Battle of Germantown Commemorated

Featured from The Papermaker, the Newsletter of Historic RittenhouseTown
Volume 19, Number 2

On Saturday, October 1, the epic 1777 American Revolutionary war Battle of Germantown will be commemorated in this area with the Revolutionary Germantown Festival sponsored by the member organizations of Historic Germantown Preserved. As part of the day-long festivities, which include two military reenactments at the nearby property of Cliveden of the National Trust, Historic RittenhouseTown will dedicate, at 10 a.m., a new historical wayside exhibit and marker which specifically addresses the Wissahickon Valley portion of the battle. It is occasionally forgotten in the annals of history that a part of this large battle did occur around the grounds of RittenhouseTown. This wayside exhibit and marker is designed to help overcome this problem.

The project's design phase was funded by the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program. RittenhouseTown was selected as one of only a small number of sites by this federal program designed to assist communities identify, assess and protect the nation's historic battlefields. The program works to preserve significant battle sites, such as this land in RittenhouseTown that is part of the original Germantown battlefield, associated with wars fought on American soil. The wayside exhibit and marker were designed by the local firm of Cloud Gehshan Associates using historical research materials discovered by Historic RittenhouseTown's Executive Director Andrew Zellers-Frederick.

With the design phase now completed, the project is now in its fabrication stage using a major grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Additional funds were provided by the Driscoll Family Foundation, the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Stanley R. Wolfe Foundation. Support was also given by the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution which included the Bethlehem, Flag House, Germantown, Lansdowne, Thomas Leiper and William Penn Chapters.

Everyone is invited to attend the dedication ceremony schedule for 10 a.m. on October 1. A featured speaker will be the prominent historian Thomas Maguire who has written, The Surprise of Germantown: October 4, 1777 (which is also for sale in our Visitor Center Gift Shop). Following the program, tours, demonstrations of hand papermaking and light refreshments will be offered. If you would like to participate in this free event, please call (215)438-5711 or email HistRitTwn@aol.com by September 29. After our program, why not make a day of it in Historic Germantown? The battle reenactments at Cliveden will be at 12 & 3 p.m. There will also be special tours, programs and events and many at many of the historic properties throughout Germantown as part of the Revolutionary Germantown Festival. For general information, call (215)848-1777 or visit online at www.cliveden.org.

The Papermaker is the quarterly newsletter of Historic RittenhouseTown and is sent to all members.