The weekend will feature authentic colonial open-hearth cooking, with volunteers preparing period recipes using historic techniques. Fiber-craft demonstrations will also be held on the grounds, while visitors can tour rooms furnished to reflect the early residents of the house. The event is intended to make history tangible: not just a look at objects behind glass, but a chance to see how food was prepared, work was done and households functioned in the community's earliest years.
The farmhouse was built around 1740 by Samuel Miller, when the area was still known as West Fields. In 1784, the property was purchased by Joseph Cory, whose family remained connected to the house for generations. The Westfield Historical Society acquired the property in 1972 and established the museum to preserve and interpret the site. Today, the Miller-Cory House is recognized on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places and is included on the New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail.
Four Centuries in a Weekend is a fitting setting for the museum's hands-on approach. Along with the historic house, the site includes period outbuildings and grounds that help place the home within the larger story of early Westfield. Families, history enthusiasts and first-time visitors are invited to explore at their own pace and speak with the volunteers who keep the traditions of the house alive.
Admission is by free-will donation. For more information, contact the Miller-Cory House Museum at 908-232-1776 or millercorymuseum@gmail.com, or visit millercoryhouse.com.