Countless artifacts tell stories of the past in the Cranbury Museum.
Amid the 18th- and 19th-century furnishings in the house turned museum, handmade items speak volumes of long ago pastimes like lace making, tinsel painting and hair weaving.
”For the hair weaving art, women would use the hair of entire families — both the living and the dead — to represent unity through time,” docent Renee Welch said.
In the days before computers, television and radio, music was a central part of entertainment and social gatherings, with many girls learning to play the melodion. The portable melodion in the museum, like most of the items on display, was a gift.
”The melodion belonged to the First Presbyterian Church and they would take it to Brainerd Lake and have outdoor service there,” Ms. Welch said.
Church services were three hours long back then and on cold days parishioners would tote foot warmers along with them.
The antique metal foot warmers are on display near the cooking fireplace in the kitchen, where everything — cooking, bathing, reading, heating water, cleaning clothes and more — took place in the days of yore. A table from the Cranbury Inn is nestled in the corner and above it, a menu dated 1934, advertises dining for $1.
”We had many inns here,” Ms. Welch said. “Cranbury was a big crossroads for east and west New Jersey and north and south from New York to Philadelphia.”
The basement area houses more memorabilia from early businesses and activities in town as well as permanent exhibits of farm implements, early tools, Lenape Indian artifacts, and artifacts recovered during the 1977 archaeological dig at Main Street and Park Place West.
Currently, the Arthur E. Perrine Memorial Wing of the museum features a special exhibit, “Stults Farm, Est. 1915: 100 Years of Family Farming,” which will be on display through Sunday, Aug. 30. The wing is also home to the tercentennial quilt of 16 scenes that tell the history of the Cranbury community.
The wing was a gift to the museum from Mr. Perrine’s daughter, Mary E. Perrine. Mr. Perrine, a noted horticulturist, was the sixth generation of the Perrine family to live in Cranbury.
The wing was added in 1975 but the original two-room house at 4 Park Place East dates back to 1834. Dr. Garret P. Voorhees built the home. The Isaac Snedeker family added more rooms including the parlor, the second floor master bedroom and the Amy Evans Memorial Sewing Room between 1850 and 1862. Gertrude Snedeker and her husband, Dominicus C. Mershon, inherited the property and their daughter, Cornelia, lived in the house until her death in 1913. The house was rented until 1923 when Paul and Helen Azadian bought it. The home’s last private owner, Marvin Dey, sold it to the Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society on March 30, 1972.
Seventy volunteers worked to convert the house into a museum from May until October 1972. Today, visitors walk the original wide pine floorboards, look through the wavy glass window panes and admire the old blueberry and buttermilk colored paints on the original walls of the two-room house that were all preserved during the restoration.
”It’s really a hidden gem,” Ms. Welch said. “There’s a lot of history in this town that is not that well known and you can come here to find it.”
The Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society, which was organized in 1967 and incorporated on Nov. 17, 1970, operates the museum. The Cranbury Museum is open most Sundays from 1-4 p.m.
The society also offers Historic Cranbury Walking Tours. This year the tours will start at the museum at 2 p.m. on May 24, June 21, July 12, July 26, Aug. 9 and Aug. 23. For reservations, call tour guide Richard Moody at 609-651-0693.
The society will also host a concert at the Parsonage Barn at 7 p.m. on June 1 featuring music by the brass of the First Presbyterian Church under the direction of Pat Bohrs. Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy the evening of music at the barn on Cranbury Neck Road near South Main Street.
Gil and Bert’s will host a fundraiser for the society on Wednesday, June 3, from 6-8 p.m. Society members will be at the window to serve ice cream that night.
This year, a special tour will begin on June 7 at 8:45 a.m. at the Cranbury History Center and continue with a visit to Monmouth Battlefield Park. For reservations, call tour guide Richard Moody at 609-651-0693.
