Sweden's first expedition into The New World (the American colonies) launched in 1637, as Sweden chartered the New Sweden Company in an effort to compete with French and English traders. Once established, the Company brought over 600 Swedish settlers into what is now Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, establishing there Fort Christina, Fort Nya Elfborg, and Fort Nya Gothenborg, respectively.Though evidence of these early Swedish colonies can be found today in town names such as Swedesboro, NJ, physical structures such as the Granary are incredibly rare; the Greenwich Swedish Granary is the only structure of its kind known to still exist in North America. It was built with Atlantic White Cedar logs, which though not a particularly strong wood is very resistant to decay. The Granary consists of two rooms on its main floor, with stairs and an upper loft above on of the lower rooms. Fifty-nine original logs remain of the original 17th-century structure, though restorations to the building's roof and and floors were completed in 1979.

This structure is believed to be the oldest granary built by immigrants from Sweden in the United States

Cumberland Historic Society Headquarters / Gibbon House front view. The Swedish Granary is located in the rear yard of the house.

The Granary is open to the public on special occasions.

Swedish Granary - Cumberland County Heritage and Cultural Commission 

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Located behind the Cumberland County Historical Society's headquarters, which also serves as the home to the Gibbon House Museum, this Greenwich landmark is believed to be the last surviving 17th century Swedish Granary in the United States. Built in the mid-17th century, the structure was moved to its current location in 1975. Originally, the building served to store grain or animal feed-- a precursor to today's silos. 

Swedish Granary

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Visit historic Greenwich with this afternoon walking tour!

In the heart of Greenwich, New Jersey’s historic district, a former Presbyterian Church Hall (constructed in 1852) now serves as the John Dubois Maritime Museum. The museum is home to a large collection of Southern New Jersey maritime-related items from the 19th and 20th centuries, including builders’ models that show the plans used to build new ships from the models themselves, and tools used in the building of said ships. Early marine engines are also on display. Videos are available, presented by the New Jersey Network on oyster schooners, as well as an interview with John Dubois, who donated a majority of the museum’s artifacts.

Located near the Nicholas Gibbon House, the John Dubois Maritime Museum is home to a collection of 19th and 20th century maritime-related items. On display are a number of builders' models that show the plans used to build a new ship from the model itself. Also exhibited are tools used to carve ribs, planking, masts, and booms. 
The building itself was originally constructed in 1852 as a Presbyterian church. 

John Dubois Maritime Museum

Located in Cumberland, New Jersey, Gibbon House was built in 1730 by Nicholas Gibbon, an important merchant of early colonial America. Gibbon inherited over 3,000 acres nearby and purchased an additional 16-acre lot on which now stands Gibbon House. Gibbons modeled his home after popular London architecture of the time, now referred to as Georgian style, which included brick, fired on the property, laid in the Flemish Bond pattern hailing from Kent, England; the design is achieved by using a red stretcher and blue header producing a definite and attractive pattern. Rubbed brick outlines each door and window opening, and emphasizes the four corners of the house. The home is full of interpretive exhibits along with furnishings built by 18th and 19th-century artisans. The home contains a reception hall, a paneled dining room, a formal drawing-room, and a kitchen dominated by a huge walk-in fireplace in which demonstrations of colonial open-fire cooking are conducted. There is a small store on the back porch where postcards, gifts, and a fine collection of books and pamphlets on the history of the area may be purchased. The second floor includes a bedroom and a variety of 19th-century rush-seated, “Ware” chairs that were made locally, along with children’s toys, dolls, and clothing; and Civil War artifacts donated by area families.

Constructed in 1730, this colonial-era home is open to the public as a New Jersey history museum filled with traditional 18th and 19th-century decor. The museum includes a variety of exhibits that interpret life in the colonial era and also offers a small gift shop.  The museum is located new several other sites of interest, such as the Swedish Granary, the 1930 Red Barn Museum, and the 1852 John Dubois Maritime Museum. 

Gibbon House 

Sweden's first expedition into The New World (the American colonies) launched in 1637, as Sweden chartered the New Sweden Company in an effort to compete with French and English traders. Once established, the Company brought over 600 Swedish settlers into what is now Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, establishing there Fort Christina, Fort Nya Elfborg, and Fort Nya Gothenborg, respectively. Though evidence of these early Swedish colonies can be found today in town names such as Swedesboro, NJ, physical structures such as the Granary are incredibly rare; the Greenwich Swedish Granary is the only structure of its kind known to still exist in North America. It was built with Atlantic White Cedar logs, which though not a particularly strong wood is very resistant to decay. The Granary consists of two rooms on its main floor, with stairs and an upper loft above on of the lower rooms. Fifty-nine original logs remain of the original 17th-century structure, though restorations to the building's roof and and floors were completed in 1979.

The bulk of the Cumberland County Museum of Prehistory's contents were donated by archaeologist Alan Ewing Carman, whose wish it was that these artifacts remain in the area in order to pay tribute to the Native Americans they represent. At the time of first European contact, the Native Americans who inhabited southern New Jersey were the Lenape, today known as the Delaware. Anthropologists have since identified 44 subdivisions of the Lenape people, including the Little Siconese, theSewapose, and the Alloways. On display are Native fire-making kits, pottery, and other crafts, as well as bone and shell remains that shed light on Native American food sources. A number of fossils are also exhibited.

The Cumberland County Museum of Prehistory is dedicated to preserving the history of the Native Americans who inhabited the lower Delaware Valley. Included in the museum's exhibits are stone and bone artifacts, pottery, and Native crafts. A large number of fossils originally discovered in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia are also on display in the museum. 

Cumberland County Museum of Prehistory

On May 10, 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act which effectively lowered the price of tea for&nbsp;American colonists by allowing one company to&nbsp;ship their tea directly to the colonies. In the past, all tea had to be shipped to England before it could go on to the colonies. The act angered the colonists because it was a new kind of tax and because it was passed without consultation of colonial leaders or legislatures.&nbsp;Colonists knew that if they did not protest, Parliament would enact more taxes and other measures to intended to pay the debts of the Crown in previous wars. The law was passed at a time when many colonists already resented the British government for their lack of&nbsp;representation in Parliament and for the perceived failure of the government to protect the colonies and make land available to all colonists. On December 16, 1773, the most famous protest against the new law took place in Boston Harbor. Numerous other protests featuring the destruction of tea occurred in other colonial cities.&nbsp; On December 22, 1774, the final tea protest before the Revolutionary War took place in Greenwich, New Jersey. The colonial rebels stole the tea from a British sympathizers home where it was being stored in an&nbsp;effort to prevent such an occurrence. The effort to&nbsp;create this monument&nbsp;predates 1900, and the monument itself was constructed in the early and unveiled on September 30, 1908.

On this site on December 22, 1774, a group of young men burned a consignment of tea that had been hidden in the small town of Greenwich prior to shipment to Philadelphia. This was the last "tea party" protest against British taxation in the American colonies prior to the beginning of the American Revolution. The monument in honor of the leaders of this incendiary protest was dedicated in 1908. 

Historic Greenwich, NJ

Swedish Granary

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