Fort Lee School 3 to Celebrate Thomas Paine's Birthday

Fort Lee Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs and Fort Lee Public School #3 Celebrate American Revolutionary War Patriot Thomas Paine's Birthday.

Patriot Thomas Paine lived in Fort Lee as both a soldier and war correspondent. In 1776 he wrote passages from his famous pamphlet The American Crisis as Washington and his troops camped in Fort Lee. Fort Lee will celebrate Paine's 276th birthday with a celebration Tuesday, Jan. 29 at Public School #3. This annual celebration of Thomas Paine's birthday, organized by the Fort Lee Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, will include a Thomas Paine renactor who will speak to the students in the words of Thomas Paine.   Also on hand will be Palisades Interstate Park historical troubadour Thaddeus MacGregor who will appear in period clothing and lead the students in songs from the period of the American Revolution. This event is being held in …

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From the Archives

From the Archives: The Revolutionary War Ghost of Fort Lee

The Spirit of '76 is alive and well in Fort Lee's Monument Park.

Fort Lee’s Monument Park has had many residents over the years. Originally Parker’s Pond, it saw the army of General George Washington erect huts around the pond in the summer of 1776 when the army encamped there to fight the British from atop the bluffs of Fort Lee’s nearby Palisades. More than 2,000 soldiers, including patriot Thomas Paine, encamped on the land adjacent to Parker’s Pond. Today that area includes the Fort Lee Museum, the Church of the Good Shepherd and the high-rise buildings from River Ridge to the Colony. Parker’s Pond was ultimately filled, and in 1902, Fort Lee residents began the work of erecting a monument to commemorate Fort Lee’s Revolutionary War history.  On Sept. 26, 1908, the statue of the two soldiers of the …

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First-Time BOE Candidate Announces Run, Thomas Paine Turns 275

The week in review: a weekly roundup of some of the top local stories on Fort Lee Patch.

The Fort Lee Common Sense Society sponsors an annual celebration of the birthday of American Revolutionary War patriot Thomas Paine, who was born on Jan. 29, 1737. This year, with Paine’s actual birthday falling on Sunday, the celebration took place Wednesday at Fort Lee School No. 1. This year’s celebration also marked the official kickoff of the Common Sense Society’s “$17.76” fundraising campaign. (Full Story) **** David Sarnoff has been a Fort Lee resident for slightly more than 10 years; he has two children in the Fort Lee public school district, a third- and a fourth-grader, and he’s taken an active interest and regularly attended Fort Lee Board of Education meetings since his kids started attending. Last week, Sarnoff, a partner and…

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From the Archives

The Spirit of 1776: Fort Lee’s Retreat to Victory

Celebrate the Spirit of 1776 in Fort Lee - join Fort Lee's annual "General Washington's Retreat to Victory" Saturday at 11:45 a.m.

The fall of 1776 here in Fort Lee was cold and bitter as the winds echoed off the cliffs of the Palisades. Perched high atop this natural fortress, General George Washington observed his forces on both sides of the Hudson River, here in Fort Lee and across the river at Fort Washington. On November 16, General Washington and Fort Lee commander General Nathanael Greene watched in horror from the bluffs of Fort Lee as the British captured, and later imprisoned, some 2,000 American soldiers. Less than a week later, under cover of darkness and rain, the British invaded New Jersey with the intention of capturing Fort Lee. Washington ordered his army to retreat. The  American army, led by General Greene, retreated up present day Main Street in …

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Tom Meyers

4:42 pm on Sunday, November 20, 2011

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for your participation in our annual Retreat to Victory Reenactment. We do outreach re local history in the Fort Lee school district in the course of the year and of course the Revolutionary War is a hot topic of interest. this year once again we will celebrate Thomas Paine's birthday (January 29) with a birthday event at a local Fort Lee school. That event …   more ›

From the Archives

Thomas Paine and Veterans Day in Fort Lee - 11/11/11

Fort Lee commemorates Veterans Day at the VFW's Veterans Square with the words of Revolutionary War patriot Thomas Paine

This year Veterans Day in Fort Lee was forever connected to American patriot and soldier Thomas Paine. Fort Lee VFW Commander Jimmy Viola this week unveiled a new portion of the wonderful monument wall outside the VFW Post known as Veterans Square.  The new addition is a quote from Thomas Paine and reads, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, so that my children may have peace.”  Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, in his Veterans Day speech in Veterans Square, spoke for my generation when he said the reason we did not have to join the service and fight for our country is because of the men who stood on Center Ave. in Veterans Square today, our veterans. Sokolich said Paine’s words, now etched on the wall in Veterans Square, speak for …

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Common Sense Society to Honor Mayor, Nears Fundraising Goal

Group needs to raise an additional $40,000 for a statue of Thomas Paine it plans to unveil in Monument Park in November 2012

The Fort Lee Common Sense Society and the Fort Lee VFW will honor Mayor Mark Sokolich with the first annual “Thomas Paine Winter Soldier Award” at a dinner fundraiser in November. The Common Sense Society also hopes to raise a good chunk of the remaining $40,000 it needs to complete funding for a statue of Thomas Paine the group commissioned to be permanently placed in 2012 at the site Paine and the rest of the American Army encamped with General George Washington in 1776—present day Monument Park in Fort Lee. “We’re honoring Paine specifically for his role in Fort Lee,” said Common Sense Society vice chair Tom Meyers. “[Paine began] to write The American Crisis right here in Fort Lee, and anyone who doubts that, read the first few …

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Tom Meyers

11:46 pm on Wednesday, October 5, 2011

This article is about our effort to raise funds and awareness of American patriot Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine lived as an American soldier and war correspondent near present day Monument Park here in Fort Lee in 1776. General Washington when asked what his most effective weapon was int the American Revolution and he answered the quill pen of Thomas Paine. Paine wrote of Fort Lee and his time here …   more ›

From the Archives

The Times That Try Men’s Souls

Patriot Thomas Paine's words live on, speak to us through two centuries and have special meaning for us on the 10th anniversary of September 11th.

As we remember the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this coming Sunday we will recall the horror along with the bravery of the day. Here in Fort Lee, the borough will honor the first responders who served as our first line of defense that day and who all became Fort Lee Bridgemen and women and defended the George Washington Bridge and our community in the spirit of the American Revolution that is steeped in the soul of Fort Lee. There will be many columns written and programs televised this coming weekend to try to put into words what happened on September 11, 2001.  As is often the case, the best way to find the proper words is to search through our past to the birth of our nation. This past week Patch has run a series of articles about those who…

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About Town

Weekend Sails on the Hudson

No coupons needed for these weekend sails.

What better way to spend a summer morning, afternoon or evening than sailing the Hudson River? If you feel that way then this is your lucky weekend because Friday, and throughout the entire weekend, you can take a sail on the Hudson and soak in the sun while soaking in the sights of Manhattan on one side and the pristine Palisades on the other. The Tenafly Nature Center, Association of Environmental Commissions and the Fort Lee Common Sense Society are co-sponsoring a series of cruises on the Hudson on New Jersey’s official tall ship, the A.J. Meerwald, all weekend long.   The Fort Lee Common Sense Society Music Cruise Friday at 5:30 p.m. is a fundraising sunset sail for the completion of a statue of Thomas Paine that has been commissioned…

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About Town

About Town: Fort Lee Historic Park

When's the last time you visited the Fort Lee Historic Park?

When is the last time you visited the Fort Lee Historic Park that didn’t involve meeting your high school friends to hang out in the woods? Wait. Have you ever been to the Fort Lee Historic Park? Either way, you should plan on visiting. Soon. Why? First of all, because the Fort Lee Historic Park’s Visitor Center just re-opened after undergoing a major renovation. Although many of the same exhibits are still on display, they look as fresh as they did in 1976. There are also some wonderful new additions that nicely complement the existing exhibits. Second of all, the soldiers’ quarters have been meticulously rebuilt since the buildings in that area of the park were lost to a fire some years ago. Strolling among the buildings you really get …

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