Posts Tagged history

The Osborn Cannonball House Museum, located at 1840 Front Street in Scotch Plains, will be open to the public from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Costumed docents will be available to give tours of the c. 1750 house, once owned by the Osborn family whose two sons fought in the American Revolution. The antique house is steeped in local history and has many stories to tell.

The museum will have on display, from their vast antique clothing collection, late 19th and early 20th century traveling clothes to accompany their “Coming to America and Scotch Plains” theme. There will also be games for kids to play and a fun craft!

In addition, The High School History Club of Scotch Plains/Fanwood will be at the museum sponsoring a soft pretzel sale. All proceeds of the sale will benefit the museum maintenance fund. Come out to visit our town museum and support our High School students’ pretzel sale.
We look forward to seeing you on June 1st!

Admission to the Osborn Cannonball House is free and the museum is open the first Sunday of every month from 2-4 p.m., March to December, or at other times by appointment. For any questions call 908 322-6700, Ext. 230 or email Info@HistoricalSocietySPFNJ.org.

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

The wit and wisdom, humor, horror and humanity of a people are found in their stories.  Compelling storyteller David Emerson retells (and embroiders) the colorful and ancient tales of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall that will “warm, tickle or chill the heart.” With or without a pint in his fist, MacCaffrey spins traditional lore of fairies, ghouls, ne’er-do-wells, tricksters, banshees, heroes and liars, plus original stories with an Irish tine.  In a style reminiscent of a cozy evening by a health at a family gathering, David will enchant us with his stories on Tuesday evening October 25th at the monthly program meeting of the Historical Society of Scotch Plains and Fanwood which begins at 8:00pm.

David Emerson’s career as a storyteller, raconteur and prevaricator par excellence began back in the early 1980’s as a historical character interpreter.  David has fascinated visitors at such prestigious living history museums as Colonial Williamsburg, Plimoth Plantations, Morristown National Park and the Old Barracks Museum.  Striking out as a freelance interpreter in 1996 with partner Stacy Roth, David has become well-known in the mid-Atlantic for portrayals of real people such as George Washington and Davy Crockett and his own story spinning character David MacCaffrey and 19th century sea captain LeLand Emerson.

David has performed for hundreds of museums, festivals, cultural organizations, historical societies throughout the Northeast.  He is proud to be a popular speaker with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities’ Horizons Speakers Bureau which is funding this program for the Historical Society of Scotch Plains and Fanwood.  David has several film projects to his credit.  He portrayed George Washington in New Jersey Network’s “The Ten Crucial Days” and played the feature role of Sergeant Smith in “The Battle of bunker Hill.”

Everyone is invited to attend this warm but mostly chilling meeting (since it is close to Halloween).   The meeting is free and open to everyone. Refreshments and fellowship will follow the program.  The meeting starts at 8:00PM on Tuesday October 25th.  The meeting is held at the Scotch Hills Country Club located at Plainfield Avenue and Jerusalem Road in Scotch Plains.

For more information about this meeting please write to us.