nickname as the "Venice of New Jersey" makes it only fitting that it has a canoe club operating in the township. The township has leased the property and livery service to a third party that still functions today, renting canoes and kayaks on the bank of the Rahway River. Revolutionary War Cantonment Site Located at Sperry Park on Riverside Drive, a marker commemorates the winter of 1779-80 cantonment of Continental Army troops during the Revolutionary War along the river here, part of a 2,000 man front protecting George Washington's troops at Morristown. Here, Brigadier General William Irvine established headquarters of the forward defense line on January 1, 1780. The front stretched in an arc from Newark to Perth Amboy, with Crane's Mills (Cranford) in the center. Several Continental Army generals headquartered here. Alexander Hamilton visited the Crane's Mills cantonment and Hessian prisoners are known to have passed through here. The marker was placed by the Crane's Ford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1977. Revolutionary Hospital Site An American Revolutionary War army field hospital was located in the northwest portion of Crane's Mills from 1777 to 1780. The site is now part of the Union County College campus, near Princeton Road, roughly at the site of the Kenneth Campbell MacKay Library. The hospital was a log building similar to the reconstruction that can be seen today at Morristown. The Old Red Schoolhouse Located at the corner of the Old York Road (now Lincoln Avenue East) and South Union Avenue, a historical plaque erected by the Cranford Historical Society in 1935 marks the location of Cranford's first school built in 1805. Lost structures of Cranford IBM office A modernist branch office for IBM was constructed in Cranford according to designs by architect Victor Lundy; The building has since been demolished. Cranford Opera House Block Erected by James Walter Thompson in the 1890s and designed by Frank Townsend Lent this structure, containing a theater for various performances was owned by William Miller Sperry before it was destroyed in a fire. See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Union County, New Jersey List of the oldest buildings in New Jersey Rahway River Parkway References External links Cranford Historical Preservation Advisory Board - official site Crane Philips House National Register of Historic Places New Jersey Historic Preservation Office Preservation New Jersey New Jersey Historic Trust Sperry House Fire New