The Women of the Hermitage

with Marion Brown

from Monday, March 20, 2023

In honor of Women’s History Month, The Mahwah Museum Society presents a lecture about the strong women who occupied the Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus for over 200 years. From the time of the Revolutionary War, Anne DeVisme and her daughter Theodosia Prevost defended the property from wartime confiscation. The Rosencrantz family kept the house for 163 years, first as a Victorian showplace, then as a tearoom as their fortunes declined. Mary Elizabeth, the last of the Rosencrantzes, fended off developers looking to raze her home until her death in 1970 when she gave the property to the state. One woman you will hear about was the daughter of Judge John Suffern and another was a direct descendant of Lucas Kierstede son of Hans Kierstede and Sara Roelofs of Mahwah. Please join historian Marion Brown to hear about the lives of these strong and determined women and the enslaved people and indentured servants for both the Prevost and Rosencrantz families.

Historian Marion Brown grew up in Ho-Ho-Kus and has been active in the history community of Bergen County for 24 years having served on the Board of Trustees for the Mahwah Museum Society and the Ridgewood Historical Society. She is a former director of the Hermitage, co-author of The Rosencrantz Cotton Warp Mill – The Industrial Revolution at the Hermitage 1830-1891, a genealogist and archivist of historic photos, books, and documents in private collections.