Current Exhibit:
Cranbury Proud-Path to Preservation
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Walk through the new exhibit at the Cranbury Museum and see how the town worked hard to preserve historic Cranbury. Threatened by building disrepair and demolition, a county dump, a proposed highway and excessive development during the past sixty years, Cranbury maintained its historic charm due to the activism of its residents and organizations.
Read the documents, letters, applications, announcements, posters, the proclamations and acknowledgments that depict Cranbury’s long journey to protect the historic town as seen in 2024. View the photos, artifacts and artwork that help tell the preservation story. See the old desk and tools of the architect/builder of the Old Cranbury School, which was slated for demolition. Cheer the before and after pictures of our renovated homes & buildings.
Cranbury Proud-Path to Preservation is featured at the Cranbury Museum, a home renovated, furnished and maintained for 52 years by volunteers of the Cranbury Historical & Preservation Society. The Cranbury Museum is open on Sundays, 1- 4pm. This exhibit will run through July.
Cranbury Museum
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Visit The Cranbury Museum on a Sunday afternoon while you're visiting central NJ! Open 1:00 - 4:00. Preview what you'll see in our brochure.
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Based on Middlesex County Records, Dr. Garret P. Voorhees probably built the original two-room house at 4 Park Place East in 1834. The Isaac Snedeker family added more rooms between 1850 and 1862, which include the parlor, the second floor master bedroom and the Amy Evans Memorial Sewing Room. The property was inherited by Gertrude Snedeker, daughter, and her husband, Dominicus C. Mershon. 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 Azadians used their theatrical name, LaVarre, while in Cranbury. The home's last private owner, Marvin Dey, sold it to the Cranbury Historical & Preservation Society on March 30, 1972.
From May until October, 1972, seventy volunteers worked to convert a simple house into a Museum.
The wide pine floorboards, the cooking fireplace with crane, the rough plaster walls, the original window sash with wavy glass panes and the old blue paint of the original two-room house were preserved during the restoration. With few exceptions the Museum is furnished by gifts from Cranbury families, many of them descendants of Cranbury's earliest families.
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After the grounds and brickwork around the Museum were completed Sara and Bill Hoffman, who were born and spent most of their lives in Cranbury, planted a garden. Some of the bulbs are still growing in the garden today. Later Anne Berger added herbs. After Sara retired as the Society's first Curator in 1984, the enlarged garden was dedicated to Sara and called "Sara's Garden."
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In 1975 the Arthur E. Perrine Memorial Wing was added, a gift to the Museum from his daughter, Mary E. Perrine. Mr. Perrine, noted horticulturist, was the sixth generation of the Perrine family to live in Cranbury. The first floor of the Perrine Wing serves as a meeting and exhibit room, where special exhibits are arranged at periodic intervals. Here hangs the Tercentennial Quilt of sixteen scenes that tell the history of the community. The Bicentennial Quilt of twelve historic scenes is in the History Center. The basement area houses permanent exhibits of farm implements, early tools, memorabilia from early businesses and activities, Lenape Indian artifacts, and artifacts recovered during the 1977 archaeological dig at Main Street and Park Place West. Also open to the public are Sara's Garden (herb garden) and the Victorian Garden located on the site.
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