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Routes to Roots Heritage Trail

Discover Burlington County's historic sites, museums and Underground Railroad Tour exploring the legacy, contributions and remarkable stories of this region's diverse community and our shared history.
The county is especially noted for its premiere heritage tourism program which features guided and self-guided tours of historic sites that played a major role in the Underground Railroad. The tour encompasses the following sites noted on this webpage as well as other locations and programs indicated on the following links:

http://www.co.burlington.nj.us/tourism/history/looptour/african.htm (Tour Guide)

Grubb Estate


 Henry Grubb operated the first tavern in Burlington and his family was later involved in mining and manufacturing. This estate contained a tannery, a brewery and a brickyard. The Grubbs were also abolitionists and reportedly built tunnels under their home to the river to hide slaves.

Grubb Estate
46 Riverbank
Burlington, NJ
(Private property: Exterior viewing only, no interior tour)______________________________________________________________________________

 For sixty years, the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth in Bordentown served as New Jersey's state-operated, co-educational vocational school for African Americans. The Bordentown school was originally established in 1886 by Rev. W. A. Rice, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as a private institution under the name of "The Ironsides Normal School." To put into effect federal and state legislation relating to industrial education and manual training schools enacted as early as 1874, the New Jersey legislature designated the Bordentown school as the state's manual training institution by a legislative act passed 25 May 1894 (Laws of 1894, chapter 349). Two years later, in 1896, to accommodate construction of new facilities the state leased the Parnell estate on the outskirts of Bordentown, overlooking the Delaware River. (This land was purchased by the state in 1901.) With acquisition of several additional properties from 1916 to 1926, the 400-acre Bordentown campus eventually included two working farms and over thirty trade, academic, and residential buildings.  Although designated for alternative use, the campus still remains a part of the Bordentown community. (more) 

(North of)  Burlington Street (west of I-295)
Bordentown, NJ 08505

This site has been listed as an endangered historic site by Preservation New Jersey.
http://preservationnj.org/ (Private property: Exterior viewing only, no interior tour)

 This historic home was the final residence of the African American Revolutionary War soldier, Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell, who lived to be 100, was a decorated black soldier who fought under George Washington in the War for Independence . He was born a freeman in Black Horse, (present day Columbus in Mansfield Township), on May 24, 1752. Cromwell joined the 2^nd New Jersey Regiment under the command of Colonel Israel Shreve when the war began with England. He received high praise for his military discipline, superior personal conduct, strong physical abilities, his dedication and sacrifice.

In 1984, the Oliver Cromwell Black History Society, Inc. was founded to collect, preserve, and exhibit records, artifacts, and other documents that advance public understanding of African-American history. Since its founding, the Society has facilitated numerous educational programs in addition to distributing over $20,000 in Black History Month awards.

Oliver Cromwell House
114 E. Union Street
Burlington, NJ

Oliver Cromwell Black History Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 679
Burlington , NJ 08016
(609) 877-1449
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William R. Allen School

 Named for a well-known businessman and staunch Unionist mayor during the Civil War, the William R. Allen School served as a racially segregated elementary school for black students from 1900 to the late 1940s.  It succeeded a black school built on the same site in 1870. This earlier woodframe schoolhouse figured in the celebrated Pierce Case of 1884 in which the state's Supreme Court ruled that the refusal of Burlington 's white schools to admit the four children of Reverend Jeremiah H. Pierce, who were African American,  was a violation of the New Jersey School Law of 1881.

Wall Street/Mitchell Avenue
Burlington, NJ
(Private property: Exterior viewing only, no interior tour)_____________________________________________________________________________

Burlington Pharmacy

 Built in 1731 and established as a pharmacy in 1841 (New Jersey 's oldest pharmacy in continuous operation), this building, according to oral tradition, was used frequently to harbor Underground Railroad fugitives. It was owned by William J. Allison, a Quaker, ardent abolitionist, and community benefactor.

Burlington Pharmacy
301 High Street
Burlington, NJ

(Private property: Exterior viewing only, no interior tour)
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Burlington Island

 The significance of this island lies in the fact that records show a black presence as early as 1664, making it one of the earliest places in New Jersey where a black presence can be documented. The early blacks on this island were slaves belonging to a Dutch colonial official. They were seized by the English in 1664 when the English defeated the Dutch and took control of New Jersey.

Burlington Island
Delaware River (can be viewed from Pearl Blvd.)
Burlington, NJ
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Bethlehem African Methodist Episcopal Church

 Organized in 1830, this is Burlington's oldest black institution and one of the oldest black churches in the state. A church has existed on the present site since 1836. In 1855 a new structure was built and it was remodeled in 1873. This edifice underwent significant structural change again in the early 1980s. The small cemetery on the side of the church contains a few of the graves of the 212,000 African Americans who fought for the Union (army and navy) during the Civil War.

Bethlehem African Methodist Episcopal Church
213 Pearl Blvd.
Burlington, NJ

(Tours available by appointment at (609) 386-6664)
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Burlington Friends Meeting House

 This site, built in 1786, replaced an earlier structure where the first anti-slavery tract written in the American colonies was read in 1688 at the yearly meeting of Delaware Valley Quakers.  It  is also noteworthy because Peter Hill (1767-1820), an Afro-American watch and clockmaker is buried in the cemetery in the rear of the meeting house. Hill is one of only a few Afro-American professional clockmakers active during the early part of the nineteenth century. Only three of his tall case clocks are known to have survived. One (circa 1803) is at the Smithsonian Institution in Wash­ington, D. C., another is in the Westtown School in West­town, Pennsylvania, and the third is in a private collection.

Burlington Friends Meeting House.
341 High Street
Burlington, NJ
(Tours available by appointment at (609) 387-3875)
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Timbuctoo

 Established around 1820, about one mile from Mount Holly, "Buckto" or "Bucktown," as it is commonly called, was a community of freed slaves and a haven for fugitive slaves. This all-black settlement bears the name of the famous West African city that is today located in the Republic of Mali. It is possibly the only all-black settlement in the nation carrying the name of an African community.  Today, the community has virtually disappeared. The key remaining evidence of the existence of this community is a cemetery on Church Street ; it contains the graves of black Civil War veterans.

Timbuctoo
Church Street, Blue Jay Hill Road (and vicinity)
Westampton, NJ
(Visits to the cemetery by appointment at (609) 786-8689)
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John Woolman Memorial House

 John Woolman (1720-1772), a Quaker leader and tailor by trade, was born in Rancocas and was one of America 's earliest abolitionists. Believing that slaves should be freed by the personal action of their owners rather than by political measures, he traveled extensively on horseback and by foot in the colonies championing the cause of manumission. This house, built in 1783, was designated as a memorial to Woolman in 1915. It is situated on land on which Woolman had a small farm. The current structure  is believed to have replaced a house that had been built in 1771 by Woolman's daughter and her husband. Woolman's own house once stood near the present corner of Branch and Lake Streets.

John Woolman Memorial House
99 Branch Street
Mount Holly, NJ
(Open to the Public, Fridays 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., and by appointment at (609) 267-3226)____________________________________________________________________________