Homeschool field trips kicked off with a walking tour of the Mount Tabor area, about 15 minutes from Susan's. This area was a Methodist Camp in the 1890's, run by the Methodist Church in Newark. Folks would come out for 2 weeks and stay in tents on 16X24 lots, spending lots of time in religious meetings and prayer sessions. Camp Meetings, which are outdoor religious revival services, began for the purpose of revitalizing faith, particularly in the aftermath of the
American Civil War. In 1866 the “Newark Conference Camp Meeting Association of Methodists”, under the authority of the officers of the Newark Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, operated several annual Camp Meetings at Lake Speedwell near
Morristown, NJ. When the owner of the land eventually told the Camp Meeting Association that he was going to sell the property, a group of the men began searching the countryside for a new campsite; they chose a wooded spread of land thick with underbrush and set upon a hill, which they named "
Mount Tabor", after the location mentioned in the Bible as the place of
Christ’s Transfiguration.
In August 1869, the crowds of Methodist campers, many of whom were from the large industrial cities in northern New Jersey, gathered in the rustic area for the ten day camp meeting. Before living in tents, many members set up home in their horse driven wagons in which they rode to the camp meeting. Many tent owners built wooden floors and cabinets inside their tents to protect belongings from the long, cold winter when the campers returned home (you can see still see this unique style of summer tent living in Ocean Grove today). Over the years the more affluent members of the community, prominent lawyers, ministers and doctors from the
Jersey City,
Newark,
Paterson,
Elizabeth and
Morristown areas, were building decorative
Victorian-style homes (albeit small enough to fit on 16- by 32- foot the tent lots), to make their encampment in the summer more comfortable.
The annual camp meetings, held for about ten days each August, were facilitated by the Camp Meeting Association trustees under the oversight of the Newark Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The main focus of the camp meeting was to conduct religious services, which included preaching and prayer, and for the purpose of religious education.
Religious services were held once a day (Monday through Saturday), and three times on Sunday. During one early Sunday camp meeting it was said that such an enormous crowd of people (10,000) gathered that, besides the three regular services, two additional ministers preached simultaneously at different areas in Trinity Place, sometimes known as “The Circle”. In addition to attending services, families strolled along trails which wound their way through the woodlands of Mount Tabor and Tabor Lake.
Those campers unaccustomed to "roughing it" in tents the country could choose to board at the new Arlington Hotel. The hotel was built in 1877 by Trustee David Campbell with the understanding that when he had reimbursed himself from its income, the building would become the property of the association. However, over time the quaint Arlington fell into such disrepair it had to be taken down many years ago. Part of the foundation remains and is being used as a retaining wall for the town's parking lot.
Over the years, the crowds that swarmed into Mount Tabor for the annual Camp Meeting diminished except for a few hundred persons who decided to stay and set up year-round homes where tents once stood. Some older residents who attended the camp meetings believed the decreasing crowds were caused by regulations such as the one that prohibited parking of wagons on the campgrounds. This measure was enacted to deal with the numbers of people who came to the camp meetings purely for the pleasure of the surroundings. Traffic in the town would be banned from midnight Sunday to midnight Monday, much as it was in Ocean Grove until 1980. In 1911, as allowed by the charter of 1869, homes were established under a ninety-nine year lease to the Camp Meeting Association (home prices ranged from $300 to $2,500). In 1969, the ninety-nine year leases ended and were renewed as a perpetual lease. Mount Tabor homeowners (known as "Leaseholders") paid a yearly rent to the Camp Meeting Association for their lots with their town assessment and township taxes. The association rent is now proportionately low; two dollars per year for small lots and four dollars a year for the larger ones.
We saw many beautiful,extremely tiny houses, and went into the library branch that is in an old prayer building. We used out IPad to take the walking tour, and it worked great!
We went to Aunt Margaret's wake, and while it was sad, it was also happy. There were alot of people telling stories about her, including Uncle Joe who told us that she used to dress him up in girls clothes and tote him around! We saw so many cousins and friends, and I told Meg that it was like a big party, and her Mom would have loved it!
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| The original meeting house, The Tabernacle |
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| Trinty Place, the three owners "joined resources" to make the most of the 3 lots. The home on the right has been owned by the same family since it was built. |
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| reading descriptions of the house's on the ipad, it's a whole new world! |
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| cast iron fountain placed in the park or the circle in 1875 at a cost of $225.00 |
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| eastern stick style architecture |
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| Mount Tabor branch of the Parsippany-Troy Hills Library, note the eave trim, 4 columns were built in 1901 when the building was enclosed. At one time there was a map of the Holy Lands worked in coloured sand of the dirt floor of the then named Ebenezer Pavilion |
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| everyone doing homework |
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| New Jersey heaven! Taylor ham,egg and cheese on a russian bagel with saltpepperketchup! |
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| I would drive 9 hours for this! |
