Calendar of Concerts, Reenactments, and all Special Events
RED MILL MUSEUM VILLAGE
About the Museum Village
The picturesque Red Mill Museum Village sits on a tranquil 10-acre site nestled along the banks of the South Branch of the Raritan River in historic Clinton, New Jersey. Open from April to mid-October, the Museum and its grounds provide a fascinating historic destination as well as a peaceful escape from the bustle of everyday life. Come learn about the past while you relax by the river!
The historic Red Mill, the Mulligan Quarry and its outbuildings, the Bunker Hill Schoolhouse and a replica log cabin all present permanent exhibits and are open to visitors. The Mill, the outbuildings and the grounds are on the State and National Register of Historic Places. |
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The Museum has an outstanding collection of more than 40,000 artifacts. Exhibited on both a permanent and rotating basis, the collection is especially strong in textiles (clothing, quilts, and linens), baskets, Victorian household accessories, woodworking tools, lighting artifacts, farm equipment, and other tools. Special exhibits change annually in the Tomson Gallery of the Red Mill and Gallery One in the Administration Building.
The Museum's education programs, workshops and special events reach nearly 20,000 visitors each year.
The Red Mill
The historic Red Mill is known across the country as a photogenic symbol of early America's rural industry. The familiar red building can be found everywhere, including official New Jersey tourism posters, roadmaps and postcards. It is the most photographed spot in New Jersey and one of the top ten most photographed buildings in the U.S.
The ca. 1810 Red Mill was originally built as a woolen mill. Over the next 100 years, the Mill was used at different times to process grains, plaster, talc and graphite. The Mill was also used to produce peach baskets, as well as to generate electricity and pump water for the town.
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Visitors can walk through four floors of the Mill and enjoy exhibits of baskets, farm equipment, weaving, woodworking tools and other implements of 19th century life, as well as the special annual changing exhibit in the Tomson Gallery on the second floor. |
Ongoing exhibits in the Mill. |
M.C. Mulligan & Sons Quarry
In 1848, the brothers Francis, Patrick and Terence Mulligan founded the Mulligan family quarry. They quarried and burned limestone from the cliffs for fertilizer and sold crushed stone to bed the new network of railroads and paved roadways. After an 1891 fire destroyed Clinton's Main Street, the Mulligans prospered by supplying materials to help rebuild the town.
Today, you can visit the original quarry office, lime kilns, stone crusher, screen house and dynamite shed, as well as a working blacksmith shop and tenant house that was home to the families of quarry workers. The ca. 1858 Tenant House exhibits a turn-of-the-century general store.
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Blacksmith Shop. |
Tenant House, ca. 1858. |
Bunker Hill Schoolhouse and Log Cabin
Other buildings in the Museum Village include the ca. 1860 Bunker Hill Schoolhouse, moved to the grounds from Alexandria Township, and a replica log cabin, modeled on the early 18th century childhood home of local Revolutionary War general Daniel Morgan. An herb garden, springhouse, wagon sheds and corncrib are also open to visitors. |
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Bunker Hill Schoolhouse, ca. 1860. |
Quarry Lawn and Cliffs
The Quarry lawn, backed by its dramatic limestone cliffs, provides an ideal spot for the Museum's many special events and programs.
Each year, the Red Mill Museum Village hosts historic reenactments, antiques shows, concerts and special events such as the well-known "Haunted Mill" at Halloween. The quarry area is also a popular site for corporate events and weddings.
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| Big Band concert | Car Show |
Through its 12 buildings, its exhibitions—both permanent and rotating—of its collection of 40,000 artifacts, and its ongoing educational/outreach programs, the Museum seeks to preserve, maintain, and present to the public the social, agricultural, and industrial heritage of Hunterdon County and its surrounding area.
