Victorian Christmas holiday tours to be held in December

| 28 Sep 2011 | 03:04

The Woman’s Club of West Milford and North Jersey Highlands Historical Society will host their annual Victorian Christmas celebrating 30 years at historic Ringwood Manor. A holiday tour is planned for the first and second weekends and one Wednesday in December. Tours will run from 12 until 6 p.m. In addition to the weekends the tour will also be available on Wednesday December 7 from noon until 6 p.m. A donation of $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for children will provide funds for scholarships, local fire departments, ambulance corps as well as restoration of Ringwood Manor. Over the years The Woman’s Club of West Milford has donated over $125,000 for restoration of Ringwood Manor. Begin the holiday season with a step back to Victorian times and relive, for a moment, the splendid gracious living in an upper class family from the early 1800’s. Ringwood Manor is one of the foremost Victorian Homes in America and one of the most intact, located on the 15,000-acre Ringwood State Park in Northern New Jersey. The Ringwood Manor, built in 1807, replaced the original manor house, which burned in 1780. Between 1864 and 1879, they added 51 rooms. The manor has 28 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms 24 fireplaces and 250 windows. It was the summer retreat for the Cooper-Hewitt family. The family owned the manor from 1853 and donated it to the state of New Jersey in 1936. Most of the original decorating efforts of the Hewitt’s are still intact as well as the landscaped grounds including statuary and architectural artifacts from their travels. Costumed guides will describe the contents and give the history of each room. Ringwood Manor is located on Sloatsburg Road, which runs between Routes 511 in Ringwood and Route 17 in Sloatsburg, New York.