The Bergen County Historical Society at New Bridge Landing in River Edge, NJ.
Christmas time at the Bergen County Historical Society.
The student consultants from Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc (Bergen Community College-Paramus Campus), who were part of my Business 101-Introduction to Business class on the Lyndhurst campus, marketed the Bergen County Historical Society for tourism both domestically and internationally. They created a complete marketing plan for the BCHS along with new special events for Halloween and Easter and a fundraiser to raise $25,000 for the new museum. These are their ideas. Team Two won the contest.
The John DuBois Maritime Museum at 949 Ye Greate Street in Greenwich, NJ.
I visited the John DuBois Maritime Museum when I was visiting the Gibbon House and the Carman Prehistoric Museum when I was visiting Greenwich, NJ. What a nice little museum explaining the maritime history of not just New Jersey but the local area as well.
The museum is one large gallery broken down into sections of the history of the area. The main gallery is well organized by section to explain the shipping history of the region.
The decoys and rafts that are part of the collection.
The nautical instruments to guide your way through the stars. These were part of the long voyage.
The Shipping display
The sign for the Oyster Dredge display
The Oyster Dredge display
The Oyster Dredge display explores the important of the oyster industry in the area’s waters and what an important source of food they were to the local population. It also showed their role in keeping the waterways clean and the water well circulated.
The Ship Building display
Ship building and the creation of the shipping industry’s planning on future boat was another important part of the economy before the Civil War.
The Ship’s Mascot greets all of her guests at the front of the museum.
The History of the Museum:
The John DuBois Maritime Museum houses a large collection of Southern New Jersey Maritime related items from the 19th and early 20th centuries. A large and unique collection of builders models of local craft, show the plans used to build a new ship from the model itself.
The anchor outside the museum
Exhibited are tools used to carve ribs, planking, masts and booms. Also displayed are many blocks, ‘deadlines’ and ‘rigging’. The museum is proud to have one of the largest collections on the East Coast of caulking tools. Videos are available to view by the New Jersey network on oyster schooners including an interview with John DuBois who donated most of the artifacts in the museum.
Also exhibited are early maritime engine parts, most from the Hettinger’s of Bridgeton, one of the first manufacturers in America of marine motors.
The Shipping displays in the heart of the collection.
Open: Sunday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Monday-Tuesday/Closed/Wednesday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Thursday Closed/Friday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Saturday/Closed (check the website for additional open hours)
The Hackettstown Historical Society at 106 Church Street.
The welcome sign of the Historical Society
I visited the Hackettstown Historical Society on a recent trip to Downtown Hackettstown and this small historical society is packed with interesting information on the history of the town and the local town of Mansfield, NJ that has more information but they do not have their own building for a society of their own.
The historical information on Mansfield Township, NJ
The other exhibits on the first floor are on the history and clothing of the “Gibson Girl”. It shows how women were progressing in society during the late 1800’s after the Civil War. It shows how women gained more independence after the war years and showed it in their clothing, physical activities and schooling.
The “Gibson Girl” exhibit
The first-floor exhibition also had a display on the first Miss America from New Jersey, Bette Cooper, who was Miss Bertrand Island. She won the award and then ran away from the award. She never wanted to participate in the Miss America Foundation and because of her, there was a contract put together for future winners to participate in activities for the organizations. The Cooper family resided in Hackettstown, NJ at the time of her being a winner.
Another exhibit explained the transportation for Hackettstown and its influence in the outside community.
The Transportation exhibit in Hackettstown, NJ.
Another popular exhibit especially with the kids is the toy manufacturing displays. Toys were based on careers as girls played with tea sets, dollhouses and dolls while boys played with trucks, cars and sporting goods. This set of displays showed the items that were made in the area of Hackettstown, NJ.
The Toy Company exhibition on the first floor.
The Beton (Bergen Toy and Novelty) Manufacturing Company display. The company manufactured at the turn of the century in Hackettstown, NJ.
On the second floor, the museum has displays on the businesses of the community. There were many manufacturers of items such as carriages, farm equipment and of course the M & M/Mars Company.
The Business display on the second floor.
Another exhibit was on how a households were run at the turn of the last century and what went into keeping house in those days. From equipment to clothing you could see how a woman’s time was taken up on a daily basis.
The Household Exhibit on the second floor
The Kitchen exhibit on the second floor.
The attitudes towards children after the Civil War and during the Victorian period changed as well as more affluence and change of attitude wanting children to be in school and out of the workplace. There was also more time for children’s play as we see in the sophistication of playthings. Things have not changed that much in that time.
The Children’s Exhibit on the second floor.
The Children’s display of games, toys and dolls.
Life in Hackettstown was also on display with a Civil War exhibit and the Hackettstown Fire Department. How people added to their communities and supported causes has not changed much to today.
The Hackettstown Fire Department display
The Civil War display on the second floor.
Life was not simpler in the turn of the last century but productive in a different way. People lived and contributed to their communities. Hackettstown citizens took a lot of pride in their community and you can see in the business development and the investment in town activities.
The Hackettstown Historical Society does a nice job telling the story of the town and its progress in building the community over the years.
The History of the Hackettstown Historical Society:
The main gallery of the first floor of the society.
The Hackettstown Historical Society was organized on March 6th, 1975. The chapter members, numbering 72 signed the incorporation papers on September 4th, 1975. In December of 1975, permission to use a vacant town-owned building was procured from Hackettstown Common Council. It is currently leased from the town. This building located at 106 Church Street and built in 1915 for the Theodore G. Plate family is the Society’s museum and headquarters.
The Miss America exhibit of first New Jersey winner, Bette Cooper, who ran away from the crown.
The Hackettstown Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation of this area’s historic heritage. The objectives of the Society are to collect, catalog, preserve and display these artifacts, mementos and memorabilia for present and future generations and to hold meetings and exhibits that will inform members and interested persons of the Hackettstown area’s proud past.
The Centenary University exhibit (the local univerity) at the society.
The Old Town Hall Museum/Harrison County Historical Society
The Harrison Township Historical Society/Old Town Hall Museum
Former Exhibition in 2023:
TORNADO
This new exhibition commemorates the 2021 Hurricane Ida Tornado through first-person narratives, artifacts, video and photography.
The Mission of the Old Town Hall Museum/Harrison Township Historical Society Inc.:
(from the Museum pamphlet)
Since its founding in 1971, the Harrison Township Historical Society has presented exhibitions, events, programs and publications focusing on the heritage of South Jersey in Mullica Hill’s Old Town Hall that was built in 1871.
The Stone Age in Harrison Township and Living Off the Land: Food, Farms and Families, explore the region’s Paleo-Indian heritage and our local foodway and farming traditions. The Raccoon Valley General Store and the Harrison Academy Schoolroom recreate two rural institutions.
We also present seasonally changing special exhibitions, student programs and unique special events like the annual Groundhog Dinner (featuring local sausage-“ground” hog!) and the popular Mullica Hill Ghost Walk in October. Visit https://www.harrisonhistorical.com/ for news and information.
Come and experience our Heritage!
Our History:
(from the Museum website)
In 1971 the Township Committee of Harrison Township under the leadership of Mayor Philip J. Reuter, appointed a committee whose purpose was to form a historical society that would lead a community effort to preserve and provide a new purpose for Mullica Hill’s historic Old Town Hall.
Since that time the Harrison Township Historical Society has successfully met this initial charge, not only preserving the building (a key contributing structure in the Mullica Hill National Register Historic District), but also establishing a museum that has won state and national awards for its exhibitions, programs and publications.
The “Living off the Land” exhibition shows life on the farm in Southern New Jersey. This exhibition shows life on a South Jersey farm from the late 1600’s to today with some of the equipment, commercial items and furniture showing the lifestyle on the farm. This first floor exhibition gives us a peek at what life is like in the day of a farming family.
The main room on the first floor of the museum is broken down into sections. In the special gallery space is the exhibition “Tornado” about the tornado that hit the surrounding area during Hurricane Ida in 2021. The exhibition gives first hand accounts of what happened and people’s experiences and the clean up.
In the Main Room when you enter is the Raccoon General Store and the Harrison Academy schoolroom showing what life was like in rural Southern New Jersey.
Raccoon General Store:
All sorts of everyday items were sold in the General Store which was also a gathering place for the town’s citizens. This is where you would catch up with your neighbors at a time before telephones.
Everyday items would be found in the General Store
Everything could be bought at the General Store for the house with special trips into the City during the holidays or for special occasions
Household items at the General Store
In the back of the General Store is the exhibition of the Harrison Academy Schoolhouse showing teaching in rural New Jersey up until about 60 years ago. These rural communities had the one room school in some cases up until WWII. As the areas developed, the regionalized school system came into play and these small schools became of thing of the past.
The schoolroom set up has not changed much over the last 100 years
The room was still heated by the potbelly stove
The Teacher’s Desk, the globe and picture of the President still exists in the classroom today
In the center room is the old Post Office, another fixture of the town’s social life. This was located in Mullica Hill up until fifty years ago.
The Mullica Hill Post Office
The entrance to the hall with the Post Office and Farm Equipment
The facade of the old Post Office
The back part of the exhibition is the farm equipment that would be used in commercial farming. The processing and packaging of fruits and vegetables would have been done when the harvest was being picked and getting ready for markets in New York, Philadelphia and Newark. Fruits and vegetables were packaged on the farm and readied for market.
Life on the farm was not always easy
All sorts of equipment for processing fruits and vegetables is on display
All the bailing and shifting equipment needed on a farm
Business advertising
Packaging fruits and vegetables for the market
Life on the Farm
The second floor also provides not just a look into the life of the farming family but at the Native American’s life in the area before the colonist settlement.
The artifacts of the Native American Lenape Indians
The local Native Americans the Lenapehoking
Day to day equipment and home products of the Native Americans
Arrowheads from New Jersey and beyond
Family life on the farm included the family dinner
Meals would have included churning butter, gathering eggs, milking cows, processing apples for cider, baking and pickling.
Preparing for a meal would have meant the best linens and china would come out of storage and placed on the table.
Families sat down together on Sundays to eat and enjoy each others company.
More processing of household items
The museum shows that not much has changed over the years but with the advent of modern technology with cars, the telephone and electricity, life on the farm changed but not by much. Traditions and processing crops still had to be done just differently. Life in America was going to change by the beginning of the Twentieth Century and this way of life would be part of the ‘myth’ of small town living. This still does exist in some parts of the rural country.
In early October of 2024, I came across the sign for the Ghost Haunted Walk that the Historical Society was sponsoring in Mullica Hill and decided to take an early holiday break and drive down to South Jersey for this event. I made the day of it visiting other sites around the area. Then I drove into Mullica Hill and joined everyone on a very interesting look back on the community’s past. It seems there’s a lot of haunted spots in town.
Downtown Mullica Hill the night of the walk
The downtown was dotted with scarecrows
The foliage was just starting to change but like Octobers in the past five years it has been warmer and greener further into the month.
The tee shirts of the event being sold at the start of the tour
Our tour guide at the start of the tour
The scarecrows on the tour
We walked many stops in the downtown that was steeped in history even before the Revolutionary War.
The Hanging Barn where a worker hung himself
The history of the 12th Infantry some buried in the town
The Haunted St. Stephen’s Church downtown
The inside of the church where angels were seen
The graveyard talk in the back of the church
The Haunted House where multiple ghosts have been seen
Another haunted house
The Mullica family home is haunted
Another haunted house in town
After the tour was over, I toured the Mullica Hill Historical Society after the tour to see the new ‘Taverns and Temperance’ exhibition in 2024 on the local watering holes of the 18th and 19th centuries of which only two exist.
The Last Call exhibition
The history of taverns and their purpose
The interesting artifacts from the exhibit
The ‘Last Call’ exhibition was a look on how taverns were such an important part of socialization at a time when there were no movies, internet, phones and newspapers were limited. Still there was a strong resistance to people drinking which still reflects to our Puritan past.
There was nothing wrong with having a drink but there was a sense of taking it too far. Still this attitude is reflected today. It is still interesting though how one or two of these taverns have carried over into the Twenty First century. They are still welcoming guests today and that proves the socialization of these establishments and how important they are in our lives.
After the Haunted Tour:
After the tour was over and I had a nice visit with the museum, it was almost 9:00pm and I wanted to eat something. Two small tacos and two doughnuts are hardly a proper lunch for someone. By 9:00pm though, the whole town had rolled up its sleeves. Even the restaurant where the tour started was closing at 9:00pm. I was shocked as there were people inside still ordering. The host said the kitchen was closing and if I knew what I wanted I could sit down.
That was not much of an offer especially at their prices and I made my way down to Naples, the pizzeria and Italian restaurant where I had parked. They were open until a normal 11:00pm on a Friday night (I still do not understand restaurants that close at 9:00pm on a Friday or Saturday night. This part of the COVID scare is over and things are pretty much back to normal).
I went to the host stand and they seated me quickly. Tours were still going on and as I ate my dinner, the place really filled up when I finished because there was no place left to eat in town. (Not a good business decision). I really enjoyed Naples. Not only was it a lively environment with the games going on and a very active bar scene but the food was really good as well and very reasonable.
Naples at the Warehouse at 1 South Main Street in Mullica Hill, NJ
Between the Haunted Walk through town and the interesting discussions at each stop to the trip to the museum after the tour, the Haunted Walking Tour of Mullica Hill, NJ was well worth the trip down to South Jersey. It was such an interesting look at the town I would not have known from the many times I have visited the town. The Volunteers did a great job with this event.
It is a great little museum with a lot to see on two floors.
History of the Museum:
Fun Facts:
*People have been living in present day Harrison Township for over 10,000 years.
*Harrison Township originally included South Harrison and the western edge of Elk.
*The Township was named after President William Henry Harrison.
*There is a village called Mullica Hill in Finland.
*The first air shipment of fresh produce in the US took off from here.
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 