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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
MANALAPAN (Indian, good cultivation), 22 miles (50 alt., 40 pop.),
was the center of an area where the Unami, or Turtle clan of the Lenni
Lenape had their homes when the white men arrived. There are few houses
in Manalapan today. MANALAPAN INN (private), a drab old building at
the crossroads (R), suggests by its small windows and good construction
that it saw the Revolution and was a center of hospitality in stagecoach
days.
Right from Manalapan on an improved road is ENGLISHTOWN, 4 m. (70 alt.,
797 pop. ), where Washington made his headquarters, June 27, 1778, the night before the Battle of Monmouth. The building he used for a council with his officers
was the HULSE House, Main St., in the center of the village. Washington slept in
the house, then the home of Dr. James English, the night before the battle. It is a
low, two-story affair of severe Colonial design, with gables. The broad front has
two doors and the gray tinge of age hides the original white. A great elm behind
the house, under which the Commander in Chief is said to have sought seclusion,
is known as the WASHINGTON ELM. The VILLAGE INN, west side of Main St.
(open), built in 1732, is long and narrow, with white clapboards and dark red shutters. An old pump set in the sidewalk is still in use. On the eve of the battle the
American officers held a conference in the inn while their men passed the warm
night sleeping in the surrounding fields. Here also Maj. Gen. Charles Lee, after the
battle, wrote the letter which, together with his conduct on the field, led to his court
martial and dismissal from the Army (see Tour 18A). In the dining room Washington drew up the three charges on which Lee was tried. Relics of the battle are ex-
hibited in two rooms of the inn. Three entrances lead from the long porch supported
by square posts.
Englishtown was the home of Charles H. Sanford, nineteenth-century financier
who was a pioneer in the development of Argentina. His gifts to his native village
were a recreation field, a church, and the public library. He also provided the trust
fund from which historic Tennent Church is maintained (see Tour 18A). Englishtown is still the home of Harry Herbert, who began playing polo on the family
farm many years ago and became the father of American polo.
At 24 m., at a sign marking the Monmouth-Middlesex County line, is
the junction (L) with a graded dirt road (see Tour 20A).
Westward the highway passes old farms with broad potato fields and
well-kept fences and buildings. Near Hightstown, church steeples and the
buildings of Peddie Institute are seen ahead.
State 33 follows Franklin Ave. in Hightstown, passing florists' greenhouses and the plain residences of the town's outskirts.
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