In 1985, the Reeve family donated their circa 1885-era home (adjacent to Mindowaskin Park on Mountain Avenue) to the town of Westfield, NJ with the intention that it would become a home for the Westfield Historical Society. Now, the Society is moving ahead with that vision - to restore the house, make a home for the archive collection and possibly create a new Victorian museum and society archive on the perimeter of our downtown park.

Ideally, the Society wishes to create a beautiful and functional space to house the archive collection, and to provide meeting and research opportunity. We also wish to create a new public space - so that our visitors could see rotating exhibits, experience the flavor of Victorian Westfield, and even stop in our Victorian cafe for a hot cup or coffee or cocoa and a ginger cookie.

A feasibility study is underway; we expect more details will be available around the end of October.

Obviously, a project of this scope has many challenges (note the condition of the house in the photo), and there are many opportunities to be involved - and meet some of the interesting people of Westfield! If you are interested in participating in any aspect of this project - be it design, fund raising, grant proposals, publicity, or helping to clear the brush and manage the current needs of the house, etc., we would certainly appreciate your help. If so, please contact me at the email on this listing.

-Karrie Hanson and Nancy Priest (Westfield Historical Society)