Passport to the World of Wines
October 9th and 10th, 2004
The Second Annual New Jersey Wine & Art Festival’s Passport to the World of Wines will be held on October 9th and 10th in beautiful Frenchtown New Jersey. The event is hosted this year by The Frenchtown Business and Professional Association and The River Union Stage, an up and coming professional theater group.
Wines and fine imported beers from around the world will be available for sampling at different art galleries and stores all over the downtown Frenchtown area. A passport admission booklet allows the connoisseur entrance to each tasting location which features wines and beers from one country. By strolling and sampling you will take a tour of the world of wines without having to trek all over Europe!!! Your passport that you present to the attending wine steward, also will enter you in several prize drawings for merchandise donated by Frenchtown merchants.
Outstanding art from Bucks County in Pennsylvania, Hunterdon County in New Jersey and the nation at large will be on exhibit at our local galleries. Also The New Jersey Chapter of the American Artists Professional League, will hold it’s fall open state exhibition at the Louisa Melrose Gallery on Bridge Street. Some of the best artists in the state will have their work on exhibit in this fine juried art show.
The event runs on Saturday and Sunday from 1 – 6 pm, rain or shine. The $18 entrance fee for the event includes a glass and passport to the event $15 if paid in advance. For an advance payment ticket send your check to:
F.B.P.A.,
P.O. Box 425,
Frenchtown, NJ 08825.
For further information call 1-800-989-3388
The wine festival sounds marvelous guys.
The art and wine event is just what our little town needs guys. Great Vision!!!
Thanks for all the comments guys and gals. Please feel free now to make your own posts!!!
Thank God not everybody that lives in Frenchtown is a no-growth moron. The anti-growth people are basically saying “I’m in…..now close the door!” It is short sighted and selfish. Instead why not try to work with the developers and end up with something that everyone can live with. Unless YOU own the property you shold have verry little say in what the true owner does with their property. Developers dont tell you what to do with your personal or real property. If these pople had any moral fiber they would move to a communist state instead of trying to subvert American commitment to caplitlisim.
Dear John:I couldn’t agree with you more. I have lived in Frenchtown for the last 6 years and it breaks my heart to see that the town is not living up to its full potential. I favor a sensible and balanced form of development while keeping the historical and native charm of both the town and surrounding area. This is not a zero-sum game, both can be done! I’ve worked in Central NJ for years and seen many quaint towns such as Pluckamin, Peapack, Gladstone etc handle development with a sense of historical guidelines. For example, Plukamin has a Burger King residing in a Victorian home (it is as inconspicuous as can be). It also has a car wash that is designed like a Victorian home with a widow’s walk!I am not advocating car washes or Burger Kings in FT. Quite the contrary! I love the “no chain” policy, however, these are the types of examples that can be done with sensible development. I believe any development and architecture should be done within the historical Victorian-type period of the town. However, we must be realistic as to the commercial future of the town from both a tourism and residential standpoint. Not everything that is good for tourists is bad for residents! Is it more beneficial to the town to have the beautiful structure located across from the Citgo or the old delapidated eye sore? Is a vacant lot better for the town than a beautiful facade; an over-grown field next to the FT Inn better than a cultural and historical center; a quaint 1 show small town movie theatre (which would be wonderful for residents), or the project George Michael is proposing? Isn’t it better also for residents (and not just tourists) to actually live in a more beautiful town, from an asthetic, civic pride and PROPERTY VALUE standpoint? I certainly feel better about the town I live in from an asthetic standpoint than I did six years ago. Frankly, I feel FT is undervalued from a residential real estate standpoint because of its resistence to modified change. Sensible development would enhance property values, increase revenues, and reduce the pressure for future tax increases. Bluntly stated, I think it’s embarrassing to see so many vacant storefronts in the center of town. It speaks negatively to our vibrancy and hospitality to the tourist and business communities. I live in one of the most maticulously maintained houses on Harrison Street…..ASK ANYONE! Total strangers constantly compliment me on the work I’ve done and the constant level of care that goes into the house, both inside and out. I believe I am the one with the true sense of historical preservation here, not those resisting any changes. I am trying to maintain the look of the house the way it was built 100 years ago. Historical preservation, however, does not equate to paved vacant lots, decreped buildings and weed-laden fields in the center of town. If the type of care (and managed development)I put into my house is fine on a residential scale, why not on a limited commercial scale as well?At times, I resent the fact that there are very run down residential and commercial properties in FT and people don’t seem to want to do anything to address the situation because they don’t even see it as a real issue. I have seriously contemplated selling my home for that reason because I see “free riding” going on and a fierce resistance by not some, but many, in the town to constructive enhancements. I feel much of the property values of others in the town are heightened by homes like mine but I have little, to no, say about delapidated properties elsewhere detracting from my own property values! Wouldn’t it be nice if FT could be transformed as an “end destination” for people to go rather than a “conduit” to New Hope, Lambertville, and Doylestown. If that were the case, you might even see the traffic diminish as well. Tourists will have more respect for the town if they feel the desire to come back again and again, rather than a “one and done disposable” thing because their recreational options in the town are so limited and their need to return is nill.We should be flattered that people want to see the town and even spend their hard earned money here. Not many people live in a place like that. We should do everything we can to sensibly develop and promote the town as a weekend retreat for tourists, a summer home possibility, or a nice place to retire, and a more beautiful landscape for the current residents. The real estate market and demographics are going toward “town living” concepts, we should take full advantage of these possibilities.