The Ely House will be open again for visitors on Sunday, March 2, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m, and it’s perhaps the best chance to see what life was like in Hightstown over a hundred years ago.
The Hightstown-East Windsor Historical Society hosts this event on the first Sunday of every month.
Visitors can explore the Ely House and the Freight Station museum, which are full of interesting antiques from the town’s past.
The Ely House is an old Greek Revival-style home built around 1850.
Over the years, three different families lived in it before the Ely family bought it in 1917.
The house stayed in their family for at least two generations before the Hightstown-East Windsor Historical Society purchased it in 1974 for $40,000.
The society intended to use it as a headquarters and preserve it as a piece of history for people to visit.
As you can imagine, fixing up the house was a huge job, and volunteers spent five years scraping, painting, and repairing different parts of the building.
They even collected furniture from the Huldah Ely estate to help bring the home back to life.
The house was officially dedicated in 1976, and by 1979, the first floor was ready for visitors.
One of the most interesting parts of the site is the Freight Station Museum.
This building was first built in 1869 for the Camden & Amboy Railroad, an important part of the area’s transportation system.
In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad bought six acres of land and decided to move the freight station to a new location.
It was moved by a locomotive in 1917 and placed near Mercer Street.
While it stayed there for a long time, Coca-Cola, which owned the land by then, needed to use the property for something else.
Instead of tearing down the station, Coca-Cola paid $40,000 in 1990 to have it moved to the back of the Ely House property.
Only 80 feet of the original 130-foot station was saved, but that was enough to keep a piece of history alive.
The building sat on its new foundation for a few years before major renovations started in 1995, thanks to a donation of $276,000 from the Sara Hutchinson West estate.
The funding fixed up the freight station, added a deck, built an enclosed exhibit area that connected to the Ely House, and installed new restrooms and a small kitchenette.
The outside of the Ely House was also updated with new wood siding.
It took nine years to complete everything, and in 1999, the freight station was officially reopened as the Sara Hutchinson West Educational Center.
Today, it is used for museum displays, a library, school programs, and community meetings.
Outside the freight station, you can see an old iron railroad crossing sign, restored by the Lions Club, and several “sleeper” stones that once helped support train tracks.
The famous John Bull engine, one of the earliest steam trains, once ran on these tracks, and pieces of that history are still there for visitors to see.
The Hightstown-East Windsor Historical Society has been working since 1971 to preserve and share the town’s history with the public.
The Open House event is a great way to experience that history firsthand.
Walking through the Ely House, you’ll see rooms set up just like they would have been in the early 1900s.
Over at the freight station, you can learn about the town’s connection to the railroad and how it helped shape the community.
Members of the Society will be there to answer questions and share stories about the history of the area.
This event is free and open to everyone.
The Historical Society also welcomes new members, volunteers, and donations to help keep places like the Ely House and the Freight Station Museum open for future generations.
Make sure to save the date—March 2 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM—and stop by 164 North Main Street in Hightstown to experience a piece of local history.