Moore’s Station Quarry: From Country Estate to County Park

Mined for trap rock on and off for more than a century, the Moore’s Station Quarry on Route 29 in the northwest corner of Hopewell Township ceased operation in 2023 and is preparing for a new life as a Mercer County park. This gigantic hole in the ground, a geological marvel exposed by the progressive removal of the western end of Baldpate Mountain, has a fascinating, little known history. Here, in colonial times, was Bellmont Farm, the upriver estate of the Coxe family, West Jersey’s original landed gentry. Loyalist to the core when the American Revolution broke out, the Coxes’ farm was confiscated during the war, re-emerging in the 19th century as the focus of Moore’s Station, a canal and rail-side hamlet.

In the 1890s, the Moore family sold the former Coxe farm to the Delaware River Quarry and Construction Company, ushering in an era of mining that initially employed hundreds of Italian American migrants and eventually culminated in the familiar rumble of truck traffic transporting roadstone up and down the Delaware Valley. Dr. Richard Hunter, a long-time neighbor of the quarry, will trace the history of this unique gouge in the Hopewell landscape as it enters a new phase of recreational land use.

Open to the public. Also available to attend via Zoom.

Cosponsored by the Hopewell Valley Historical Society, and The Hopewell Museum, and the Pennington Public Library.

About our Presenter: Richard Hunter, a Hopewell Township resident, is President of Hunter Research, Inc., a Trenton-based historic preservation consulting firm founded in 1986.  The company provides historical, archaeological and historic architectural services to a wide range of public, private and non-profit clients throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. Dr. Hunter holds a Ph.D. in historical geography from Rutgers University, an M.A. in archaeological science from Bradford University, U.K. and a B.A. in archaeology and geography from Birmingham University, U.K. He is a past President of Preservation New Jersey, the Trenton Downtown Association and the Hopewell Valley Historical Society, and a former member of the New Jersey Historic Sites Review Board. He currently serves as a Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commissioner. Dr. Hunter has authored numerous articles on topics of New Jersey history and archaeology, and is a co-author of Hopewell: A Historical Geography, a standard text on the history of the Hopewell area.

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Host or Publisher Pennington Public Library