Wicoff Hitching Post

Hitching posts were heavily in use in the 1800s and early 1900s. The Wicoff family, like most people during this time, traveled by horse; either riding on them or in horse-drawn carriages. Many houses and businesses had hitching posts out front, for the owner to tether his or her animal to prevent it from straying. The posts needed to be extremely secure in the ground due to the strength of a horse. Therefore, those that were constructed from wood have since disappeared, while the posts that were made from stone continue to hold their own.

In addition to the iron ring used to tether horses, John Wicoff also had an iron “W” added to his stone hitching posts in honor of the Wicoff name. Sometime later, as automobiles were becoming more accessible and commonly used, his son John Van Buren Wicoff had a garage built for his own car and would eventually no longer need items such as hitching posts. However, this artifact serves as a reminder of life and transportation during Plainsboro’s early days.