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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
SHARPTOWN, 56.2 m, (25 alt., 232 pop.), is a small community of
half a dozen stores, a church, a single school, and a group of middle-class
houses clustered in a triangle around an old oiled roadway. Up to the time
of the Revolution the community was Blessington, the name of the Sharp
family's plantation. Later Sharptown was a station on the Underground
Railway.
Along the highway east and west of Sharptown are a number of marble
milestones, some standing at a distance from the present road. How they
got there no one knows.
Right from Sharptown on a narrow oiled road at the ice-cream plant to the
SEVEN STARS TAVERN (L), 2 m.; built in 1762 by Peter and Elizabeth Louderback.
The monogram and the dare are woven into the brickwork of the south gable. Combining the old English and Dutch styles of architecture in checkered Colonial brick,
the Seven Stars Tavern is a two-and-one-half-story, peak-roofed building with a
slope-roofed two-story extension. Tradition has supplied it with a panorama of authentic ghosts; a pre-Revolutionary pirate – Bluebeard – who frequently visited the
tavern for his nightly grog; and a Tory spy who was hanged from an attic window.
At the western side of the main entrance is a small window, the sill about 6 feet
high. This eighteenth-century counterpart of modern curb service was built to accommodate travelers on horseback. Right from the tavern to OLIPHANT'S MILL,
2.5 m., where grist and feed have been dispensed to the surrounding countryside for
more than a century. Practically every farmhouse in this section dates back at least
to Revolutionary days.
Near the top of Oliphant's Hill is the MORAVIAN CHURCH (L), 3 m. A square,
rather barn-like structure, it has perfectly plain lines in accordance with traditions
of this sect. It was erected in 1786 on the site of a log structure built in 1747. The
property was conveyed to the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1837 and is now used
only for occasional memorial services.
The concrete ends as US 40 turns R. at 61.3 m.
At DEEPWATER, 65 m. (10 alt., 537 pop.) (see Tour 19), is the
junction with US 130 (see Tour 19).
US 40 is united with US 130 between Deepwater and the Delaware
Line, 67.8 m. (see Tour 19).
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