The c.1760 Dutch-American core of the Jacobus Vanderveer House is the only known extant building associated with the Pluckemin encampment of 1778-79, which is considered to be the first installation in America to train officers in engineering and artillery. According to tradition, the modest dwelling served as the headquarters of General Henry Knox during the encampment, when the Americans trained in the use of military supplies captured from the enemy at Fort Ticonderoga and then used to drive the British from Boston . The house was enlarged by two additions in the nineteenth century, remodeled in the twentieth century, and subsequently abandoned.

The grant will aid an archeological investigation in anticipation of reconstructing the missing 18 th century kitchen addition. This house is of national significance as a surviving Dutch colonial farmhouse. The investigation will determine the footprint of the addition and attempt to locate openings and chimneys. The interior and surrounding exterior of the addition area will be sampled for remains.

The Trust grant funded the restoration of the house to its nineteenth-century appearance for use as a center interpreting the Pluckemin encampment. The project is part of a larger plan to link the house to the encampment site by a pedestrian/bicycle trail.