Steuben House

Jan and Annetje (Ackerman) Zabriskie prospered as miller and merchant at this site. They built a five-room stone cottage in 1752 and enlarged the house to the present size in 1767 by adding a second story along the rear and the entire north block with its paneled parlor and bed chamber.

During the Revolutionary War, the Zabriskies sided with the Crown and fled to British-held Manhattan. Washington made the house his headquarters for 10 days in 1780. New Bridge served as a battleground, fort, encampment ground, military headquarters, and intelligence-gathering post in every year of the American Revolutionary War.

The State of New Jersey presented the confiscated house to Major-General Baron von Steuben in 1783. It is the only extant 18th century building he owned. Described in 1784 as a "Large Mansion House containing twelve rooms built with stone, with Out-houses consisting of a Bake House, Smoke House, Coach House, and two large Barns, and a Garden, Forty Acres of Land consisting of Meadow Land and two Orchards." Steuben's aide-de-camp, Capt. Benjamin Walker resided here, while Steuben made regular visits and summer retreats from his Manhattan lodgings.

Steuben restored the war-damaged home and this is largely the house that you see today. He sold it back to the Zabriskies in 1788. The house and one acre were purchased by State of New Jersey in 1928. In 1939, the Bergen County Historical Society was invited to display its collections at the museum. BCHS purchased the adjacent 8 acres in 1944, thus preserving a fragment of Bergen Dutch countryside.

The Bergen County Historical Society opens the house for special events.