Will NJ be ready to show off its Revolutionary history for the nation's 250th anniversary?

When it comes to the American Revolution, New Jersey was the epicenter.

The Garden State saw more action during the war than any other state.

Members of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, including John D. Alden and D. Stanton Hammond, documented more than 600 different battles and skirmishes in the state, starting with the often overlooked “tea party” at Greenwich on Dec. 22, 1774, and ending with Major William Crane's delivery of a captured enemy ship to Elizabethtown on March 3, 1783.

The state saw the 10 Crucial Days of the war. George Washington spent one-quarter of his time as general in New Jersey. And among the more than 150 historic sites related to the war is America's first national historic park: Morristown National Historical Park.

"Massachusetts started the Revolution. Pennsylvania did the paperwork, but it was New Jersey that launched the nation," said Roger Williams, the historian for the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. "George Washington is on the $1 bill because of what happened in New Jersey."

As 2026 approaches, New Jersey should be at the head of the table, according to state historians and state government officials. New Jersey is a Revolutionary War mecca for historians and an open classroom for the general public to learn about a complicated history of American independence, Williams said. Historic sites telling snippets of the United States of America's origin story are scattered between the Hudson and Delaware rivers.

State investments in those sites ahead of the anniversary have been coupled with vows from officials to see New Jersey recognized as a must-see historical destination.

“The nation’s 250th anniversary is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for New Jersey to be widely recognized and visited for its significance during the American Revolution and how the events, challenges and ideas of that time continue to shape our nation and can help us form a more perfect union," Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way said in late June.

Will NJ's Revolutionary War sites be ready for the nation's 250th anniversary?

In the fall of 2022, Gov. Phil Murphy announced the state would spend $25 million in American Rescue Plan funds to improve 10 Revolutionary War sites ahead of 2026. The money was earmarked for repairs to help revitalize Trenton’s Old Barracks, Washington Crossing State Park and other key sites, ready them for increased visitation and bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Murphy said heritage tourism was important, not only to the state’s economy, but to tell the story of what the United States of America is as a nation — especially amid so much political division.

The money was set aside for RevolutionNJ, a partnership between the New Jersey Historical Commission and the nonprofit Crossroads of the American Revolution Association charged with planning and promoting New Jersey's commemorations. The money has since been distributed to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the parks service, said Alicia D'Alessandro, a spokesperson for the Department of State.

As of July 1, almost all of the work remains in the planning and design stages, according to information provided by the state Department of Environmental Protection press office. On-site work is expected to begin this summer on Washington Crossing State Park's new visitor's center, records show. However, most projects will not start the construction phase until this fall at the earliest.

So far, Virginia, Massachusetts and South Carolina are all doing a better job of planning and touting their efforts to commemorate America's birth, according to Williams. While the Jersey Shore features year after year with prominent ad campaigns, the Crossroads of the American Revolution heritage sites have been an afterthought, he said.

"I'm frustrated as a resident," Williams said. "There's a huge opportunity for New Jersey counties to leverage America 250 and take our rightful place in its celebrations, but we haven't really geared up yet."

D'Alessandro said a lot remains in the "planning and not public stages right now" with the July 4, 1776 anniversary still two years away. Carrie Fellows, executive director of Crossroads of the American Revolution and a leader of RevolutionNJ, said New Jersey is nonetheless "out in front of everybody."

Sara Cureton, the executive director of the New Jersey Historical Commission, said RevolutionNJ has been working behind the scenes with an association of history groups and museums to develop a variety of programs and events to make America 250 "a whole state experience." It recently published a manual to give communities, nonprofits and counties a blueprint for how to plan their own events, she said.

Cureton and Fellows said planned RevolutionNJ initiatives include a traveling exhibit, a public art initiative, history-themed talks at microbreweries and more to explore the history of the American Revolution, its context and its legacy. There are also plans involving local schools and the exploration of community stories that celebrate history, nationhood and revolutionary ideals.

The lack of a public tourism push this summer, Fellows said, is strategic. New Jersey's prominent anniversaries are set to begin around the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Trenton on Dec. 26, 2026, she said. Most programs are set for a major launch in the fall of 2025, Cureton said.

"We didn't want to have a big splash and then nothing," Fellows said.

NJ's 2025 budget includes funds for Princeton Battlefield State Park

The preparations for America 250 nonetheless started back in 2017, Fellows said. Readiness surveys were conducted to see what New Jersey's historic sites needed to be ready for increased visitation.

"Many of those sites since then have used that study and its findings to leverage funding," Fellows said.

While private and corporate sponsors have played a part and will be critical in the years ahead, Fellows said the state's commemorations are also benefitting from a steady financial commitment from New Jersey legislators. More investment came at the end of June via the state's 2025 fiscal year budget.

The state budget included $1.3 million for a marquee project at Princeton Battlefield State Park, one of the state's two primary American Revolution battlefield preservations. Announced ahead of America 250, "Washington's Legacy" has the potential to be a game changer for the state park, said Mary Koik, the communications director for the American Battlefield Trust.

Revealed in October 2023 by officials from the Trust, New Jersey State Park Service and the Princeton Battlefield Society, the project has been pitched as an effort to transport visitors to the 1777 wartime landscape at Princeton Battlefield by 2027. With $1.3 million secured, Trust officials said the project can now be completed in time for the 250th anniversary of the battle in January 2027. "We can do some work privately, and we are moving ahead in some aspects, but state investment really levels up what one charity-even with all its partners locally can do," Koik said.

The project as proposed involves the restoration of historic tree lines and an orchard near the William Clarke House site, the creation of a new walking path and the removal of 20th-century intrusions. Officials also said digital tools and signage should come from funding collected from donors, the state and grants.

“Visitors will get to walk the same pathways that Washington and his men took 250 years ago,” Will Krakower, resource interpretive specialist at Princeton Battlefield State Park, said of the project. “They'll get to survey the grounds and see in their mind’s eye what it would have been like to witness hundreds of British troops on the hill opposite them. They'll march over the same ground, stand on battle lines, charge through the recreated apple orchard — it's going to be an amazing experience.”

State officials established Princeton Battlefield State Park in 1946 on the back of a donation from Princeton landowners. The park has since doubled to roughly 80 acres on and around where General George Washington notched a pivotal victory during the 10 Crucial Days campaign.

• HISTORY: The Battle of Princeton, the culmination of the campaign, began unexpectedly. Washington and his men, having cleverly evaded British forces at Assunpink Creek the previous night, spotted British troops near William Clarke's farm. --- Washington first dispatched Hugh Mercer’s brigade. They were routed and Mercer was wounded. Washington then sent in John Cadwalader’s Philadelphia Associators. They too were cut through, leading Washington himself to lead fresh troops onto the field. Under cover from an artillery unit led by Joseph Moulder, Washington's counterattack shattered the British line and forced a retreat.

"The story of Princeton and the 10 Crucial Days is one that changed America," Koik said. "There would be no America if things had gone differently."

The project pending in Princeton involves what is expected to be the last great growth the battlefield will ever experience, said David Duncan, Trust president. The project seeks to integrate 15 acres at Maxwell’s Field, where the Institute for Advanced Study proposed a housing development last decade. The Trust announced the purchase of the site and a separate 1.12-acre tract to the north for $4 million in late 2016.

Saving New Jersey's Revolutionary War history

The preservation effort was one of few still possible at New Jersey's most prominent battlefields. Development has overrun many. Strip malls, commercial parks and housing developments cover dozens of locations where the war once shook the landscape.

There are so many sites that held skirmishes and meetings, it is almost impossible to save everything. Apathy sets in. Williams said the numbers present a challenge for explicit preservation, but great opportunity for practical preservation, like the multi-purpose park slated for the site of the historic Zabriskie-Schedler House in Ridgewood.

In Upper Freehold, the threat of development has been looming over a New Jersey farm believed to have been a British troop encampment during the Revolutionary War. Sitting near Monmouth Battlefield State Park, the 61-acre site off Old York Road has been proposed as the home for a pair of warehouses to the ire of residents opposed to noise, truck traffic, and pollution. Adding to the clamor against development some may see as a welcome ratable, there are also historical records from British officer John André's journal indicating British troops camped on the site in June 1778 ahead of the Battle of Monmouth.

• HISTORY: The largest and hottest battle of the war, the Battle of Monmouth started poorly for the Continental Army. Hesitancy in the early goings of the battle near Monmouth Court House by General Charles Lee stifled an attack on the British rearguard and allowed British General Charles Lord Cornwallis to counterattack. --- As soldiers retreated, Washington relieved Lee of command, rallied his troops and waited for backup. With General Nathanael Greene’s division on the right and General William Alexander’s on the left, Washington placed Lee’s troops in reserve under the Marquis de Lafayette and commanded General Anthony Wayne to position artillery on both flanks. --- A counterattack forced the British back, but they returned with an attack on Greene’s division. The battle waned until 6 p.m. when the exhausted British withdrew. Washington resisted a possible pursuit, allowing his men to rest and the British to make their way back toward New York City.

To potentially save the British encampment, the Monmouth County Board of Commissioners entered negotiations with Active Acquisitions LLC, the current owner, for a potential acquisition. The state's 2025 budget set aside $100,000 for services associated with a land acquisition project at Monmouth Battlefield State Park, in what was another win for historic preservationists.

The budget did not, however, include a proposed budget resolution allocating $250,000 for the development of a master plan for a new visitor's center at Princeton Battlefield State Park. That project would not have been completed by 2027 but could have seen a groundbreaking during commemorations, Koik said. The Trust has already funded a feasibility study for the visitor's center project. The $25 million in state funding from 2022 includes $2.25 million for the park. Some of that money will be used for public restrooms, parking and pathways into and around the Thomas Clarke House, NJDEP records show.

While the investment into New Jersey's battlefields is not restricted to anniversaries, the timing around America 250 makes sense for a state with a track record of caring about its history, Koik said. Princeton Battlefield could be a showpiece for the state and its Revolution-era history, but that requires a buy-in from Trenton that goes beyond 2026, she said.

"More investment now will pay dividends," Koik said. "Heritage tourism can be big business."