Activities Offer a Slice of Colonial Life at Dey Mansion

Adults and children alike received an education in what it was like to live in colonial times at a celebration of George Washington's birthday at the Dey Mansion on Sunday afternoon.

Kids watched a glassmaker create small windows of stained glass while others watched a man carve tools and toys out of wood.

Attendees watched as actors danced with each other in traditional, colonial style, rotating partners every few minutes, working down a line.

Re-enactors fired real muskets and marched together, much to the delight of the children in the audience. 

Then-General Washington used the mansion, in July, October and November of 1780, during the Revolutionary War. Washington chose the house because the area was strategically ideal because it offered a safe area from which the Americans could keep watch on British-occupied New York City.

Dey Mansion is owned and operated by the Passaic County Parks Commission. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.