Van Campen's Inn or Isaac Van Campen Inn is a fieldstone residence that was used as a yaugh house during the American colonial era. Located in Walpack Township,
Sussex County, New Jersey
Sussex County () is the northernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its county seat is Newton.Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...
, it is a historic site located along the
Old Mine Road
Old Mine Road is a road in New Jersey and New York said to be one of the oldest continuously used roads in the United States of America. At a length of , it stretches from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to the vicinity of Kingsto ...
in the
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a national recreation area administered by the National Park Service in northwest New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania. It is centered around a stretch of the Delaware River designated the ...
. It is operated under a memorandum of understanding between the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
and the Walpack Historical Society, a local non-profit corporation.
History
The Rosenkrans family, a Dutch family from the Hudson Valley in New York, settled in the
Minisink
The Minisink or (more recently) Minisink Valley is a loosely defined geographic region of the Upper Delaware River valley in northwestern New Jersey (Sussex and Warren counties), northeastern Pennsylvania ( Pike and Monroe counties) and New York ...
circa 1730.Koppenhaver, Robert "Old Mine Road: Roadside Attractions" ''Skylands Visitor''. Retrieved 2 January 2013.Solon, Tom "Isaac Van Campen Inn" in ''Spanning the Gap: The newsletter of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area'' Volume 6, Number 2 (Summer 1983). Retrieved 2 January 2013. It acquired a large tract of land along the Shapanack Flats section of the Delaware River in 1742. Harmon Rosenkrans is believed to have built the first section of the house shortly after (most sources stated 1746). This section, the "kitchen wing" was located on the north end of the house.
In 1754, Rosenkrans sold the property and the small house to his brother-in-law Isaac Van Campen who had married Magdalena Rosenkrans. Van Campen built the larger, main section of the house. Today this later wing is the extant structure. The older "kitchen wing" was torn down in 1917.
The house was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1980 as a contributing property to the
Old Mine Road Historic District
The Old Mine Road Historic District is a historic district located along Old Mine Road in Sussex County and Warren County, New Jersey. It is part of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The district was added to the National Regis ...
. With The National Park Service authorized a substantial restoration and reconstruction of the Van Campen Inn beginning in 1981. This restoration involved dismantling two-thirds of the front and side walls of the house, constructing new foundations, stabilizing the rear walls, and replacing interior wood structural beams. It was completed in 1984 by local stonemason Clarence Sharp (1923–2002).
While it is called an "inn", it is more accurately a "yaugh house"—a rural residence in a remote area that was licensed under colonial law to provide food and shelter to travellers. During the
French & Indian War
The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Great Britain and France, along with their respective Native American allies. European historians generally consider it a related conflict of the wider ...
(1754–1763), the Van Campen's Inn "provided a safe haven when settlers fled for protection from Indian attack." According to the National Park Service, in November 1763, 150 settlers sought shelter in the "stout walls" of the house against the threat of Indian attack."Guide to Military Trail" National Park Service brochure. Retrieved 2 January 2013. During the American Revolution,
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
is said to have rested the night at Van Campen's Inn while travelling from Massachusetts to Philadelphia for the
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...
. According to the National Park Service, "In a December snowstorm in 1776, several regiments under General
Horatio Gates
Horatio Lloyd Gates (July 26, 1727April 10, 1806) was a British-born American army officer who served as a general in the Continental Army during the early years of the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War. He took credit for the Ameri ...
marched south via Old Mine Road past this point and camped overnight on Shapanack Flats in front of Van Campen Inn. They then continued south to join General Washington in the Battle of Trenton." Brigadier General Pulaski, a Polish count, and his command of 250 cavalry soldiers wintered here in 1778. Van Campen served in the state legislature from 1782–1785.Hine, Charles G. ''The Old Mine Road''. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1908, 1985), 150.
The Van Campen's Inn site had a Dutch colonial-style barn with characteristic large, "steep roofed" inward-swinging double doors, gable ends, smaller animal doors (one for horses, another for dairy cows). It was built across the road from the inn circa 1811 by Henry DeWitt and John H. DeWitt of Rochester, Ulster County NY, who purchased the property from Abraham Van Campen in 1811. This structure was destroyed by
arson
Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
in the 1971.
The ruins of Fort Johns, a fortification built during the
French & Indian War
The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Great Britain and France, along with their respective Native American allies. European historians generally consider it a related conflict of the wider ...
, is located on the nearby hillside overlooking the property. Fort Johns was the headquarters of the New Jersey Frontier Guard, and the largest of a series of a dozen forts built to defend frontier settlers along the Delaware River by New Jersey's colonial government during that war, which lasted 1754 to 1763. It was located at the terminus of
Jonathan Hampton
Jonathan Hampton (1712 - 1 November 1777) was an American colonial surveyor, merchant, and militia officer involved with New Jersey's frontier fortifications and defenses along the Delaware River during the French and Indian War (1755-1763).
In ...
's
Military Road
A military road is a type of road built by an armed force
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily Weapon, armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and ma ...
built in 1755–1756 from the colony's capital Elizabethtown (now
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Morristown to supply the colony's fortifications in the Minisink. Today, the 1.6-mile long section of the Military Road traversing Walpack Ridge has been restored by the National Park Service as the "Military Trail" from Walpack Centre; it ends at the Old Mine Road a half-mile north of Van Campen's Inn. Driving between these two points on public roads requires a journey of ten miles.
See also
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Tocks Island Dam Controversy
A 1950s proposal to construct a dam near Tocks Island across the Delaware River was met with considerable controversy and protest. Tocks Island is located in the Delaware River a short distance north from the Delaware Water Gap. In order to cont ...
*
List of the oldest buildings in New Jersey
This article attempts to list the oldest wikt:extant, extant buildings surviving in the state of New Jersey in the United States of America, including the oldest houses in New Jersey and any other surviving structures. Some dates are approximate ...