The Hopewell Valley History Project is now hosting the wonderful Pennington Borough History and Tour site, which was developed and maintained by local resident Joe Sinniger.
Joe originally developed the site from a Walking Tour Guide created by the Pennington Historic Sites Committee around 1990, with pages featuring images and descriptions of some 40 houses along seven streets in Pennington. He also added pages for other homes marked by historical signage, additional noteworthy buildings, and historical postcard images. The site also includes a history of Pennington with memories from several contributors, plus a section on St. Michael’s, including photos, a list of staff and residents in 1900, and mixed memories of St. Michael’s from four former residents.
Joe maintained the site from around 1995 to 2007, and did a final update in 2017. It was hosted on the Central N. J. Boy Scouts site, where it was also augmented with present-day Pennington information and links. Joe has kindly turned the site over to be preserved and hosted on this site.
[FOUND! – We unfortunately do not have the original source Walking Tour Guide document, from the Pennington Historic Sites Committee around 1990.]
Do you have this, or do you know of other historic house tours? We are working with the Hopewell Valley Historical Society, the Hopewell Museum, and the Hopewell Public Library to collect and scan local tour brochures. We currently have some 22 tour brochures scanned, out of 30 that we know of in the list below.
Please do contact us if you have any of the missing brochures (listed as TBD), or know of others to preserve for the collection – info@hopewellhistoryproject.org.
Known Hopewell Valley Tours
- 11/23/1975 – HVHS – Colonial School Open House (#News i)
- 2/1/1980 – HVHS – Old House Tour and Buffet (3 sites, invite, 2 pp)
- 1/23/1981 – HVHS – Old House Tour and Buffet (3 sites, invite, 2 pp)
- 5/1/1983 – HVHS – House Tour in the Valley – mostly Penn (7 sites, 4×2 pp)
- 5/6/1984 – HVHS – House Tour in the Valley – Press Release (4 pp)
- 5/6/1984 – HVHS – House Tour in Valley – Hw / Penn (8 sites, 4×2 pp)
- 5/5/1985 – HVHS – House Tour in the Valley – Hw Twp & Penn (8 sites, 4×2 pp)
- 5/3/1992 – HVHS – House & Garden Tour [Harbourton] (10 sites. 6×2 pp)
- 5/3/1992 – HVHS – House Tour – Program for Howell Living History Farm (2 pp)
- c 1992 – Mercer Cty. Park Comm. – Howell Farm Self-Guided Tour [HVHS} (4×2 pp)
- 10/16/2011 – HVHS – Historic Cemeteries – “Spirits of Hopewell Valley” (6 sites, 2 pp #N)
Known Pennington Borough Tours
- 11/14/1976 – HVHS – Walking Tour Old Pennington (7 sites + churches, 3×2 pp)
- 5/6/1990 – HVHS – House Tour of Pennington – 100th Incorp. (10 sites, 4×2 pp)
- 4/19/2008 – HVHS – Pennington Historic House Tour – Main (12 sites, 10×2 pp)
- 2015 – Pennington 125th Commemorative Program [HVHS] (19×2 pp)
- 4/26/2015 – Historic Churches of Pennington – 125th [HVHS/JOS] (7 sites, 6×2 pp)
- 10/3/2015 – HVHS – Pennington Historic House Tour – 125th (8 sites, 11×2 pp)
Known Hopewell Borough Tours
- May 18, 1957 – HM – Hopewell house tour [TBD]
- Sept. 19, 1959 – HM – Hopewell house tour [TBD]
- Sept. 17, 1960 – HM – Hopewell house tour [TBD]
- April, 1966 – Hopewell house tour – Hopewell Valley Jaycee-ettes [HM] [TBD]
- April, 1967 – Hopewell house tour – Hopewell Valley Jaycee-ettes [HM] [TBD]
- April 29, 1969 – Hopewell house tour – Hopewell Valley Jaycee-ettes [HM] [TBD]
- 9/26/76 – Hopewell Bicentennial House Tour [DHS] (6 sites + 6 churches, 4×2 pp)
- 5/5/1991 – HVHS – House Tour of Hopewell – 100th Incorp. (12 sites, 6×2 pp)
- 1999 – HPLF – Stroll Thru Hopewell – Historic House Tour (#Jones)
- 2000 – HPLF – Stroll Thru Hopewell – Historic House Tour (#Jones)
- 6/11/2000 – HPLF – Stroll Thru Hopewell – Historic House Tour (9 sites, 10×2 pp)
- 2002 – HPLF – Stroll Thru Hopewell – Historic House Tour (#Jones)
- 6/11/2008 – HPLF – Stroll Thru Hopewell – Historic House Tour (10 sites, 8×2 pp)
- 2013 – HPL – Hopewell Borough House Tour [Notes] (20 pp)
