On April 23, 1789, George Washington stopped for breakfast at Samuel Smith's Red Lion Inn at 11 South Broad Street, on his way to New York to become the first President. The tavern is gone. In 1912, with Andrew Carnegie's money, city leaders tore it down and opened the Elizabeth Public Library on the same lot.
The same trip took Washington a short way east to Boxwood Hall on East Jersey Street, where he ate again. The county's Four Centuries guide says he dined there. The county's historic sites page describes it as lunch with Elias Boudinot and a committee of Congressmen, on his way to his inauguration. Either way, two of Washington's meals from 1789 happened a few blocks apart in what is now Midtown. On Saturday, October 17, during Union County's free Four Centuries in a Weekend, you can visit both, plus the two other Elizabeth sites between them. The timing matters, though. Half of Elizabeth's lineup is open Saturday only.
Elizabeth's Four Sites, and the Day They All Overlap
Four Centuries in a Weekend runs Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18, from noon to 5 p.m., and admission is free unless a site says otherwise. The Union County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs organizes it, and this year's theme is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States.
The county's 2026 guide lists four Elizabeth entries.
| Site | Address | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Public Library | 11 S. Broad St. | Open, sign unveiling at 11 a.m. | Closed |
| Siloam-Hope First Presbyterian Church & Snyder Academy | 42 Broad St. | Cemetery tours 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., buildings noon–5 | Closed |
| Belcher-Ogden Mansion & Bonnell Homestead | 1046 E. Jersey St. | Open | Open |
| Boxwood Hall State Historic Site | 1073 E. Jersey St. | Open | Open |
The addresses show how compact this is. Two sites are on Broad Street. The other two face each other on East Jersey Street, about 30 house numbers apart, and the Bonnell House parking lot at 1045 East Jersey sits across from Belcher-Ogden. If you come Sunday, you'll find the library and the church closed. That means no Red Lion Inn exhibit and no cemetery tour, and the breakfast end of Washington's 1789 stop is shut.
The Red Lion Inn Gets Its Sign Back
The new piece this year is at the library. At 11 a.m. Saturday, the library will unveil a restored Red Lion Inn sign on its front lawn, marking where the tavern stood. The library already has a bronze marker at its entrance honoring Smith's inn. The lawn sign is a second, larger marker for the same site.
Upstairs, the third-floor exhibit "The Red Lion Inn & Elizabeth's Libraries" uses documents, images, and brochures to tell the inn's story and explain how the library grew out of it. It runs October 2 through 31, so you can see it on any weekday this month without the crowd. The county guide calls the building the last remaining active Carnegie library in Union County. Both the sign and the exhibit were funded in part by a 250th Anniversary Special Project Grant from the Union County Board of County Commissioners.
Washington's breakfast was not the inn's only brush with the Revolution. On March 5, 1779, his orders sent a Continental Army court-martial, with Colonel Williams presiding, to reconvene at the Red Lion on March 8. On January 25, 1780, British forces burned nearby buildings in Elizabethtown, and the inn survived the raid. So the lot under the library connects to three separate chapters of the war and the founding, and from the sidewalk you'd never know it.
Following Washington's 1789 Meals on Foot
Here is one way to cover all four sites on Saturday, built around the fixed times in the county guide:
- 10 a.m., Siloam-Hope First Presbyterian Church, 42 Broad St. Take the morning cemetery tour. The church and Snyder Academy open at noon, so come back later for those, or join the 1 p.m. cemetery tour if you're starting late.
- 11 a.m., Elizabeth Public Library, 11 S. Broad St. Watch the Red Lion Inn sign unveiling on the front lawn, then go up to the third-floor exhibit.
- Noon to 1 p.m., back to 42 Broad St. Visit the church and Snyder Academy.
- Afternoon, East Jersey Street. Tour the Belcher-Ogden Mansion at 1046, where tours are offered in English and Spanish. Then cross to Boxwood Hall at 1073. Its guided tours cover Hamilton, Dayton, Lafayette, and Washington's meal there, and its "Before the Semiquincentennial" exhibit shows artifacts from earlier national milestone celebrations.
That order follows Washington's route. You start at the breakfast site and finish at Boxwood Hall. The county guide says most participating sites hand out a Union County History Passport and run a 250th-anniversary presentation or activity this year. Pick one up at your first stop.
If you'd rather walk these sites another time, GoElizabeth publishes a self-guided Elizabeth Historic Walking Tour. It runs 3.5 miles and passes the Belcher-Ogden Mansion, Bonnell House, Snyder Academy, First Presbyterian Church, and the library. It isn't part of the Four Centuries program, but it covers the same ground.
Parking and Access
The county hasn't announced a shuttle, so you'll handle parking yourself. The guide lists these options:
- Library lot, entered from Rahway Avenue or South Broad Street. It's free, but the guide says you have to move your car out of it before visiting the other Elizabeth sites.
- Bollwage Garage on Caldwell Place, which the guide lists as extra library parking.
- Public garages at 37 Caldwell Place and 1167 Dickinson Street, or street parking, for the church and Snyder Academy.
- Bonnell House, 1045 East Jersey St., with free parking for Belcher-Ogden.
- The lot behind Boxwood Hall, or street parking.
Accessibility varies by building. The Belcher-Ogden Mansion is not wheelchair-accessible, and the site asks visitors to call 908-581-7555 about specific needs. The church has a ramp entrance, Snyder Academy has an elevator entrance on Caldwell Avenue, and the cemetery has a walking path. Boxwood Hall's first floor is reached by a rear ramp and has new ADA-compliant restrooms. The second floor may be reachable with personal assistance. The library and its parking lot are fully ADA-compliant.
The Families Coming Back for the Same Weekend
Saturday will be busier than usual on these streets because a second event overlaps it. The Old First Cemetery Descendants Reunion runs October 15 through 19 as part of the city's 250th anniversary celebrations. On October 17 it holds a "4 Centuries in a Weekend" historic tour of Old First Cemetery, Snyder Academy, Boxwood Hall, and Liberty Hall/Belcher-Ogden Mansion. GoElizabeth's schedule for the reunion lists a guided bus tour from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day, with a Third New Jersey Regiment reenactment at First Presbyterian Church. If you're at the church in the late morning, you may cross paths with that group.
TAPinto reports that the reunion includes descendants of local families and historical figures. One reunion guest will be in town the same weekend the Belcher-Ogden Mansion is open for tours.
The reunion is a separate event from the free county weekend. Its Sunday Elizabethtown Ball is ticketed, and GoElizabeth lists it at $250, with guests arriving by horse-drawn carriage. GoElizabeth and TAPinto list different evening hours for the ball, so confirm the time with the organizers at [email protected] before you plan around it.
If Saturday Doesn't Work
On Sunday, October 18, Boxwood Hall and the Belcher-Ogden Mansion are still open from noon to 5, so you can do the East Jersey Street half of the walk. The library exhibit stays up through October 31 during regular library hours, and you can call the Main Branch at 908-354-6060 for details. The new sign will stay on the library's front lawn on South Broad Street after the unveiling.
I've worked in Elizabeth for more than 25 years. Plenty of people pass 11 South Broad every week without knowing an inn stood there that Washington stopped at on his way to his inauguration. If you're new in town, or have family visiting, Saturday the 17th is an easy free afternoon in Midtown. And if you'd like to talk about the older homes and blocks around these sites, Pedro Oliveira is glad to help. Let's Connect.
