SENIORS TRAVEL TO NEW JERSEY



Seniors Discover Mount Laurel

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Mount Laurel, New Jersey, is called an edge city suburb of Philadelphia just off I-295.  The population runs right at 42,000 and was incorporated as a town back in 1872. The name Mount Laurel comes from the name of a hill at a main crossroads in town.

Laurel Acres Park is known for its Veteran’s Memorial, fishing lake, playground, and huge grassy hill used for concerts in the summer and sledding in the winter.

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Senior visitors will find historical landmarks in Mount Laurel, including General Clinton’s headquarters and Paulsdale, the birthplace and childhood home of Alice Paul, a major leader in the Women’s suffrage movement in the United States.

Evesham Friends Meeting House, on the National Register of  Historic Places, is the oldest meetinghouse still in use in the United States. The Thomas Smith House is another on the National Register of Historic Places, which means…don’t miss it if you are interested in American History. I would be right behind you. Senior visitors can travel all across Hamilton County visiting one site after another; I counted 95 of them.

 Senior Visitors, Meet Hattie Margaret Hill Britt

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Hattie Margaret Hill Britt, 92, whose half-century as a teacher in Mount Laurel led to the community naming a school after her, Hattie Britt School. Her career as a teacher spanned the days from one-room schoolhouses to modern classrooms, from segregated schools to multiethnic classrooms, and from Mount Laurel’s days as a farming community to its present status as a township filled with gleaming office parks and sprawling housing developments.

Farmer’s Hall, built in 1866 by the Farmers Progressive Club, served as the town hall from 1904 to 1969. The hall has been restored and is now used as a museum. The local Historical Society was formed in 1972 to save Farmer’s Hall from demolition.

 Seniors Visit Jacob’s Chapel And Cemetery

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One of the most famed sites is Jacob’s Chapel that was constructed in 1859. Behind the chapel is an African American cemetery filled with soldiers from the civil war. During the war, Quakers in Mount Laurel helped slaves escape to the north through the Underground Railroad using the chapel as a hiding location.

Long before it became Mount Laurel Township, the earliest known history of this area began with the Lenni-Lenape Indians (len-ah-pee) means “original people,” who lived throughout the Delaware Valley from around 1400 until the 1700s. Evidence is found of their farming and hunting villages along the banks of the Rancocas River. In fact, the “Great Road” of pioneer days was originally an Indian trail.

Highlights for seniors include Laurel Acres Park, the Coco Key Water Resort and Larchmont Park. There seems to be no end of ethic restaurants in town. So set your GPS and spend some quality time in Mount Laurel. -jeb

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