Historic Cold Spring Village is an open-air living history museum located in Cape May, New Jersey. The museum is open seasonally and for special educational events. You can find their complete schedule of operations located on their website. I recommend checking out the schedule BEFORE planning your visit.
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You'll find the museum located on US Route 9. It's very easy to get to from all southern Jersey Shore points like Avalon, Stone Harbor, Wildwood, Sea Isle City and Cape May Court House. It's within a 20 minute drive from all of those popular tourist destinations.
Tickets are for a single day admission and range in cost from $12 to $16 depending on age...with children 3 and under FREE. Active Duty Military get free admission with a valid ID. Military Veterans get a 10% off discount with a valid ID. Parking is free.
We started off our visit by stopping by the Historic Cold Spring Village Welcome Center first. There's an orientation video you can watch in the Welcome Center that gives you historical information about the Cape May area. It's air conditioned in there and that's where you'll find the public restrooms. Pick up a paper map while you're there to help guide you around the property.
You'll be mostly outside for the rest of your self-guided tour. There are some shaded areas along the way with some benches you can sit on if you need to sit and rest. We recommend that you spray yourselves with bug spray (they can be bad in this wooded area), use sunscreen and bring along a bottle of water if you're visiting on a hot day.
The buildings are set up like a little town in the good old days. You'll find a book binder, blacksmith, pottery shop, a school, bakery, woodworking shop, the jail, a poultry house, a farm barn, etc. This is just a partial list of the buildings that you'll be visiting. Each one is unique and offers something different, so make sure you visit them all.
At the back of the property you'll find the Cold Spring Grange Restaurant if you're looking to grab a bite to eat. There's another entrance/exit back there but for the 2024 season the entrance/exit is closed. You can still drive around to the back of the property to visit the Grange Restaurant (large free parking lot) is located right outside of the Grange.
One of the highlights from our visit was visiting the Blacksmith Shop. The Blacksmith took his time with his demonstration and showed us several different things that the Blacksmith has made. It's a really interesting demonstration and was our favorite of the day. Highly recommend that one!!!
Our second favorite demonstration and vist was to the woodworking shop. I have a personal interest in woodworking, so I really enjoyed seeing how things were done in the good old days. The woodworker gave a really informative and interesting demonstration.
We spent about 90 minutes at the Historic Cold Spring Village Museum walking around checking out the buildings and demonstrations that were going on. A few of the buildings were closed, but the majority of them were open and offering living history demonstrations. My grandchildren really enjoyed visiting the Farm Barn to see the horse. Yes, kids love animals.
If you're going to be visiting any of the south Jersey shore points we recommend planning an afternoon visit to Historic Cold Spring Village Open-Air Living History Museum. It's a great educational and family-friendly attraction...that's fun to visit!
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