PALISADES INTERSTATE PARK, N.J.—On Saturday evenings, April 27 and May 4, from 8 to 10:30 p.m., the historic Kearney House in the Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey will welcome spring with a pair of living history programs called “Eventide at Mrs. Kearney’s Tavern.”
“The programs will evoke life along the Hudson in the mid-19th century, a time when Rachel Kearney, a widow with nine children to raise, kept a dockside tavern at the little house,” said organizers. “Captains and crews of the sloops that transported goods from Bergen County’s farms to New York City’s kitchens and tables would stop here for refreshment and news, and to trade a yarn or a joke with the teamsters who maneuvered wagonloads of farm goods down the steep roads through the Palisades to the riverfront.”
All these decades later, today’s guests are invited to enjoy the scent of wood smoke and the sound of laughter, along with a cup of spiced tea served by staff dressed in nineteenth-century garb. Guests will be asked to pitch in as Mr. Thaddeus MacGregor, the house’s “tavern musician,” leads songs and shanties (and are also welcome to bring period-appropriate instruments to play). Checkers, cards, and backgammon will be on hand for guests to play, too, while between songs, Kearney House director Eric Nelsen will spin a yarn or two about life along the Hudson, or read from a story or poem of the time. Adult guests are welcome to bring their own wine or beer to drink.
The Kearney House is on the riverfront at the park’s Alpine Picnic Area and Boat Basin, accessible from the Alpine park entrance at Palisades Interstate Parkway Exit 2, or from Alpine Approach Road off U.S. Route 9W about a mile north of Closter Dock Road. Cost for the program, which is open to all and which will be held rain or shine, is $5 per guest, payable at the door (cash only), with seating first-come, first-served. For more information or directions, please visit njpalisades.org/tavern or call (201) 768-1360, ext. 108.
Photos by Anthony Taranto