Gloucester County Historical Society Opens Colonial Tavern Exhibit

The Gloucester County Historical Society Museum has opened a new colonial tavern exhibit centered around a real open-hearth fireplace from the historic Hugg’s Tavern. The new display recreates the atmosphere, tools, and foods that were common to the taverns of the Revolutionary War era when a tavern served as restaurant, bar, hotel, stables, and a place where community information was exchanged, and revolutionary fervor was heightened.

During that colonial era, Hugg’s on the waterfront of Gloucester City was one of the two largest and busiest taverns on the New Jersey side of the Delaware (the other was the Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield). Hugg’s became historically famous for several reasons, but is best known as the place where Betsy Griscom married John Ross to become Betsy Ross, the upholsterer that folklore credits as creator of the American flag. The ceremony took place in front of one of the eight brick fireplaces in the tavern.

In 1929, when the then-dilapidated 208-year-old tavern building was torn down to make way for Gloucester City’s new Proprietors Park, one of its fireplaces was carefully dismantled, trucked to Woodbury, and reassembled in the Gloucester County Historical Society Museum. It’s not certain that that specific fireplace was the one Betsy Ross stood in front of as she took her marriage vows, but it was one of the eight in the tavern at the time of that wedding.

“This fireplace has been with us for more than 90 years but not much was done with it,” explained Janet Bishop, Society Vice President and Chair of the Museum Committee. “As the 250th Anniversary of American Independence approaches, we thought an authentic recreation of a late 1700s tavern room would help tell the story of how these landmarks played such a crucial role in daily life as well as the Revolution itself back then.

“Taverns were the beating heart of colonial communities, functioning as vital social and political gathering places,” she continued. “T”hey served as ‘seedbeds of the revolution’ where patriots and loyalists alike would congregate to discuss politics, debate ideas, and share news.”

The new exhibit includes a tavern dining table spread with a typical tavern meal of the era created with period-accurate, faux reproductions of meals that would have been cooked over the open hearth. Created by faux food artist Sandy Levins, a Society board member, the foods include a pork pie in its standing crust, fresh Delaware Bay oysters, smokehouse sausages fresh from the grill, and hearty bread, all washed down with mugs of cider or beer,

The tour of the exhibit, led by a Society docent, takes visitors through the story of Betsy Ross and Hugg’s tavern, as well as the lore of other historical taverns of Gloucester County, and issues such as why the rhetoric as well as the flags and other emblems of the Continental Army focused so much on rattle snake iconology.

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The Historical Society Museum is located at the intersection of North Broad Street and Hunter Street in Woodbury. There is a parking lot directly next to the Museum as well as additional parking in the free parking garage.

Museum hours are
Tuesday, 6 PM to 9PM
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 12 noon to 4 PM
3rd weekend of every month (Saturday and Sunday), 12 noon to 4 PM.

Admission is free for Society members and $5 for non-members. Children are free of charge when accompanied by an adult.

The Society is located across the street from Charlie Brown’s Restaurant, so a visit to the Museum can easily be combined with a pleasant lunch or dinner.

Gloucester County Historical Society Museum
58 N. Broad Street
Woodbury, NJ, 08096
Contact: [email protected], 856-848-8531
Geo Locator: 39.83963, -75.15195
Google Maps: https://bit.ly/gchs-museum