Page 28 - 2024 Southern NJ Vacationer

MUSEUMS
Exploring the Past through Hands on History
Naval Air Station Wildwood
TELL SOMEONE they’re going to a museum while on vacation, you’ll likely be met with a yawn at best, an eye roll likely, and outright refusal at worst. In the Southern Shore Region, however, museums and history go beyond artwork hanging on a wall or artifacts locked behind glass cases, instead inviting visitors to participate by exploring.
One such “museum” where visitors can learn about coastal life in years gone by is Historic Cold Spring Village, just north of Cape May in Lower Township. More than 20 historic buildings (some original, some transported to the site) pepper the 22-acre open-air museum that depicts life in the 1800s: a time before landlines and running water, let alone cell phones and Smart TVs. Village artisans – many of them dressed in period-appropriate attire – provide demonstrations of basket weaving, pottery, tinsmithing, blacksmithing, candlemaking, and woodworking.
If strolling the village finds you working up an appetite, stop in the Village Ice Cream Parlor, in the Ewing-Douglas House, where you’ll find a wide variety of ice cream flavors and sodas. Likewise, the Village Bakery, in the 1850 Ezra-Norton building originally from Dias Creek, serves up tempting and delicious confections.
The Grange Restaurant, with a menu that changes daily, is the only building that was
originally located in the village. Built in 1912, it was then Cold Spring Grange #132 and was a meeting place for civic, political, educational, and social endeavors.
Cold Spring Brewery, housed in an 1804 three-bay English-style barn, imported from Upper Township, where it belonged to the Corson family (a family name with a long history in Cape May County), is the only nonprofit brewery out of more than 100 breweries in the state. There are typically more than a dozen varieties of beer on tap, so the adults in the group can enjoy a flight or growler while enjoying the living museum.
Special weekend events include Independence Day, Seafarer’s, Ghost Walks, Revolutionary War, or military reenactments.
Enjoy the events and stroll the grounds while the kids pet the farm animals or enjoy a ride on a horse-drawn wagon. The village is at 720 Route 9, Lower Township. Call 609-898- 2300 or visit www.hcsv.org
One of the area’s newer museums is the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May, dedicated to the courage, persistence, and legacy of the famed Underground Railroad conductor as well as others who played a role in saving African Americans from slavery, such as William Still, father of the Underground Railroad.
Housed in the former Macedonia Baptist Church on Lafayette Street, the museum
focuses on Tubman, who lived and worked in Cape May in the 1850s while raising funds and working to free slaves. Both sites are on the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail.
During the summer, from Juneteenth through Sept. 17, the museum has guided and self-guided tours Wednesdays through Sundays. Visit www.harriettubmanmuseum.org for off-season times and more information.
Most of the public historical sites and museums in Cape May are curated via Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture), which operates in the Frank Furness- designed Physic Estate. For more information visit www.CapeMayMAC.org
Making a 180-degree turn from genteel and quaint Victorian or Civil War eras is the popular Doo Wop Museum in Wildwood. Situated in a former 1950’s diner (the Surfside, which was dis-assembled then rebuilt in its current location), this museum celebrates everything kitschy for which the Wildwoods came to be known and loved. Neon-bright and oddly angled, mid-century architecture that continues to populate the five-mile-long island is highlighted and explained. Inside the museum, you’ll find appliances, furniture, and other artifacts that grandmom (or maybe great grandmom) had, as well as a large collection of neon signs. Tours of the island’s Doo Wop motels are held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in
26 SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY VACATIONER