In a message dated 5/13/2000 9:26:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
aot@... writes:
commemoratiang something, I'll check it again when I go out.
something about Lafayette I think
Then of course there is the 'smallest national park in the USA" at the corner
of Claremont and Valley -- the boulder that marks the site of "Washington's
Headquarters." It was a Crane homestead, the oldest house in Montclair, where
Washington stayed during the Rev War. His troups encamped in the meadow
around the house for several weeks. Can you imagine a meadow sprinkled with
tents at that busy corner? Washington's scouts would travel up Valley Road to
the top of Great Notch to check out British movements from the encampment
there. It was so high up that they could see the dust kicked up by troop
movements. Amazing huh? The air must have been a lot clearer than today!
I ran across a series of articles in the Montclair Times around 1900 when
there was an attempt (later successful) to tear it down. It was HUGE
preservation battle (this time PRO-preservation, unlike recent years when
property rights has dominated). Lots of letters to the editor from
organizations like the DAR or some such, a number of articles about its
history, lots of public lamenting and wringing of hands. I haven't found the
last chapter yet... I am only up to 1902 in my whirlwind scan of the Times.
Mary
