Drive through a town like West Windsor and you get one view of it. Ride through that same town on a bicycle and you get a much different view. Buildings that are a blurred image in the motorist’s peripheral vision become an object to contemplate for the cyclist.
This Saturday, May 28, cyclists participating in the annual West Windsor BikeFest will have a chance to view 18 buildings in West Windsor that date from the 17th century to the mid 19th century. Arnold Kelly, the organizer of the “Heart of West Windsor” historic tour of the BikeFest, has created a tour that passes by 18 of the 34 historic sites identified with the help of the Historical Society of West Windsor, particularly Kay Reed and Mary Schenck.
Kelly, a 38-year-resident of Hathaway Drive who works in the aerospace department at Princeton University, has assembled fact sheets that will be posted at each of the houses on the 10-mile tour route. Among the highlights:
221 Southfield Road, an 1808 colonial house owned by Muriel Perrine, whose family has owned the house since its construction. The house was part of the Underground Railroad in the mid 1800s.
The 1800 Widow Bergen Tavern at 212-214 South Mill Road. Now owned by Cynthia Yoder and Jonathan Shenk, the structure was originally a tavern and the site of township meetings during the town’s formative years.
219 Hendrickson Drive, originally a two-room house built in 1750 on the Hendrickson Farm and apple orchard. Now owned by Chris and Kim Casarona (The News, May 13), this was also a “safe house” on the underground Railway and may have served as a stagecoach stop for passengers traveling between Princeton and Hightstown.
LadyFair, 429 Clarksville Road, at the northern end of Grovers Mill Pond. The original portion of the house, now owned by William and Beth Feehan, was built in 1690 and this may be the oldest continuously occupied house in West Windsor. Records obtained from the Schwenger family, which owned it during the 1770s, indicate that the owners had been forced to house and feed Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
While this is the first year for the Historic Tour as part of the annual BikeFest, Kelly is optimistic that, as more people slow down to notice, more details will be forthcoming about West Windsor’s history. “This history is slowly coming out,” he says. “The information is buried in people’s Bibles, old letters, and so on. This is going to grow over the years.”
Sign-ups for this year’s BikeFest have been running ahead of last year, Kelly reports, and several hundred may participate in the 10-mile historic tour. One of them will be Kelly himself, an avid cyclist who annually logs around 1,”500 to 2,”000 years on the road, including a daily commute down Princeton-Hightstown Road, across Route 1, and down Washington Road to the university.
“The joke is that we are a one-car family — and you know who lost,” says Kelly. While bicyclists in West Windsor are still frustrated by lack of bike paths and roads crowded with cars, Kelly is optimistic. The BikeFest is part of a larger initiative to improve bike paths. And money raised from registrations and corporate sponsors of the BikeFest will go toward another amenity that West Windsor cyclists sorely need: More bike racks.
— Richard K. Rein
Bike Fest, West Windsor Township Recreation, West Windsor Community Park, Route 571, 609-799-6141. Saturday, May 28. Raindate: Sunday, May 29. The historic tour departs Community Park by the west portal at 10 a.m.; register at 9:30. The first run of the event, the 40-mile “Five-Town Ride” begins at 8 a.m.; register at 7:30.
Registration is required. For an application visit www.wwparks-recreation.com. All pre-registered participants receive a T-shirt, refreshments, and lunch. Pre-registration fees include $10 for ages 12 and up; $5 under 12. Same day fees are $15 for ages 12 and up; $10 under 12. Participants under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
