Cranbury updates its history

Historic Cranbury Brochure updated and given a new title: A History of Cranbury New Jersey

By: Lacey Korevec
   With every day that passes, Cranbury has a little more to add to its growing history. And even events that have occurred recently need to be remembered.
   That’s why nearly 10 years after it’s last update, Cranbury’s Historical and Preservation Society has updated the Historic Cranbury Brochure, now titled A History of Cranbury New Jersey.
   "History is not static," Historical and Preservation Society Historian Lorraine Sedor said. "Two thousand-two, which doesn’t feel that long ago, is now part of our history and should be recorded in some way."
   Ms. Sedor said the number of free brochures had been running low and the organization wanted to get more printed, as well as bring the brochures up to date with recent happenings. The society was given an $866 grant from the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the New Jersey Historical Commission, which it matched, to pay for printing 2,000 updated brochures.
   "It is part of our mission to educate the public as to the history of Cranbury and there are newer developments in town," Ms. Sedor said. "With families coming and going in town, they probably fall in love with the look of town, but don’t know what takes place and what has taken place to keep it this way."
   Some of the newer township milestones the updated brochure mentions are the 1997 dedication of Heritage Park as a passive recreation area and the Chinmaya Mission, which was built on Cranbury Neck Road in 2002 as a center to teach Hinduism. Ms. Sedor said the establishment of both are perfect examples of township events that need to be documented and shared.
   "There’s little things that go on in a town that make it what it is," she said. "The town has a very rich, varied history that we need to keep sharing with the public."
   While the old brochure was all text, the new one includes a number of old photographs and advertisements, as well as an 1876 map of the township located on the inside cover.
   Township Historian Betty Wagner said that could happen sooner than expected at the rate the new brochures are going.
   "They’re flying out of that box," Ms. Wagner said.
   Copies can be picked up outside the Cranbury History Center and inside the Cranbury Museum, Town Hall and the Cranbury Public Library.