Stuyvesant Mansion
Hackettstown, Warren County, New Jersey
Named "Tranquility Farms" in 1787, for Mrs. John Rutherfurd who on arriving from New York stepped out of her carriage and remarked with a contented sigh, "this indeed is tranquility". The house and land were given to the Rutherfurds as a wedding present, having belonged to Mr. Rutherfurd's maternal family, the Alexanders, since 1758. The house was tripled in size to 65-rooms by the Rutherfurd's great-grandson, Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, who had bought out his siblings to take full possession of what then became known as the Stuyvesant Mansion. From 1902, he divided his time between here and Paris, and he filled it with his celebrated collection of arms and armor....
This house is best associated with...
Robert Walter Rutherfurd
of "Tranquility" Hackettstown; Member of the New Jersey State Legislature
1788-1852
Dr. Lewis Morris Rutherfurd
Astronomer, of New York City & "Tranquility" Hackettstown, New Jersey
1816-1892
In addition, he extended the estate to 7,000-acres and stocked the parkland with elk, deer, beavers, and pheasant. After he died, his widow (afterwards the Princess Caraman de Chimay) and their two sons continued to spend half the year here. After the Princess died, the contents were sold off at two auctions in the 1950s, and after being left vacant for eleven years the house mysteriously burned down in 1959. Only a few outhouses remain.
