The Rutherfurd Hall Mansion ~ APT Traditional Cache

The Rutherfurd Hall Mansion cache is located along the Allamuchy Pond Trail located along the grounds of Rutherfurd Hall, one of the last extant large country estates in New Jersey.

The Rutherfurd - Stuyvesant geocache series give an in depth history of this important and distinguished american family and the gilded age in NJ. There are two locations showcased in the geotrail. The Stuyvesant Mansion and Rutherfurd Mansion located within Tranquility Farms massive estate was divided by the construction on interstate 80.

Rutherfurd Hall Mansion

Rutherfurd Hall was built during the Country Place Era, at its height in America from 1890 to 1933, and it is a beautiful example of the architecture from this time period. In 1902, the architects Warren & Wetmore designed the English Tudor revival mansion, while in 1904 the landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers, created a pastoral and picturesque landscape for its setting.

Winthrop Rutherfurd and his wife chose a beautiful location on Allamuchy Pond and adjacent to Tranquility Farms. The land was acquired from Winthrop’s brother Stuyvesant and others, and encompassed acres of fields, forests, lakes and streams. Designs for the house were drawn at the request of Alice Morton Rutherfurd in the Tudor style by Whitney Warren (famous architect of Grand Central Station). Rutherfurd Hall's brick exterior and some of its interior features echo Jacobean themes, an English style that followed the Tudor period, to which the Rutherfurd family traces its lineage. From 1903 to 1905, Rutherfurd Hall was constructed. In the family, it became known as “The Big House.”

Selecting this beautiful, remote location for their home at the turn of the century, the Rutherfurds were part of a larger movement among wealthy Americans at that time: The Country Place Era. Among these prosperous few, the countryside offered a welcome escape from the urban centers where fortunes were made. To create these estates, designers worked closely with owners to build homes and gardens often inspired by historic European precedents that imparted a sense of tradition. When the Rutherfurds chose England’s Tudor era as a design influence, they were also choosing a time when a similar movement occurred in England. After years of turmoil and war, the peaceful reign of the Tudors allowed the wealthy to build magnificent homes rather than fortresses. There was also a radical shift to more naturalistic landscape design in England at that time.

Rutherfurd ~ Stuyvesant History

The Rutherfurd ~ Stuyvesant family had occupied what is now Allamuchy and Green Townships, spanning both Warren and Sussex Counties or hundreds of years, since 1758, when Walter Rutherfurd married Catherine Alexander and joined in ownership of this portion of her family's extensive holdings.

The Rutherfurd - Stuyvesant family were ancestors of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director General of New Netherland before it was ceded to the English in 1664 and renamed New York, and John Rutherford was an American politician and land surveyor, then moved to a farm near the village of Tranquility in Sussex County. After the boundary for a new county was drawn in 1824 his former holdings now straddled Sussex and Warren counties.

In 1902 when Winthrop Chanler Rutherfurd (1862-1944) decided to build a country home for his new bride, Alice Morton, Allamuchy, New Jersey was a natural choice. He built the home know by the family as the "big house" now known as Rutherfurd Mansion. Winthrop’s father originally owned the nearby, 460-acre Tranquility Farms, which had been in the family since the mid-1700’s. Winthrop’s older brother Stuyvesant Rutherfurd, twenty years his senior (who later changed his name to Rutherfurd Stuyvesant to meet the terms of inheritance for the Stuyvesant fortune), increased his father’s original land holdings in the 1890’s.

Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, at the turn of the twentieth century expanded the family’s ancestral estate, made successive purchases of farms and forests, expanding upon his father’s original agrarian ideals. When he was through, Tranquility Farms encompassed 5000 acres and consisted of 20 farms and the fenced 1000-acre Deer Park on Allamuchy mountain that was used as a private hunting preserve stocked with deer, elk and English pheasant. On the farms, there were herds of Dorset sheep and Jersey, Guernsey and Holstein cows.

His kennels won many prizes, and his sheep could not be equaled in America. His game preserve first made the English pheasant known in our county. A deer park of hundreds of acres is part of the estate.

Stuyvesant also tripled the size the original 18 Century Mansion to create the "Stuyvesant Mansion" The estate became a fall retreat for New York Gilded Age Society. At the center of the operation was a 65-room mansion, which burned to the ground in 1959. In the 60s land was purchased by the state for highway construction, and later the expansion of Allamuchy State Park. Tranquility Farm’s remaining structures have been slowly settling into the wilderness ever since. Just a few are still standing, and many collapsed into their foundations long ago.

"Descendants"

Peter Stuyvesant c.1612—1672) served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 who was the last Dutch colonial Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch territory between the Delaware Bay and the Connecticut River (including what is now New Jersey) until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City.

John Rutherfurd (September 20, 1760 – February 23, 1840) was an American politician and land surveyor. He represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1791 to 1798. Rutherfurd attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and studied law. He practiced law in New York City for several years, and then moved to a farm near the village of Tranquility in Sussex County (after a boundary for a new county was drawn in 1824 his former holdings straddled Sussex and Warren Counties) in New Jersey in 1787. He entered politics, serving in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1788 to 1790. He was then elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate from New Jersey and served in the Senate from 1791 to 1798.