Category: Small Museums and Galleries in New Jersey

Tuckerton Seaport Museum 120 West Main Street Tuckerton, NJ 08087

Tuckerton Seaport Museum 120 West Main Street Tuckerton, NJ 08087

Tuckerton Seaport Museum

120 West Main Street

Tuckerton, NJ 08087

(609) 296-8868

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Open: Sunday-Wednesday 10:00am-4:00pm/Thursday-Friday Closed/Saturday 10:00am-4:00 pm

Admission: Based on tours arranged during the season. Please check the website.

My TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46876-d271270-r1033440153-Tuckerton_Seaport-Tuckerton_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The Tuckerton Museum and the Seaport at 120 West Main Street in Tuckerton, NJ

The entrance to the complex from Route 9

The entrance to the Tuckerton Seaport complex on a sunny Saturday morning

The complex was once a bustling fishing and shipping area that has now been preserved as a cultural site with tours, a series of restaurants and a museum.

The Mission of the Museum:

(from the Tuckerton Seaport Museum website)

Our mission at the Tuckerton Seaport is to preserve, present and interpret the rich maritime history, artistry, heritage and environment of the Jersey shore and the unique contributions of its baymen.

The dock area by the coffee shop

The artwork by the parking lot and coffee shop

I walked over to the main building which served as both the gift shop and museum. It was funny that the gift shop took both the first two front rooms of the museum. I had to look behind shirts to see the displays.

The docks and touring boats by the museum

The Seaport Tuckerton Museum at 120 West Main Street

The History of the Complex:

(from the Tuckerton Museum website)

Originally launched as the Barnegat Bay Decoy and Baymen’s Museum, the Tuckerton Seaport has evolved over the past twenty-two years into a community museum and community center occupying 40 acres located along historic Tuckerton Creek in Tuckerton, New Jersey. Tuckerton Seaport benefits from a prime location at the center of the Jersey shore, easily accessible via Exit 58 on the Garden State Parkway. Tuckerton Seaport works as a coastal cultural center to bring folklife traditions of the past and present to life through programs on land and water.

The museum was just opening up as I arrived and the staff was busy getting everything ready so I just walked around the museum. It is an interesting museum on New Jersey’s nautical past and the growth of the shipping and trading that went on in the turn of the last century. The museum also showed the bustling fishing industry that still exists today.

The Giant Chicken greets you at the door

The Giant Chicken was a road stop symbol of the White Way Farm Market and a tourist attraction

I thought it was rather cute and could see why people stopped

The view from the front porch of the museum was spectacular on this sunny day

The exhibit at the museum ‘Museum in the Making’, which is a through look at Tuckerton, its past and its contributions to the growth of New Jersey

The first room also served as a bustling gift shop with the main attraction this carving of the ‘Jersey Devil’

A display of Duck Decoys

A collection of woodcarvings of fisherman

The popular businesses that once lined Route 9 up and down the shore area

Displaying life down the shore in that era with quilting and sewing

The display of wood carvings and artwork on the first floor

The artworks made of driftwood by local artists

The driftwood art display on the first floor

The rooms both on the first and second floor were displayed by themes of Lenape Indian life at the shore, the Dutch and English traders, growth of shore farming, shipping and trade and fishing industries and the development of tourism in the area with steamships and the railroads.

The first room in the museum is a detailed look at the life of the Lenape and the froth of the fishing industry

The early life at the Jersey shore

The Native American display

The first part of the early development of Tuckerton started as the fishing and hunting grounds of the Native Americans until the settlement of the Dutch

The history of the Lenape

The arrival of the Europeans started the bustling shipping and trade industries that supplied the home country

With the growth of industry and farming many people started businesses to supply the population

Some started popular businesses that lasted over a century

E. Walter Parsons Jr. had a very successful fishing business that was in the family until 1984

With the rich soil in the area, local farmers worked the land providing fruits and vegetables for the growing population

Early farming equipment on display

The second floor galleries depicted the developing life at the shore with creating of modern life saving for the shipping and fishing industries and with coming of railroads, the bustling tourism industry with the change of leisure travel after the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.

The second floor rail transportation display

The second floor display on shipwrecks off the Jersey coast

The development of modern Life Saving procedures

With storms at sea and affecting life in the area, as it still does today, there was a growth and development of modern Live-saving procedures and rescue methods.

The Life Saving exhibit

The use of the Lyle Gun in rescues

The series of pulleys and wenches are still used today in different forms. They had to create a safe way to rescue people not just from storms but accidents as well.

The Life Saving and Rescue display

Rescue display

The railroad made its way to the Jersey shore bringing tourists from both New York and Philadelphia and bustling North Jersey. This opened the area up to tourism as leisure travel grew at the end of the nineteenth century.

One example of a visiting tourist was the Cinderella Cramer display with long distance travel to the shore.

The first female passenger of the Tuckerton Railroad

Getting the rail ticket

Tourism developing at the Jersey shore

The Cinderella Cramer display representing that eras travels to the shore with Victorian standards and use of steamer trunks

Packing the steamer trunks for the long journey

Artifacts from the shore

Life at the shore still had its perils as it does today with storms affecting development and shifting shore lines

The lighthouse light display

The museum once served as a beacon for shipping and the top level served as a lookout. Today you can walk upstairs and enjoy the views.

Traveling up the tower stairs

On this beautiful sunny and clear morning that I visited, the views were spectacular.

The view of the port area of the complex

The view of the inlet and Lake Pohatcong across from Route 9

My video of the views from the top of the lookout

The Tuckerton Seaport Museum tour was a very thorough look at the community and its development over the last three hundred years. The exhibits showed the progress the community has made and where it is headed in the future as the shore communities keep changing.

With the economy, the rise of AI, climate change and overall population growth toward the shore, it will be interesting to see the changes of the future.

Leaving the museum complex at the end of the trip

Tuckerton has an interesting past as a shipping and fishing destination and now you can tour the buildings and see what life was like back then and there it is moving in to the future today.

Union Cemetery 316 Darlington Avenue Ramsey, NJ 07446

Union Cemetery 316 Darlington Avenue Ramsey, NJ 07446

Union Cemetery

316 Darlington Avenue

Ramsey, NJ 07446

(291) 327-3879

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1680177/union-cemetery

https://www.countyoffice.org/ramsey-union-cemetery-ramsey-nj-4cf/

Open: Sunday-Saturday Dusk to Dawn

My review on TripAdvisor:

The Union Cemetery of The First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey, NJ

History of the Cemetery:

(from the church website)

Union Cemetery is a religious cemetery located at 316 Darlington Ave. in Ramsey, NJ. The cemetery is owned and managed by the First Presbyterian Church in Ramsey. As a religious cemetery, the cemetery is restricted under New Jersey state law and is not open to the general public. Only members of a Christian church and their immediate relatives may be interred at the cemetery.

The historic cemetery from the road. To the left is the oldest part of the cemetery

Entering the cemetery from Darlington Avenue

The newer part of the cemetery is to the right of the driveway

I was visiting the Union Cemetery in search of veterans of the Revolutionary War and found an interesting cemetery with a deep history in Bergen County. Many first families of Bergen County are buried here and veterans not just from the Revolutionary War but the Civil War all the way up to today are buried in this active town cemetery.

The older part of the cemetery is to the left of the driveway. These tombstones are from the early 1800’s.

The older part of the cemetery dates back to before the Revolutionary War

Many of the early family plots are located here with well known names like Hopper, Christie, Ackerman and the town’s namesake, the Ramsey family, whose family plot is in the oldest section of the cemetery.

The grave of Hannah Jane Ramsey in the Ramsey family plot

Part of the Ramsey family plot

The Ramsey family plot

The Union Cemetery to find the graves of Revolutionary War veterans and found some but not all of them. The tombstones are so worn after over two hundred years that they either had disappeared or were so worn you could not read them.

The oldest section of the cemetery where many veterans both from the Revolutionary and Civil War are buried. It was hard to read many of the tombstones. Some the veterans were buried in their family plots, others with their spouses separately. The burials were concentrated in the oldest part of the cemetery. Most of the veterans have been honored with American flags.

The first tombstones I found were from Ackerman family members

https://www.njgsbc.org/files/familyfiles/g0/p10.htm

The grave of veteran John Ackerman

The grave of veteran James Ackerman

I could not make out the name of this Ackerman member but I figured it was one of the brothers wife

The grave of veteran John P. Post

The Post family history:

(from the Saddle River Historical Society website)

The Post family was of Dutch descent. The first Post was a soldier, who came here to protect the new settlements along the Hudson. They soon turned to milling; the name Post is attached to several mills in Bergen and Rockland Counties. Joseph Post, born in 1775, built a mill on the west branch of the Saddle River about 1800. He also opened a tavern and store on what is now West Saddle River Road, just north of Parker Place, across from the entrance to the mill.

The graves of members of the community at that time including the grave of John P. Post

The grave of veteran William Vanderbeck

The grave of a member of the Van Brock family, who was married to James Ramsey

I was not too sure who this was but by the veteran’s flower I am assuming the grave of veteran John Van Blarcom

The grave of Hannah (I believe Ackerman)

The Christie family plot

The Hopper family plot

The Hopper Family history:

(from the Saddle River Historical Society website)

The Hopper family is one of the oldest of European descent in Bergen County. Andries Hopper came from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam in the 1640’s. His widow and her son Hendrick were in the Polifly area (Hackensack) by the late 1600s. There was land to be had in the unsettled areas of what became Bergen County. Hendrick’s two oldest sons, Andries and Jan settled in the HoHoKus area (part of Paramus) around 1712. The Hopper name appears on many old homes and mills on early maps of the area. It was two of Andries’ children, Abram and Jan, who settled sometime around 1730 along the Saddle River in what is now Upper Saddle River.

The Endicott-Reardon Family Museum 3036 South Shore Road (Route 9) Seaville, NJ 08230

The Endicott-Reardon Family Museum 3036 South Shore Road (Route 9) Seaville, NJ 08230

The Endicott-Reardon Family Museum

3036 South Shore Road (Route 9)

Seaville, NJ 08230

(609) 624-0600

https://www.facebook.com/EndicottReardonMuseum/

https://visitnj.org/endicott-reardon-family-museum

Open: Sunday Closed/Monday 10:00am-2:00pm/Tuesday Closed/Wednesday 10:00am-2:00pm/Thursday Closed/Friday 10:00am-2:00pm/Saturday Closed. Seasonal-Seasonal Please see the website.

Admission: Free

My review on TripAdvisor”

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46811-d20911361-Reviews-Endicott_Reardon_Family_Museum-Seaville_Upper_Township_Cape_May_County_New_Jersey.html

The front the museum

The sign welcoming you the the Endicott-Reardon Family museum

The original Endicott-Reardon Homestead that sits in the front of the museum

The entrance to the museum dedicated to the lives of both the Endicott and Reardon families.

The family artifacts and heirlooms at the museum as you enter the museum

The Endicott family display at the entrance

The museum is a real surprise as entire set of displays is dedicated to the lives of the local Reardon and Endicott families and their family items. A fascinating look of the lives of these early New Jersey families for over a hundred years. This is the collection of Harriett Reardon Bailey and her family. All these wonderful items were saved over the last 100 years and now it was time to share them with the world.

The various family items are organized by sections categorized by lifestyle and collection.

I was given a personal tour that I had arranged with the current curator who had known and worked with the owner of this extensive collection. It had been her dream to open a museum to share her collection with the public.

This beautiful, well lit and displayed collection of family heirlooms and personal items gives a glimpse of the lives of an upper middle class family in Southern New Jersey. It is organized and displayed as a household would be at that time. The first section of the museum was dedicated to items from the kitchen and preparations.

The family Living room furnishings and decorations

The family piano that once graced their Living Room

A decorative toy car used in the Living Room

The kitchen area and artifacts of the cooking and washing done in the house

The table set for a formal dinner

The next part of the exhibit was the formal Dining Room and on display were many of the China patterns that the family owned.

All the china collections the family owned plus other decorative pieces

The family collection of China and glass pieces

The family had various collections of China

Mainly of the bedroom items have been preserved too from linens to comforters to every day clothing. There are also a selection of family member’s clothing, jewelry and personal items.

The Bedroom vignette with clothing and accessories

Another view of the bedroom

Harriett Reardon Bailey had been a school teacher like her mother and there were displays of items that reflected her time in the classroom including a classroom setting.

Time on the classroom and family employment

The classroom set up

Activities and programs at the school

More local school items

There were also displays on her father’s time in the army and her uncle’s time working on the railroad with carefully preserved outfits, programs and railroad artifacts from the job.

The Railroad display

School and family items

Work on the railroad

The display on the family contribution to the armed forces

What I thought was interesting was that the founder of the museum, Harriett Reardon Bailey, had been an only child with relatives that had never been married so that she was the only child and a bit spoiled.

The Toy Room

In a separate room off the side held her extensive collection of dolls and games. She had kept all her childhood items in such beautiful shape and with great care. What impressed me was there was a picture of her as a little girl with all her dolls and stuffed animals her room and since she kept everything, they were able to recreate the display.

The picture of the owner of the museum as a little girl in her bedroom

The exact replicated display of toys in the same spots in the display

The collection of tea sets

The collection of toys and playthings are extensive and they are all in wonderful working shape

There was a large collection of dolls plus all their clothes and accessories that were kept together in her collection. Even into adulthood, all of her childhood items were kept in pristine condition.

The collectible dolls and clothing

The extensive collection of childhood dolls

The collection of China and baby dolls

The collection of baby dolls

The collection of cloth and rag dolls

The handmade dollhouse and rag dolls

The fancier imported and collectible dolls

What I thought was interesting during the tour was that the curator had said that the founder of this museum was dedicated in keeping all these items for so long and packing the house with family memorabilia. I think she knew what she was doing.

She was not just preserving memories, she was preserving a past that was fading away and the memories of a different time. As her family died, she kept their memories alive by preserving their past as well. The curator had said that she had always wanted to create a museum with all her family’s items and share them with the public. Now we get to glimpse into her family’s history and everyday life.

The museum shares with the public the day to day happenings and life of the Endicott-Reardon branches of the family and life as a middle class Victorian family. I think she preserved the best items with such care as to share them with future generations of what life was like at that time. When people knew each other and times were slower and quality mattered. I think she loved her beautiful things and wanted to share them with all of us.

The inside of the Endicott-Readon Family Museum

Video on the Museum

The J.W. Gandy Farmstead 26 Tyler Road Greenfield, NJ 08250

The J.W. Gandy Farmstead 26 Tyler Road Greenfield, NJ 08250

The J.W. Gandy Farmstead

26 Tyler Road

Greenfield, NJ 08250

(609) 390-5656

https://theclio.com/entry/100872

Click to access Upper-Twp-History_2-page_Sep2013.pdf

Click to access gandy-house-history_copy_%2015June2008.pdf

https://capemaycountynj.gov/BusinessDirectoryii.aspx?ysnShowAll=0&lngNewPage=0&txtLetter=J&txtZipCode=&txtCity=&txtState=&txtBusinessName=&lngBusinessCategoryID=29&txtCustomField1=&txtCustomField2=&txtCustomField3=&txtCustomField4=&txtAreaCode=

Open: Sunday 1:00pm-3:00pm (Seasonal and Special Events

Admission: Free but donations accepted

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Profile/R4960NKjustinw/mediabatch/13884120?m=19905

The J. W. Gandy House at 26 Tyler Road

The historic marker

The historic signs

The Gandy House sign

The farm grounds

The historic sign

The historic grounds of the property in the winter

I visited the John Westley Gandy Farmstead on private walking tours both in the Winter of 2024 and the Summer of 2025 and got a glimpse of farm life in early rural Southern New Jersey. Away from the markets of New York City, I got to see how tenant farming and life was for early farmers after the Revolutionary War.

The house is decorated with artifacts from the early 1800’s to the turn of the Twentieth century and how they affected the lives of early inhabitants of the house. There is antique furniture, home made quilts and a fully stocked kitchen with a wood burning fireplace to cook meals from scratch (which was not a trend in those days, that is how they lived).

The grounds when I visited in the summer months

The grounds of the farm in the winter

The grounds of this historic homestead in the winter

The same grounds in the summer

The history of the house

The front of the house during the summer

The Laundry Room

The Laundry Room

When you walk inside the Gandy Housr on the first floor, you are welcomed into the kitchen and pantry area plus some of public areas of the house. Here meals were prepared and guests were greeted.

The pantry area of the kitchen

Wood was stored for heat and cooking and herbs were drying for the winter months for cooking and daily use.

The fire wood and herb s drying

The pantry and larders for daily cooking and baking for the daily meals. All meals were cooked from scratch and large breakfasts and lunches were part of farm life. All meals were cooked in the open hearth so meals had to be properly timed and cooking and baking had to be coordinated for the family meals.

The larders were filled with the items that were in season

Cooking over a wood burning fire was part of everyday meals in the farm kitchen. Various pots and pans were in use to cook the family meals.

The inside of the kitchen area that heated the main room

Meals were coordinated for the day with cereals and soups cooking first, baked items going into the oven when it was warm enough followed by roasts and stews.

The days cooking over a hot stove

There were early morning breakfasts on the farm and then a late lunch/ early supper when the afternoon work was done.

The other half of the main room was used for dining and the families social space. Here meals were served and the family relaxed.

Everyday family objects of the household

The front part of the room faced the road and the comings and goings of the surrounding community.

The side bench and family objects

The most interesting part of the tour of the first floor is the view of the construction of the home. Behind the glass frame showed how the home was built and of what.

The construction of the home behind the glass frame

The family quarters on the second floor show the chores that followed during the day with spinning yarn, making and mending clothes and dying fabrics.

The spinning wheels and the making of quilts

The landing and the first floor rooms

The spinning wheels and patterns

The first bedroom was furnished with handmade quilts and sown linens. The wash basins were used before indoor plumbing.

The first bedroom upstairs

The wash basin and grooming products

Going out for a formal evening

The second bedroom on the second floor has is collection of quilts

The hand made quilts in the second bedroom

The children’s toys

The handmade quilt collection in the one bedroom

Handmade linens were part of the fabric of rural life as women were trained to sew and quilt their clothes and bed linens. Store bought linens were a rarity at this time and the quality of a woman’s homemaking skills defined her household. The handwork on these quilts were amazing.

The upstairs fireplace to keep the rooms warm

The upstairs alcove where the fireplace is located

The Morning clothing in the alcove

We then headed up the stairs to see the attic which were hard to walk up they were such small stairs.

The narrow stair’s to the attic

I got to see the attic area which visitors normally don’s see. This is where the boys of the family would sleep in the summarrr

The attic loft area

We finished the house tour back in the kitchen-living room

The full kitchen and living room room

The laundry area just off the main room

The we then toured the grounds of the estate walking through the grounds and exploring all the buildings on the property, some original to the estate and some brought here from other properties that awaited the wrecking ball. The grounds included the family well, barn, outhouse, root cellar, wood shed and a grape arbor.

The area right behind the main

The estate well which was going to be replaced

Fresh well water is still a part of the communities in Southern New Jersey. These farmsteads were pretty much self-sufficient and people grew what they needed and could barter for the rest or bring it to market.

The woodshed on the estate

The estate on a sunny day

The root cellar

The Root Cellar was used to keep Summer foods and preserves cool throughout the season. People tried to eat seasonally as much as possible and store for the Winter months.

The Ice House

The historic sign for the Ice House

The inside of the ice house and the hooks to hold meats

Ice was brought in from local lakes and ponds to keep foods well preserved during the warmer months of the Spring and Summer.

The barn that was moved here

The inside of the barn with all sorts of historic farm. These are pieces of equipment that were used over the last 100 years.

The farm equipment

The equipment that runs a farm

The storage area of the farm

The storage bins

The Outhouse

There was no indoor plumbing in those days and the use of the outhouse was placed far from the main house.

The grounds of the farm

The back of the farm

The front of the homestead in the summer of 2025

The house was warm and contained by fireplaces in the Winter months and open and airy in the Summer months with a flow of air through the open windows. The Upper Cape May Township Historical Society is open also for special events like their Strawberry and Apple festivals plus private tours.

The Gandy Farmstead Annual Apple Festival 2025:

Two weeks after my initial visit to the Gandy House during the Firemen’s Convention, I returned for the Historical Society’s Annual Apple Festival. The event reminded me of the Brinckerhoff House Strawberry Festival, a very nice family and community event that attracted everyone.

Since there were a lot of shore towns I wanted to revisit while the weather was nice, I arranged to stay at an Airbnb in Ocean City so I had plenty of time to do what I needed to do and relax afterwards.

I could not believe how crowded the roads were as so many places were having either Fall festivals or October Fest. Route 9 was like a parking lot near Smithville, NJ.

I got to the Apple Festival around noon and the parking lot was packed with people. One of the members said later that afternoon that he could not believe the consistent crowds as it was still busy at 2:15pm (the festival was over by 3:00pm). The crowds were filled with several generations of family members who I am sure were traveling from one event to another on this spectacular sunny morning.

The sign welcoming you to the event

When I arrived at the festival, the parking lot was still filling up so I had to park way in the back so I could get in and out easily.

On the Gandy family property on the other side of the home, they had an antique car show, a mini train ride around the tracks of this part of the property and a Caboose train car that you could explore.

The train tracks around the farm property

The train set up and tracks to tour around the farm

The train rides were really popular with both the small and ‘big’ kids

This small train trip had a nice sized line to it as families were really enjoying themselves

I then toured the Caboose which was set up for service and a day in the life of a conductor. Some of the volunteers were even dressed as conductors leading tour and talking to families.

The caboose on the farm property

The inside of the caboose

Getting ready for the holidays

Life of a train conductor shown in the caboose

After the tour of the car show and watching the families have fun on the trains, I headed across the street to the Gandy House for the tours and activities.

The back of the Gandy Farmstead with crafts and entertainment

Entering the Apple Festival with a Farmers Market and Apple sale

The Farmers Market of locally grown produce

They had a wonderful duo interesting the crowds that afternoon

There were all sorts of crafts stands around where the entertainment was performing

The local crafts people were really talented and included crocheted, painters, floral arrangers and jewelry markers.

One woman sold flowers from her gardens and arranged bouquets

This woman painted her own crafts and did beautiful work for both Halloween and Christmas

Here beautiful holiday crafts

I loved this Santa tree and was going to get it for my mom

This woman had the most beautiful handmade doll clothing and knit items for the holidays

What is an Apple Festival without food? I went to the concession stand for lunch and ordered a hot dog with a glass of locally made Apple cider and had an homemade Apple Shortcake, which I found out later the members had made the night before.

The concession stand where all the food was made

Enjoying my lunch. Both the hotdogs and apple cider were locally made. That’s why it tasted so good!

Hot dogs taste so good off the grill!

The delicious homemade Apple Shortcake with homemade apple topping were made by the members

I also stopped off at the apple stand where cases of apples were being sold. It looked like many people were going to make pies and sauce with these and the stand looked like they were selling out.

I managed to buy one of the Mango sweet apples they were selling individually

The apples were so hard, fresh and sweet that it made the perfect addition to dessert.

The Mango Sweet apples

Talk about delicious

After lunch I ran into the Board members who had helped me with the tour two weeks early and I took a quick tour of the first floor of the home. The laundry room was not open the day of my private tour.

Touring the outside grape arbor

The grape arbor on an early Fall day

Touring the first floor laundry room

An early washing machine

How to do laundry at the turn of the last century

After having lunch, touring the house and visiting all the vendors I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and listened to the entertainment perform. They did a combination of 70’s hit songs, country music and some James Taylor.

The duo performing

The first part of the song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” from the 1970’s before people walked in the way

The rest of the song performed. They did an excellent job with it

Before I left just after 2:00pm, I stayed to see who won the Apple pie contest. There were only three contributors but I wanted to get a slice before I left. They did not slice them up. Bummer!

The winners of the Apple pie contest

The Apple Festival sponsored by the Upper Township Historical Society happens every October. It is a wonderful family event and fundraiser for the Historical Society. I know I had a lot of fun and it reminded me of the events that I went to as a kid in the 1970’s.

It was funny that the only person who had a cell phone glued to his hand was me. It was just like the 1970’s all over again with families enjoying each other’s company. Try to visit in the future.