Cross Estate: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Morristown National Historical Park
NPS Northeast Regional Office. 2025. Cross Estate: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Morristown National Historical Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 650046. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Cross Estate encompasses 162 acres and together with the Jarvis tract augments the 320-acre New Jersey Brigade Encampment Area, the second largest unit of Morristown NHP. The property lies on the north of the New Jersey Brigade unit and serves as a connection to the Jockey Hollow unit to the northwest. The property is located 5 1/4 miles southwest of Morristown Center in Bernardsville, Somerset County, NJ. Located on the southeastern boundary of the New Jersey Highlands physiographic province along the Trowbridge Range, the Cross Estate landscape is a mountainous, mostly wooded terrain in the headwaters of the Passaic River. It is typical of the Bernardsville Hills area. Hardwoods such as oaks, maples, locusts, and tulip trees forest the land that is bordered by the Passaic River to the east and the intersection of Jockey Hollow and Hardscrabble Roads to the west. Indian Grave Brook flows south paralleling Hardscrabble Road through the property at its lowest point. The steeply sloped east bank of the brook is retained in several places by short stretches of dry laid random-course stone walls. A terraced central clearing occupied by the main house rises to 657 feet above sea level and affords views of the wooded land that gradually drops down to 425 feet at Hardscrabble Road over a distance of 1400 feet. The woods are abundant with wildlife and particularly host a large deer population.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- NPS Northeast Regional Office
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- MORR , NER
- Keywords
- Bensel-Cross Estate, Bernardsville, Clarence Fowler, Estate Landscape, formal gardens, Frederick R. King, Hardscrabble House, Historic Designed Landscape, Julia Newbold Cross, Landscape architecture, New Jersey, New Jersey Brigade, New Jersey Brigade Encampment Area, Pergola, Queen Anne Farm, Recreation, Vistas, W. Redmond Cross, W. Redmond Cross Estate