COLD SPRING – Historic Cold Spring Village, the largest living history museum in New Jersey, has educated and entertained visitors for half a century. The open-air Village recreates a time when butter was churned by hand, a century before the first American home would be powered by electricity.
This is the “age of homespun,” and every actor and building in the Village whisks visitors away to a time in America’s distant past.
But the road to success has been hard-fought. The Herald sat down with Annie and Joseph Salvatore, who founded the Village 50 years ago, to understand the trials and tribulations that come with operating such an important local landmark.
“There were many times that we thought for sure we would have to close. But we have always survived,” Annie said on an early July afternoon, just before a presentation on the “Battle of Turtle Gut” began in the Cold Spring Brewery.
Annie and her husband are the founders and visionaries behind the village, but they do not own it. “We are stewards of this place,” Annie said, stressing that the village is an institution far bigger than the two of them.
Annie and Joseph bought the 30-acre property fifty years ago, just a short time into their marriage and when their children, Rick and Kate, were just five and three years old.
The land was previously owned by the Children’s Aid Society, a charity designed to help poor and orphaned youth. A huge housing development, “Cape May Heights,” was planned there. But when that failed, the parcel sat vacant until Annie and Joseph spun up new plans.
The couple has treasured American history from a young age. “It was in my blood,” Annie said; her uncle was a director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and her whole family loved to talk about American history.
When their children were young, the couple took an opportunity to travel the country in a motor home. They visited living history museums across the United States and Canada, places like the Sauter Living History Museum in Ohio and Upper Canada Village in Ontario.
These trips shaped what would eventually become Annie’s dream project: an open-air historic village right here in Cape May County.
Their first obstacle was one any business or homeowner knows well: they had to deal with local zoning.
“Our proposal was something that Lower Township wasn’t sure about. But we promised we would do it in a way that would not disrupt our neighbors. They took a chance on us,” Annie said.
With a green light from the municipality, the Village took shape. Cape May County donated many of the Village’s first historic buildings: the schoolhouse, the welcome center, the wood shop. Buildings were donated and transported from across Cape May County, employees came on board, and the whole thing took form over the course of nine years.
A landmark for the Village came in 1993, when the village was granted non-profit status. The 501 (c)(3) non-profit is governed by 19 trustees, most of whom call Cape May County home. Annie Salvatore still plays a critical role at the Village as the board’s non-salaried Executive Director.
“But it’s so expensive to run a place like this, to take care of 27 historical buildings that need attention all the time,” Annie said. Indeed, some of these buildings are approaching 400 years old. The Cox Hall Cottage, for example, was built in 1691 and still stands today.
Even the brewery, new as it appears, is a historical structure. To house the brewery, a barn was disassembled and transported to the Village from Palermo in Upper Township. The barn was built in 1804 when Thomas Jefferson was still president. It was given new life thanks to the efforts of Historic Cold Spring Village.
The village has several revenue sources, including grants, memberships, donations, admission costs, business sponsorships, and revenue from the on-site food and drink spots. But they weren’t enough.
“This brewery saved the Village,” Annie said. She remembers first applying for a non-profit liquor license in Trenton, a climactic process upon which the whole brewery project hinged.
“I don’t think anyone with the Alcohol Beverage Control had even heard of a non-profit brewery,” she said. Cold Spring Brewery remains the only non-profit brewery in New Jersey, and one of only a few in the United States. The brewery finally brought financial stability to the Village, which still bustles with events, historical reenactments, and festivals.
Fifty years later, the Village marches on. It is no small feat to run a historic village of this size: a dedicated staff works hard to keep the pipes flowing, the roofs secured, and the lights on. There’s nothing else like it in New Jersey.
Visit the Historic Cold Spring Village, an open-air historic village with period-accurate actors, beautiful historic structures, and something to learn for everyone. The Village hosts festivals through the summer and fall seasons, visit them online at HCSV.com or call them for more information.
