[5] Listed as the Joseph W. Revere House, Fosterfields was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 20, 1973, for its significance in art, architecture, literature, and military history.

"[5][10][11] In 1881 Charles Grant Foster, a New York commodities broker, purchased the property and developed it into a Jersey cattle farm entitled "Fosterfields."

His daughter, Caroline Rose Foster, spent 98 years living and working on the property, enjoying carpentry, fishing, and civic engagement during the Gilded Age of Morristown.

[9] While writing her will in 1974, Caroline Foster arranged to bequeath the land to the Morris County Park Commission following her death, with the intent of making the property an educational farm.

[20] Arrowheads found in Munsee encampments throughout the Washington Valley suggest that they hunted wolf, elk, and wild turkey for game.

[5] In the 17th century Munsee fishermen made an annual pilgrimage from the Washington Valley to the Minisink Island on the Delaware River, in part to procure shellfish.

[9] Circa the 1750s, Samuel Roberts had purchased over 150 acres (61 ha) of land in Washington Valley, including what became Fosterfields and the nearby Ranney farm.

[5] During the Revolutionary War winter of 1779–1780, General Washington stationed four regiments of artillery, field pieces, forges, and machine shops in nearby Burnham Park.

In his will, Ogden stipulated "my wife Abigail have the time and services of my three blacks – Thomas, Neal, and Ibbe[Note 1] – during her life.

On June 10, 1915, the Ogden house burned to the ground (except its 1774 foundation) due to a mattress being placed too close to a stove pipe.

Foster recalled:I woke up in the morning early and heard screams and shouts and I jumped up and you see the thing blazing...It took three days to burn, it was all solid oak ...

Edward Woods (1875-1931) emigrated to the U.S. from Cornwall, England in 1909 and began working at Fosterfields in 1910, eventually being promoted to farm superintendent and moving into the Ogden House.

[29] His wife Agnes Woods (1879-1957) arrived in 1916 and was paid to provide food for the farmhands,[33] usually Irish immigrants,[34] at 25 cents a meal.

[38] His other travels (usually related to wars) took him to Mexico, Cuba, Liberia, France, Germany, Greece, Egypt, Portugal, Spain, Algeria, and Italy.

[38][42] Historian Renée Elizabeth Tribert argues that either Revere or Bruen undoubtedly owned a copy of the book and based it on Wheeler's design.

[5] A self-taught artist, Revere likely painted the elaborate tromp l'oeil murals in the dining room, which were later maintained by the Foster family.

[48] From 1878 to 1880, Brooklyn Heights-based commodity broker Charles Grant Foster (1843–1927) rented The Willows, possibly to provide his wife with medical care for tuberculosis.

Other technology included kerosene-powered egg incubation, crop rotation, and steam-engine fodder choppers and water pumps (replaced by gasoline engine in 1915).

Post-Office Box 173, Morristown, Morris Co., N.J. A similar September 1919 advertisement was posted in Home and Field Illustrated:[53]Fosterfield's Herd Registered Jerseys.

[29] Likely named in response to the Great War,[29] the Temple of Abiding Peace was used as a workshop to entertain guests and craft birdhouses with friends.

[59] Historic landscape consultant Marta McDowell claims Foster's garden is significant because "it displays features that span the history of 19th- and 20th-century American gardening: the Romantic era of the early 1800s, the Colonial Revival of 1876 onwards, and the imported English perennial borders of the early 20th century.

In 1974 farmer and philanthropist Caroline Rose Foster (1877–1979) bequeathed her estate to the Morris County Park Commission to preserve the farm.

[7] Antique machinery is on display and part of demonstrations, including early 20th century steam engines, corn sheller, icebox, wood stove, and barrel butter churns.

Guests may help perform daily farm tasks like collecting eggs, cleaning the horse harness, and grinding feed corn for the chickens.

It also ran a program called "Spread It Around" where paying observers watched a team of Belgian workhorses scatter manure on a pasture.

Festivities included displaying Caroline Foster's Model T Ford, gifted to her by her friends, and celebrating the history of motor vehicles.

[73] On February 13, 2022, Fosterfields hosted "Winter's Day," wherein guests were invited to experience ice cutting, maple tree tapping, wood sawing, wagon rides, petting cows, and an outdoor cooking demonstration.

In her will, Caroline Foster stipulated:[29]It is contemplated that the Commission will erect a fire resistant building on a part of the farm which I have already deeded to it.

This will be a museum for the purpose of housing and displaying a transportation exhibit, including my collection of carriages, wagons, sleighs, harness, antique automobile, farm equipment and other articles.As requested, her automobiles are displayed in the Fosterfields Visitors Center near the entrance, in a museum exhibit titled "Driving Into the Twentieth Century."

[29] In 2022, photography club students at the County College of Morris created a virtual reality exhibit of the Willows' second floor, led by Professor Nicole Schwartz.