A special bus tour of historic estates in Morristown and Morris Township is designed to introduce Caroline Foster, and her wide social circle of friends in the Roaring ‘20s.
The tour on Sunday, March 25 from 1. to 4:30 p.m. is sponsored by The Friends of Fosterfields Living Historical Farm and Cooper Gristmill.
The tour is called “Morristown Society of the Early 20th Century: Friends of Caroline Foster at Fosterfields” and it offers another view of Caroline Foster, and how Morristown society was once defined. Fosterfields operated as a Jersey dairy cattle breeding farm, and Foster later donated her estate farm to the Morris County Park Commission. It continues today as one of the last existing estate farms in the Morristown-area.
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Although she lived most of her 102 years on her father’s (Charles Foster) farm, Foster also led a busy, independent social life outside of its parameters. A taste of this lifestyle is presented by teaching about Foster’s friends; who they were and where they lived.
The tour begins at the Fosterfields Visitors Center with a short slide lecture about Foster, her friends, and their houses by architectural historian Barry Thomson and Fosterfields’ historian Becky Hoskins. Hoskins is the author of “Caroline Foster and Fosterfields Living Historical Farm: A Life and a Legacy.”
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After the presentation, MAPS shuttle buses will ferry visitors to many of the houses and places Foster knew. Featured are tours of two houses in Morristown that she often visited; the former residence of Mrs. Cornelia Kellogg, which is now The Kellogg Club, a private club on Colles Avenue, and the Robert D. Foote estate, presently the Loyola House of Retreats on James Street. The tour ends at the Rawle-Tracey house on Knox Hill Road, once the home of Mollie Rawle in the 1920s, and currently the headquarters for the Community Foundation of New Jersey. Refreshment will be served in the library, and there will be informal guided tour of the house and grounds.
The cost for the bus tour is $40 for Friends of Fosterfields and Cooper Gristmill members and $50 for non-members. Reservations are required. Call Fosterfields at 973-326-7645 for reservations, and more information. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Barbara Hoskins Fund, which is named for Barbara Hoskins, a friend of Miss Foster and well-remembered Morris Township local librarian. The purpose of the fund is to support educational programs and published materials about the life and times of Caroline Foster.
