The Alarm Beacon
The alarm beacon was a huge pyramid-shaped structure of logs and brush usually placed on a prominent hilltop. In case of enemy invasion or other emergency situations, it was to be set on fire to notify militiamen to go to preselected meeting places and prepare for response to the alarm.
Instructions for building alarm beacons in New Jersey during 1779 required that they should be “…made of Logs intermixed with Brush square at Bottom about sixteen feet & to Diminish as they rise like a pyramid & should be 18 or 20 feet high.”
Marker can be reached from Chestnut Street, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
