CAMDEN COUNTY'S HISTORIC FALL TROLLEY TOUR

2012 Jaunt Visits Historic Mansions, Tavern and Graveyard

Photos by Hoag Levins

PENNSAUKEN, N.J. -- Docents in 18th-century garb were on hand to greet visitors at the Burrough-Dover House, the first stop of the Camden County Historical Society's 2012 Fall Trolley Tour of historic sites. Click photos for larger image

On a crystal-clear, sun-dappled day, trolley tour participants toured the ironstone Burrough-Dover house that dates to 1710 and is the headquarters of the Pennsauken Historical Society. Inside, above, right, docent Joan Wells explains the daily realities of early pioneer life in southern New Jersey. The Burrough-Dover basement (above, left) contains a museum of local Indian artifacts and various implements and machines of the 18th and 19th centuries. Outside, above, right, rustic steps lead down to a nature path along the south branch of Pennsauken Creek. Next stop was Haddonfield's Indian King Tavern Museum, a 1750 structure now restored and furnished as it would have been in 1777 when the rebel legislature took refuge in its second-floor meeting room and legally changed New Jersey's status from a colony to a state. Docent Tom Diemer welcomed trolley travelers to the main dining room and bar area. A colonial Tavern museum, the Indian King does not serve food but its tables feature faux versions of the typical meals served there at the time of the American Revolution. The third stop of the tour was at the 328-year-old Sloan Newton Burial Ground in West Collingswood where, amidst the grave stones, local actor Scott Mandel performed Poe's "Telltale Heart." He got a rousing ovation. Sloan Newton is the county's oldest cemetery and its most unusual feature is a four-sided concrete structure into which are embedded tombstones, some of which are more than two centuries old. The final stop of the trolley tour was at the Camden County Historical Society's own 18th-century Pomona Hall Mansion in Camden's Parkside section. Visitors got to tour the house and the adjacent two-story Camden County Museum (above, right), which features a large collection of Civil War artifacts. Pomona Hall is fully restored and furnished as it would have been in the late 1700s when it was the 'big house' of a 400-acre plantation owned by the Cooper family and worked by enslaved Africans and indentured servants. Among other things, the building boasts the Delaware Valley's largest, fully-functional open hearth kitchen. All Rights Reserved, © 2012 HistoricCamdenCounty.com Contact: editor@HistoricCamdenCounty.com About this Web site