unknown number of soldiers who took part in the encampment at the Thompson-Neely House did perish from disease, exposure to the cold, or from prior injuries. They were buried behind the house, just a short walk across the Delaware Canal, in a memorial cemetery known as the Soldiers’ Graves site.

To this day their identities remain a mystery, their graves marked with stones that read “Unknown Soldier.” There is one exception: James Moore, a captain-lieutenant in Alexander Hamilton’s New York Artillery. His original gravestone read: “To the Memory of Cap. James Moore of the New York Artillery Son of Benjamin & Cornelia Moore of New York He died Decm. the 25th A.D. 1776 Aged 24 Years & Eight Months.”

Washington Crossing Historic Park, Upper Makefield Once Washington and his generals decided to surprise the Hessians, they settled on McConkey’s Ferry as the crossing point. It would be a ten-mile march from the New Jersey landing to Trenton. Using the ferries and Durham boats, about 2,400 troops, plus their horses and cannons, were moved across the icy water overnight. The building there now was built in stages from 1790 onward; only the basement kitchen remains from the original 1752 building.

Visit: A half-million-dollar grant from the National Park Service paid for a restoration of the building, which is expected to be open by Christmas. It’s just steps away from the Washington Crossing Historic Park visitor center. washingtoncrossingpark.org

Washington Crossing State Park, Hopewell Township Nobody knows exactly when Washington, Knox, Greene, and the other top officers went across the river on December 25 (the crossing lasted from 6 p.m. Christmas Day until about 3 or 4 a.m. December 26). But some of them likely kept warm inside the Johnson Ferry House, directly across the river from McConkey’s Ferry Inn. At this point on the Delaware, it’s the only building on either side of the river that was standing 250 years ago. It’s been lovingly restored and is a must-see.

Visit: All of the park’s buildings, currently closed for construction, are expected to reopen this summer. Park hours are generally dawn to dusk. wcpa-nj.com

101 Barrack Street, Trenton Continental Army troops arrived at Trenton about 8 a.m. December 26, 1776, in a fierce snowstorm. The fighting would only last about an hour, with the Patriots’ cannons proving decisive. The Hessians, their commander slain, broke ranks, fled, and surrendered in a nearby orchard. The Old Barracks Museum is the only Revolution-era barracks building still standing in New Jersey.

Visit: Currently closed for renovation, the museum is scheduled to reopen July 4. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. barracks.org

76 North Sycamore Street, Newtown The victorious troops marched 900 Hessian prisoners ten miles back to the ferries—by now the snow had turned to rain—then another five miles to Newtown, where they were herded into the jail and the Presbyterian church. The church, built in 1769, held several hundred prisoners until they could be moved to Philadelphia.

Visit: There’s a cemetery with a guide to gravesites, including those of twenty-eight church members who fought for the Patriot cause. newtownpres.org

Bensalem, Bucks County Not everyone was a revolutionary. This was the home of a kind of eighteenth-century colonial aristocracy, when the manor was known as “Trevose.” The Growden family settled on the land in the 1680s and, by some accounts, came to own roughly seventy-five percent of what is now Bensalem Township. The house standing there today, built in 1730 and later expanded, was home to a power couple: Joseph Galloway, a lawyer, and his wife, Grace Growden Galloway, granddaughter of the original owner. As a member of the First Continental Congress, Galloway argued that the colonies should remain part of the British Empire, but his proposal in 1774 failed by a single vote. A friend of Benjamin Franklin (who visited frequently and stored his papers in Growden’s vault), Galloway remained a Loyalist and helped the British run Philadelphia during the occupation of 1777–78. Afterward, he fled to England with his and Grace’s only child, their daughter Betsey, leaving behind his wife, with whom he would never reunite.

Visit: Call ahead to schedule a tour: (201) 639-6575.