Professional Development Hours Available
The Steuben House is a registered Professional Development Provider with the New Jersey Department of Education. Worshops are available on site for free.

History comes alive at historic sites, and what better way to supplement textbook history than to visit a nationally important site in your own backyard?

The Steuben House is a collections-based historic house museum owned and operated by the New Jersey State Park Service. Constructed in 1752, the building served as a Revolutionary War headquarters to General George Washington and was later presented to the Prussian Inspector General of the Continental Army, Baron von Steuben.

School tours begin outside with a discussion of the colonial settlement of New Bridge Landing. Students may use their imagination to “see” the schooner ships sailing up the Hackensack River to this port of trade. The tour continues inside the historic house, examining the lives of the 18th and 19th century inhabitants and the objects they would have used in their daily life. Teachers then have the option of including a hands-on-history lesson.

School tours available most weeks Wednesday through Friday, 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. Please call for availability.

Special Information for School Tours:

• All tours are free
• Due to room sizes, tour groups are limited to 25 students
• Tours last from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on grade level and content covered
• There are no public restroom facilities at the Steuben House
• Portions are wheelchair accessible
• No interior photography/video
• Food, candy, gum and drinks are prohibited inside the historic house
• No touching/handling artifacts
• Your cooperation will help ensure the survival of the artifacts
• Three rooms are currently open to the public: dwelling room, foyer and parlor
• Visitors should dress appropriately for the weather
• Students should be prepared to sit on the dwelling room floor
• Tours are scheduled on a first come/first served basis

To Prepare for a Tour, Students may:

• Read Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis, detailing the November 20, 1776 retreat of Washington’s Continental Army from Fort Lee over the New Bridge and past the Steuben House
• See the Steuben House featured on New Jersey Network News’ History Hunter series at www.njn.net/newspublicaffairs/historyhunters/
• Decide, “What would you do?” at the American Revolution section of the New Jersey History Partner Project, www.nj-history.org
• Complete word finds and other classroom lessons, available upon request from the Steuben House staff

Hands-on-History
The Steuben House is arranged as a collections-based historic house museum to preserve the artifacts from consumptive use. We do offer two hands-on-history programs with reproductions to supplement a visit to the historic building.

After a tour of the Steuben House, teachers have the option of having their students “enlist” in the Continental Army and drilled using General Steuben’s military maneuvers followed by a short march retracing the 1776 retreat route across the Hackensack River and in front of the Steuben House, weather permitting.

Teachers also have the option of having their students learn the proper way to fold the United States flag, into the shape of a tri-cornered hat representative of the hats worn by the Continental soldiers during the war for independence.