The Mount Laurel Historical Society will host their second meeting of the year on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. All meetings are being held at 443 Mt. Laurel Road. Following the meeting, there will be a presentation on a pre-determined topic. All are welcome to join.
“We really are such an untapped resource for people,” said Stephanie Marks Sawyer, the historical society’s treasurer/webmaster. “Our members are from all such different backgrounds. We have people from all different walks of life, and they’ve gotten to us from so many different ways.”
Farmers’ Hall, the historical society’s headquarters, is located at the base of the mount at the west corner of Moorestown-Mount Laurel Road and Hainesport-Mount Laurel-Evesboro Road, and was originally built in 1866, according to the historical society. The Quaker Meeting House next to the mount was built in 1760 and is now the oldest in Burlington County. Both the Meeting House and the Clinton House on Mt. Laurel-Evesboro Road was used during the Revolutionary War by the British as they retreated across New Jersey in mid-June 1778 from Philadelphia to the Battle of Monmouth and New York City. The adjoining schoolmaster’s house was built in 1783. Farmers’ Hall served as the town hall from 1904-1969. In October of 2002, the township restored the building and raised the entire structure.
“It’s a great building and it has a lot of history,” Sawyer said. “It has its own history and it’s right there, and that’s what I wish that more people knew, is that it is a hidden gem.”
Activities and offerings provided by the historical society include information on other local historical activities and tours; a food truck event in September; articles on local history topics; scrapbooks on various Mount Laurel topics; and more. The two-storied building has a treasure trove of artifacts on each floor and there is a library on the second.
Monthly speakers have discussed everything from blacksmithing to ghosts haunting local houses; history on the Jersey Shore; mysteries of Burlington County; weapons of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars; history on the Jersey Devil; Quaker Homesteads; and history books by local authors. That’s just the tip of the iceberg and there’s nothing talked about that guests will be behind on or miss. If you need to come with someone, bring a friend, Sawyer encouraged, no matter what their age.
“Even the topics where you don’t think you’re going to enjoy it, you do,” Sawyer said. “Come out to something that interests you and then come back out because you had a good time or you met someone that you were friendly with or you saw someone that you know. Just come on out and try it.”
For updates on the historical society’s future meetings, visit www.mountlaurelhistoricalsociety.com or their social media.
Activities and offerings provided by the Mount Laurel Historical Society include information on other local historical activities and tours; articles on local history topics; scrapbooks on various Mount Laurel topics; and more.
The two-storied building has a treasure trove of artifacts on each floor including this cannon ball that was recently discovered in the yard of a Mount Laurel resident and donated to the historical society.
