The oldest home in Haddonfield is referred to as the Hip-Roof House. This means rafters support all four sides of its roof, which slopes down to the top plates of the walls. Dating back to the early 1700s, it was built at a time when the land east of William Penn’s colony on the Delaware River in southern New Jersey was nothing more than a wilderness shared with the local Lenni-Lenape Native Americans. You won’t find too many hip-roof houses left in North America.

First settled in 1682, it was Elizabeth Haddon who named the area in honor of her father, who sent her there in 1701 at the age of 20 to lay claim to his new holdings. In 1702 she married a young Quaker missionary and in 1713 they built a beautiful brick mansion on what is now Woods Lane. In a testament to her contributions to the town’s early growth, 1713 is often celebrated as the founding date of Haddonfield.

Its position on Cooper’s Creek, combined with an advanced road system with links to towns such as Camden and Burlington, saw Haddonfield’s importance grow throughout the eighteenth century.

What makes Haddonfield worth a visit is its wealth of architecture. Its Historic District includes more than 400 structures listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

It is a showcase of every major architectural influence in American history. Early Classical Revival, Federal, Georgian, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne are all represented in this Norman Rockwell- type community that still blocks off its main street for brass bands and gathers en masse to celebrate the lighting of the town Christmas tree each year.

History is everywhere. The main street was once a wagon trail. Its Quaker cemetery holds the remains of British soldiers who died in battle fighting George Washington’s army. The Indian King Tavern, built in 1750, is a premier example of eighteenth-century Colonial architecture. It is on the site where the state of New Jersey was legally created, with the Assembly fleeing war-ravaged Trenton in 1777 and convening in the tavern to create an independent state and adopt its Great Seal. In 1903 it became New Jersey’s first State Historic Site, and it has been a museum for a number of years.

The mansions and great homes of Haddonfield are featured in walking tours and seasonal openhouse programs. The Haddonfield Historical Society was founded in 1914 and can be found in Greenfield Hall, an 1841 Georgian mansion. The town’s streets are laid out as they were 200 years ago—as the lanes of a small colonial village—and they are home to stores offering antiques and collectibles, grandfather clocks, and hand-crafted wall hangings.

Despite a long tradition of tavern-keeping, the populace voted “no license” in 1873 and has done so ever since in ever-increasing numbers. To this day Haddonfield remains a “dry town,” with the sale of alcohol strictly prohibited.

Haddonfield is one of New Jersey’s oldest towns as well as one of its more affluent communities. Its population of 12,000 includes nearly 400 lawyers, making Haddonfield a major legal center for the southern half of the state.

Haddonfield also played a part in the history of paleontology with the discovery of the first near-complete dinosaur skeleton in 1858 by the fossilhobbyist William Parker. The site of the discovery is marked with a modest commemorative stone where a tiny Haddonfield street meets deep woods. The ground drops away into a ravine where the bones of Hadrosaurus foulkii were excavated. It is still possible to climb down crude paths into the vine-entangled chasm where America’s fascination with the world of the dinosaur had its beginnings.

Haddonfield is located southeast of Philadelphia off I-295. Lodgings can be found in one of many fashionable B&Bs or in nearby Camden on the Delaware River across from Philadelphia.