Milltown Historical Society: Discover Milltown's History

10/07/2026

Milltown Porchfest 2026 is happening this Sunday at 27 locations all over town, including at our Museum Porch at 116 S Main St

09/12/2026

The Milltown Historical Society has been hoping for years to move the Raritan River Railroad Milltown Frieght Station to a permanent location where it can be restored properly and used by the public. We are very grateful to the building's owner, Jim Curran, for saving the building from demolition, for paying the taxes, and for offering the building to us if we can pull off raising the funds to move it.
Now my question for you all: How long has the Raritan River Railroad Historical Society been working to save this building?

09/10/2026

We'd like to serve Milltown like this article suggests.

What if the key to stronger local attendance isn’t simply giving people more reasons to visit but giving them a reason to belong?

For museums, building deeper relationships with local audiences can provide an important foundation for long-term resilience.

One approach is to think of your museum as a community’s “third space”: a place beyond home and work where people gather, connect, and build relationships.

Chris Morehead, the Director of Business Development at Newfields, shares 7 practical steps with examples of how museums can strengthen local attendance by creating experiences people want to make part of their everyday lives, from recurring programs and welcoming gathering spaces to reducing barriers, empowering frontline staff, and building programming alongside community partners.

Read “Boosting Local Attendance: Practical Strategies for Becoming Your Community’s Third Space” : https://www.aam-us.org/2026/08/24/boosting-local-attendance-practical-strategies-for-becoming-your-communitys-third-space/

💭 How is your museum creating reasons for local audiences to return and feel that they belong?

09/10/2026

📜 **This Day in History: September 9th, 1912**

🏨 A fall from an upper balcony at Milltown’s **Hotel Marguerite** left Edward Galligan critically injured. The day’s news also included a Eureka Fire Company clam bake and other happenings around town.

📖 Read the full story:
https://milltownhistoricalsociety.com/2022/09/09/this-day-in-history-september-9th-1912/

09/08/2026

📜 This Day in History: September 8th, 1915

🔎 Milltown-area farmer Charles Altvater had been missing for four months, while a Milltown man was seriously injured in a trolley accident.

📖 Read the full story:
https://milltownhistoricalsociety.com/2022/09/08/this-day-in-history-september-8th-1915/

09/03/2026

We are open this Saturday, and each first Saturday of the month.

08/10/2026

The Last Full-Time Taxidermist of the American Museum of Natural History Had a Secret Workshop in Milltown!

For nearly a century, a modest storefront at 119 South Main Street in Milltown held one of the most remarkable (and least-known) workshops in New Jersey.

Schwendeman’s Taxidermy Studio wasn’t your average trophy shop. It was a three-generation family craft studio that helped shape some of the most famous dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

It started with Arthur Schwendeman, a boy who skipped school so often that his teacher bribed him with taxidermy lessons. He and his wife Lillian opened the studio in the 1938. Their son David grew up in the workshop, then went on to become the last full-time chief taxidermist the AMNH ever employed. For nearly 30 years he mounted birds, reptiles, mammals, and more that still greet visitors in the museum’s halls today.

David’s son Bruce continued the tradition into the third generation, running the same Main Street shop with the same old tools, the same dusty mounts staring from every corner, and the same insistence that real taxidermy is equal parts art and science.

The studio was pure time capsule: business cards dispensed from an alligator’s jaws, shelves packed with specimens, and the quiet knowledge that many of the animals on display had been prepared with museum-level precision right there in little Milltown.

Today the shop is closed. The era of the Schwendeman family taxidermists has ended.

But the work they left behind still teaches us something important: the best taxidermy doesn’t just preserve an animal. It freezes a moment of life so carefully that it can educate generations long after the animal is gone.

😆 Fun fact: They did not work on pets or humans, but but David was once asked if he would mount a dead man sitting at his player piano. David denied the request. LOL

Next time you walk through the bird or mammal halls at the American Museum of Natural History, take a second look. There’s a good chance you’re seeing the quiet craftsmanship of a Milltown family that turned a storefront into a living link between New Jersey and one of the world’s great museums.

What local history gems have you driven past a hundred times without realizing the story behind them?

Source: NY Times, Wikipedia

08/04/2026

🚂 This Day in History: August 4, 1911

"Last year was the best ever for the road, and the indications are that this one will be even better."

Those were the words of Raritan River Railroad Superintendent Frank Hoffman as he described the railroad's remarkable growth. The article credits the railroad with helping fuel the development of Milltown, South River, and Sayreville by providing much-needed competition in freight service.

More than 130 years after the railroad first opened, its impact on Milltown's growth is still easy to see.

📖 Read the full story and view the original newspaper page on our website:

https://milltownhistoricalsociety.com/2022/08/04/this-day-in-history-august-4th-1911/

08/03/2026

🚒 This Day in History: August 3, 1911

"The apparatus certainly made a fine appearance as it came through the borough yesterday."

Milltown's first motorized fire apparatus arrived to an enthusiastic welcome on this day in 1911. Purchased from Boyd Brothers of Philadelphia, the new truck represented a major investment in public safety and was proudly displayed as it made its way through town.

Residents wouldn't have to wait long to see it again—the new apparatus was scheduled to be the centerpiece of the Firemen's Picnic and Parade just two days later.

📖 Read the full story and view the original newspaper page on our website:

https://milltownhistoricalsociety.com/2022/08/03/this-day-in-history-august-3rd-1910/

06/06/2026

The museum is open now, until 2 pm with a focus on learning about the Raritan River Railroad!