In June 2025, Bedminster's Township Committee told the nonprofit that had managed the Jacobus Vanderveer House since 1999 to leave the property by July 31. On Friday, November 27, 2026, the township's own commission will light a tree on the same lawn at River Road Park. Admission is free, and Santa is scheduled to appear.
The township took the house back so it could be programmed more often. The three-day holiday weekend closes the first full calendar year run that way.
Why the Township Took Over
Bedminster bought the house in 1989 with help from the state's Green Acres program. A friends group then ran it under a 25-year lease. When that lease came up for renewal in 2024, the township granted three short extensions, the last running to April 30, 2025. The talks stalled after that. The township wanted to appoint a third of the group's trustees, since it already pays for upkeep, utilities and public works services at the house.
Mayor Larry Jacobs explained the goal to the Bernardsville News in terms of the calendar more than the building:
"We can keep JHV, not just keep it going, but program it more frequently and get the Township Committee and the community involved and have more participants."
The committee adopted the ordinance creating the Jacobus Vanderveer House Commission unanimously on July 7, 2025. Before the vote it raised the board from 15 members to 21 voting seats, and 17 members were appointed at the start. TAPinto Bernardsville/Bedminster covered the commission's formation that month.
One project carried over from before the change. In 2018, Somerset County awarded $173,790 to reassemble a 19th-century barn on the site, using materials from a barn that once stood in Branchburg. During the township's June 2025 review, the mayor said those materials were still in storage. The New Jersey Historic Trust's record for the house describes it as the Voorhees Dutch barn, stored dismantled on the property.
A Year of Weekend Programs at River Road Park
The township's Vanderveer House page and local coverage show a schedule that kept going through spring, summer and fall:
- April 18: JVH Commissioner Paul Muir gave a talk on Henry Knox and the Revolution.
- June 20: Historian Joel Farkas spoke on the Declaration of Independence at an open house that also had tours, refreshments and a children's reading hour. TAPinto previewed it.
- July 25: The commission and the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills planned a joint program for Knox's birthday and America 250. It included two historians, a house tour, a look at the archaeological site, a Henry Knox reenactor and a cannon dedication. Patch covered the lecture.
- August 15: Author Michael Gabriele presented on colonial taverns. He noted that New Jersey had about 400 taverns during the Revolutionary War.
- September 19: Garden historian Lesley Parness spoke on early American women and their kitchen gardens.
The township also reports that more than 300 people came to an America's Birthday "Picnic and Pops" at the house, with tours, reenactors, vendors and music.
The Colonial Christmas program brings back pieces of that calendar. Gabriele's tavern talk returns as authentic colonial cocktails. The Knox lectures return as a "General Knox" reenactor in the parlor.
Three Days, Four Price Points
The weekend is set up so a household can come to one part or all of it. Here is the schedule as posted on the house's site, jvhbedminster.org:
| Day | Hours | Cost | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, Nov. 27 | 5–7 p.m. | Free | Tree lighting, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, hot pretzels, colonial cocktail samples, votive candle program, Hickory Tree Chorus, Santa |
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | 11 a.m.–4 p.m. | $10, children under 12 free | Santa and storytelling 11–1, Willow Grove Clydesdale ride noon–3, free hand-drawn silhouettes, colonial music with the Enslows 1–4, holiday shopping, "General Knox," "Lady Ellen" and reenactors, raffle |
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | 7–9 p.m. | $100 per person | Cocktail party with vintage cocktails by the Colonial Barkeeps, wine pull, silent auction, hors d'oeuvres |
| Sunday, Nov. 29 | 11 a.m.–4 p.m. | $10, children under 12 free | Santa and storytelling 11–1, gingerbread house workshop at $45 per kit, 18th-century chocolate history and samples, Hickory Tree Chorus 2–4, reenactors, house raffle |
Visit Somerset also lists the weekend and says more details are coming. Check the house's site again before you go.
On Saturday, plan around the timed blocks. Santa is there until 1, the Clydesdales start at noon and the music runs until 4. Arriving around noon covers all three.
The Knox Story Behind the Candles
The reenactors make sense once you know the house's history. The National Register nomination records that, by local tradition, the house served as Gen. Henry Knox's headquarters during the winter of 1778–79. His artillery trained that winter at the Pluckemin Cantonment, a training ground for as many as 1,000 troops that served as a secondary site to the larger Middlebrook encampment. Knox's wife, Lucy, joined him with their young daughter. Their infant Julia died in 1779 and was buried in Bedminster.
The best-known party of that winter took place about a mile away. Mr. Local History's account places the Grand Alliance Ball at the Pluckemin Academy on February 18, 1779, for the first anniversary of the French alliance. It opened with a 13-cannon salute, and Washington led the first dance with Mrs. Knox. Saturday night's $100 cocktail party is a small modern echo of that winter of officers' entertaining, held in the house tied to Knox.
Dinner on Main Street, Then One More Saturday in the Park
The house doesn't serve dinner. For a meal before the Friday lighting or after a Saturday afternoon visit, Bedminster Tavern is at 285 Main Street in the space that used to be Delicious Heights. Patch reported its opening on October 20. Owner Alyssa Cranston started at Delicious Heights as a greeter and server when she was 16. She told Patch she wanted "to get away from more of the fried bar food and get more into things that made sense for Somerset County." The menu is seasonal and changes four times a year. Chef Christopher Albrecht has joined the kitchen, and a new piano brings live music on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The back bar, which once operated as Legends, will become The Stables, a whiskey bar open Thursday through Saturday.
The park has one more holiday morning after Thanksgiving weekend. The township's Farmers Market closes its season with a Holiday Market on Saturday, December 5, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at River Road Park, 3055 River Road, the same address as the Vanderveer House.
If you want to get in the mood early, the Clarence Dillon Public Library's Morning Book Club meets today, Thursday, November 12, at 11 a.m. to discuss Mr. Dickens and His Carol.
The tree lighting at River Road Park this Thanksgiving weekend is free, takes two hours and is open to everyone. If it gets you curious about older homes on Bedminster's back roads, or you're starting to plan a move for next year, The Power of 2 would be glad to talk it through. Laura and Gina know these streets well. When you're ready, schedule a consultation.
