Millburn: Theater History, Trails and Gardens

Millburn, New Jersey, combines theater history, protected landscapes and historic sites with a compact downtown area. These highlights offer different starting points for planning your trip: you can explore the town’s history, discover trails through nature or visit attractions in the center.

Downtown and Local History

The Downtown Millburn Historic District is compact and easily reached on foot from many residential neighborhoods. The Downtown Millburn Walking Tour shares the history of 32 attractions in and around the downtown area. They include the Millburn Community Garden, Taylor Park, St. Stephen’s Church and the “Häagen-Dazs mural” from 2017. The tour has been updated to include new attractions. As a result, the itinerary features both individual historic sites and examples of the town’s present-day character.

The history of the current site of Paper Mill Playhouse begins in 1795, when Samuel Campbell opened The Thistle Paper Mill there. The theater itself opened on November 14, 1938, with the play “The Kingdom of God” by Martinez Sierra. These two dates mark different chapters in the history of the same place: its beginnings as a paper mill and its opening as a theater.

Hessian House also connects Millburn to the past. It is one of the town’s oldest homes and has important ties to the American Revolutionary War. The Township of Millburn has designated and protected it as an individual local historic landmark. Washington Rock, a historic site dating to the late 18th century, is located in South Mountain Reservation and adds a place within a larger landscape to the area’s historic points of interest.

Trails and Landscapes

South Mountain Reservation is a 2,112-acre nature preserve in the Essex County Park System. It extends across parts of Maplewood, Millburn and West Orange. A section of the Lenape Trail runs through the preserve; the trail is 36 miles long in total. The reservation thus connects a long-distance hiking route with a landscape that spans several municipalities.

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum and Bird Sanctuary offers a different scale, with 3 miles of trails. They pass glacial kettle holes, rolling slopes and a natural amphitheater formed by glaciers. At the Stone House, visitors can see taxidermy birds and mammals, as well as a small collection of live animals. The trails and indoor exhibit offer different ways to explore the arboretum’s nature and landscape.

The Veterans Memorial Path was established by the Township of Millburn in 2004. It is 4.5 miles long and includes 17 attractions. The trail begins at the Millburn Free Public Library, where there is a Veterans’ Memorial in the entrance hall, and ends at Revolution War Cemetery in Parsil Family Cemetery on White Oak Ridge Road. Unlike the 36-mile Lenape Trail, this is the length of a specific trail in Millburn; the two routes therefore offer different points of reference for your plans.

Gardens and Other Stops

Greenwood Gardens is a 28-acre public garden in Short Hills, a community within Millburn. This historic site from the early 20th century has been extensively restored. Visitors can take self-guided tours and attend special programs. Guided, self-guided and group tours are also available. The garden is on Old Short Hills Road, about a mile north of downtown Millburn. Tour formats, seasonal access and programs may change; check current options before your visit.

Taylor Park is another historic point of interest in town: its 13 acres of recreational space and pond date back to 1924. Along with stops on the walking tour, the park can be considered part of downtown’s history, while the reservation, arboretum and Greenwood Gardens showcase other landscapes and scales. These differences can help you choose where to stay based on the focus of your visit to Millburn.

Discover more destinations: Cedar Grove, Roseland, Livingston, Fairfield, Irvington, East Orange, Bloomfield, Montclair.

For the broader travel overview: Essex.