Scotch Plains & Fanwood: What do we know of the life in the colonial times? The season opener of the Historical Society of Scotch Plains on Tuesday evening September 25, 2018 will be the platform for some of our historians to “show and tell” our Osborn Family and Cannonball museum’s recent acquisitions such as the reflector oven and the bed warmer.

Add your stuff. Bring your antiques, your pictures, your stories and memories to share. You can even try to stump us with unusual items.

This meeting of good cheer and fellowship is FREE and open to everyone. Feel free to bring guests. It starts at 7:30PM on Tuesday evening September 25th at the Shady Rest Scotch Hills Country Club at 820 Jerusalem Road (and corner of Plainfield Avenue) in Scotch Plains. Refreshments follow the meeting.

Scotch Plains & Fanwood: Have you ever thought about how New Jersey was created? Perhaps you’ve wondered about how East and West Jersey came to be? Or you’ve considered how life changed for landowners as the American Revolution intensified? The way the state developed before, during and after the revolution, including some of its distinctive features that still remain today, is fascinating. At the monthly meeting of the Historical Society of Scotch Plains and Fanwood on Tuesday evening May 22nd, these significant topics like New Jersey’s role in politics, transportation, trade and agricultural on the eve of the revolution will be explored.

Our teacher and guide for this interesting program will be Jonathan Mercantini. He is the Acting Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of History at Kean University where he has taught since 2007. He also serves as the Co-Director of the History Honors Program. He teaches a wide variety of courses: Colonial and Revolutionary America, Pirates in the Atlantic Work and the Civil War and Reconstruction to name just a few. Prior to his appointment at Kean he taught at the University of Miami and Canisius College. He has also taught at Princeton University. He earned his Ph.D. in American History from Emory University.

Professor Mercantini has numerous major publications. His most recent in 2017 is The Stamp Act of 1765. His current research projects include: Make History @ Kean: William Livingston’s World—an exploration of the 18th Century Atlantic World funded by a Humanities Initiatives Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2014 he worked with the New Jersey Historical Commission to plan activities for the 350th Anniversary of New Jersey. He received Emmy Nominations from the New York Region and the Mid-Atlantic Region for his work on It Happened Here—New Jersey a weekly series on NJ History topics featured on NJ Public TV and online.

This engaging meeting by a popular speaker is made possible by funding from the NJ Council for the Humanities. It is free and open to everyone. The meeting starts at 7:30PM on Tuesday May 22nd at Shady Rest of Scotch Hills Country Club on Plainfield Avenue & Jerusalem Road in Scotch Plains. Refreshments and fellowship follow the meeting.

Come on down to the Fanwood Train Station to learn or to reinforce why model railroading is “the world’s greatest hobby” at the November monthly meeting of the Historical Society of Scotch Plains & Fanwood. Jack de Rosset will be the “conductor” and Warren Michalewsky the “engineer” for our meeting. Jack is the owner of The Model Railroad Shop in nearby Piscataway.  Warren is one of the shop employees. The Model Railroad Shop is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, continuously operated model train specialty shop in the United States.  It was established by Howell Day on January 2, 1933 and continues through today. In the early days of the shop (and the infancy of the railroading hobby), Howell produced his own line of kits under the names of H.Owen & shop-Craft.  It was primarily a mail order business.  The next successive owners (1948 Leonard Lippman, 1950 Fred, 1997 Jack de Rosset & Rick Dunbar) expanded the business to include prototypical operations, Die cast models and promotions, handmade models, resin cast models, plastic models, special orders and advanced reservations on “limited runs”.  Additionally, there is a broad selection of model fire and rescue vehicles to purchase.

Jack and Warren will explain what the railroading hobby does, what it does not do and its present status with the changes brought about by the computer.  They can tell you the worth of collections and amaze the uninitiated with the various scale sizes of model trains, the types available by how made, etc.  Various models will be demonstrated.

Since we are meeting at the Fanwood Train Station where the Central New Jersey (CNJ) tracks run, the history of this “Big Little Railroad” will also be covered.  It was a short line running from Jersey City to White House Station but it carried a lot of immigrants from Ellis Island and contributed greatly to our NJ history.

The meeting is free and open to everyone. Refreshments and fellowship will follow the program.  The meeting starts at 8:00PM on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016.  This meeting is being held specially at the Fanwood Train Station located on North and Martine Avenues.  So come on down and hop aboard for the model trains through the years and a history of the CNJ tracks.

For more information about this event, contact Connie Klock, 908-232-9489.  For more information about The Model Railroad Shop visit their web:  themodelrailroadshop.com