Local History: Searching for the Short Hills Cottage

The museum is often visited by homeowners—and prospective homeowners—who seek information and photos of their Millburn Township home. The society maintains files on as many homes in the township for which information can be found.

The Wyoming section's former resident architect and writer, Joy Wheeler Dow, brought much attention to the homes in that section of town and enabled the society to find many photos of those lovely historic homes.

At the same time, Stewart Hartshorn was bringing attention to his Short Hills Park development as he brought in some of the finest architects in the area to design the homes in his "ideal community." Sketches of some of those homes appeared in a number of contemporaneous publications, including the one seen here from the February 1892 Scientific American Architects and Builders Supplement.

When this item arrived at the museum to be added to the collection, two museum friends jumped into a car to find the unidentified house. They drove not even one block from the museum and slammed on the brakes as the house was at 47 Crescent Place, just a few houses from where they started.

The floor plan below the sketch shows four bedrooms in this "cottage," a kitchen and pantry at the rear of the house, six hearths, and an indoor bathroom and toilet. A rear porch facilitated bringing grocery deliveries directly into the kitchen and a second-floor balcony on the rear of the house likely provided a very pleasant place to relax on warm days and enjoy the views of Hartshorn's Short Hills Park from your cottage.

Patch readers are always welcome to visit the museum to search for information about homes in the town. Museum hours are:  Tuesday (1-3 p.m.), Wednesday (3:30-5:30 p.m.), Thursday (5:30-7:30 p.m.) and the first Sunday of the month (2-4 p.m.).