History on tour

Local museum is featured in Trolley Trek.

By: Matt Kirdahy
   The Cranbury Museum is a historical treasure in itself, according to local historians and history enthusiasts.
   That’s why Middlesex County residents have been invited to learn more about the building, and Cranbury’s small-town history, during a trolley ride Saturday.
   The Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission announced the first in a series of Trolley Treks that will take participants on guided tours of historic sites in the county. The Cranbury Museum is the second location on the list of two stops. The first is the Milltown Historical Society in Milltown. For $8 each, people can get on the trolley, which leaves from East Jersey Old Town Village at 1050 River Road in Piscataway. The tour begins at 9 a.m. Saturday and should get to the Cranbury by 11:20 a.m., according to organizer Mark Nostied of the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission. The trolley will return to East Jersey Old Town by 1:15 p.m.
   The museum is closed to the public for normal hours of operation due to the special appointments made by the tour.
   A second tour is expected to depart at 1:30 p.m. and arrive in Cranbury between 3:30 and 4 p.m.
   "In this particular tour we wanted to highlight small towns," Mr. Nostied said. "These historic sites are in our own backyard in Middlesex."
   Mr. Nostied said the "bus designed to look like a trolley" seats about 70 people and that the stop in Cranbury is going to allow participants to eat lunch at the museum provided by residents Lisa Beach, Lyn Green and Ginny Swanagan in conjunction with the museum.
   During lunch, the tourists can join Cranbury Historian Betty Wagner in a tour of the museum. He said that because of the limited space, the tours have been booked.
   According to Ms. Wagner, the Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society acquired the house in 1972. After that, volunteers took care of the necessary carpentry to maintain the house as it looked in the 19th century.
   "Our intent was to show how a house would look then," Ms. Wagner said.
   She will be one of the guides on a tour of the museum. She said the tour usually takes an hour, but would be cut short because of time constraints.
   "People are welcome to just grab a sandwich or something and just look around," Ms. Wagner said. "We’ll play it by ear."
   He said the Cranbury Museum was built as a house in 1834 and features original windows, staircase and an early fireplace with cooking tools from the time.
   "The house retains a lot of architectural elements that are still intact," Mr. Nostied said. "They’ve managed to preserve artifacts inside of a historic building."
   Currently on display at the museum is an exhibit of radios from the 1930s to the present.
   For additional information about the tours, call the Middlesex County Historical Commission at (732) 745-4489. The next Historic Trolley Trek is on May 25 and will tour the Buccleuch Mansion Museum in New Brunswick and the Buckelew Mansion in Jamesburg. The tour departs from the Cornelius Low House/Middlesex County Museum in Piscataway at 1 p.m. and returns at 5 p.m.