Downtown – Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn has an ideal location, close to New York City and at the foot of the South Mountain Reservation. There are many assets here including the Paper Mill Playhouse and the Greenwood Gardens not too far away from the downtown. Here are a few highlights from a recent visit.
Fantastical Garden, 2022
This sculpture by Dan Fenelon has signature vivid colors designed to stand out from the colors of nature. Intended to look like flowering vegetation, they evoke a fantastical garden in a natural habitat. This is one of several installations in the Wildflower Sculpture Park, managed by the South Mountain Conservancy and with funding from Essex County and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Wildflower and Forest Preserve
This open area is managed by volunteers. The wildflower garden is frequently weeded to give several varieties of wildflowers a chance. Watch out for poison ivy. And enjoy walking the trails that will take you by many additional art installations interspersed throughout.
Springbone Kitchen
Having worked up an appetite we headed down and off the mountain into Millburn. Springbone Kitchen had wonderful bowls and bone broth to choose from. Their commitment to grass-fed and pasture-centric farming was evident. We tried 3 bowls (Grandma’s Chicken & Rice, Mexican Bowl, Herb-Roasted Salmon) and the Bad Hombre bone broth. Note, the bone broth is served in a cup but is more like a soup with ample rice and chicken included in the cup. There are two other locations in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.
Dayna Commons and Mera Commons
These nearly identical Art Deco apartment houses easily transport you to another time, whether it be Northern Manhattan or South Beach. Especially appreciated the pigmented structural glass, terrazzo floor, and stylized zig zag cornice details. Peak into the vestibule. Better yet if you feel comfortable and it is open, walk inside. The decorative features are largely intact and very well cared for.
Rose Garden
Have a little bit of greenery and a break from the buildings in the Rose Garden. This connects with a larger park. The mature trees surrounding the garden give a backdrop, some drama, and a sense of enclosure.
Rahway River Walkway
Between Goldberg’s Famous Deli and Springbone Kitchen is a walkway heading towards the Rahway River. Take a few minutes to enjoy the art on display, take a selfie, or play a game of bocce.
liv BREADS
This is more than your average bakery. They had prepared foods, desserts, and loaves of fresh baked bread. On Saturday and Sunday from 5pm-8:30pm they convert to providing pizza and antipasti. We tried the Meyer Lemon Tartlet, Chocolate Carmel Tartlet, and a Rhubarb Croissant. The seating out front was tied up so we enjoyed the seating area in the corner of the parking lot beside the sidewalk clock.
Greenwood Gardens
Our final stop on our daytrip was Greenwood Gardens. A less than five minute drive from Millburn, there is an admission fee of $10 per adult and $5 per child. Purchased by New York real estate auctioneer Joseph P. Day in 1906, here he built a wood-frame house and later a 28-room mansion with extensive formal gardens. The gardens blended Italianate and Arts and Crafts influences. A rustic stone Teahouse and Summerhouse, fountains, wisteria-laden arbors, statues modeled after his children, acres of perennials, a greenhouse, a nine-hole golf course, and a large vegetable gardens were key features on the 28 acre property.
The Days were succeeded in 1949 by Peter P. Blanchard Jr., an IBM lawyer and New York businessman. The Day mansion was replaced with a smaller structure in the Colonial Revival style. Blanchard dedicated himself towards creating and nurturing the garden until his death in 2000. At first the garden was opened for private tours, then in 2013 for public free-roam visitation following an extensive renovation. In 2020 a second phase renovation was completed with redesign of the Main Axis, including the Reflecting Pool and Garden of the Gods.
Cottages
These were renovated by architect William W. Renwick, from 1925-1926. Rookwood faience tiles identify the year of renovation for each building. Staff for Joseph P. Day were housed here.
Main House
This 1950s Georgian Revival house today has the Welcome Center, a Gift Shop, and staff offices. In the East pavilion where Peter P. Blanchard, Jr. and his wife Adelaide Childs Frick Blanchard would occasionally take breakfast, is a gilt bronze Bird of Paradise Gate, crated by Edward F. Caldwell & Co. They were the pre-eminent designer of decorative metalwork from the end of the 19th century through the 1940s.
Reflecting Pool Terrace with D-Shaped Pool
The three lead dolphins were brought from Clayton, Adelaide Blanchard’s childhood home on Long Island and installed in 1965. The stairs, pool, fountain, and grotto on this terrace were part of an extensive restoration project completed in 2020.
Croquet Terrace
No photo provided. The croquet terrace was once flanked by pergolas for shade and stored croquet equipment. Peter Blanchard Jr. installed a double row of boxwood hedging. A 2020 renovation restored the lawn.
Garden of the Gods
Originally home to a series of painted busts of Roman divinities between the paired columns. The pool featured statues modeled after the Day children. The bronze sculpture of the Boy with Waterfowl by Emilio Angela, originally located in front of the former Teahouse Water garden, is centered in the Garden of the God’s pool. This pool was also part of the 2020 restoration project.
Summerhouse
The Summerhouse was constructed by Italian stone masons in 1920 using local sandstone and basalt. It is surrounded by four granite water basins. Originally the building was electrified. Tiles on the floor were manufactured by Fulper, Inc. in Flemington, New Jersey. Four horse chestnut trees were strategically planted to shade the Summerhouse.
Teahouse
Built circa 1920, tea was prepared here in the Day era utilizing the sink and fireplace. The ceiling of the lower level is studded with Rookwood tiles, and the floor features Fulper tiles. On the second level the dome has some acoustical properties, particularly when standing in the middle.
Ponds
Peter Blanchard, Jr. added two ponds adjacent to one another in 1965 to create a habitat for fish and waterfowl.
Farm Allée and Barnyard
The Day and Blanchard families actively cultivated the land. The Days had cows, pigs, turkeys, and chickens by the hundred, along with horses and a large array of dogs. A greenhouse provided fresh citrus fruit and flowers year-round. Peter Blanchard, Jr. enjoyed walks around the property with a mixed pack of corgis and Labrador retrievers. The family raised ducks, geese, guinea hens, turkeys, pheasants, peacocks, and fancy pigeons. Horses and sheep grazed the meadows.
Cascade
The seven-tiered cascade originally had the “Dragon Fountain Pool,” an elliptical reflecting pool with sculptures on either side at the bottom. In 1950 this was replaced by an oval-shaped swimming pool by Peter Blanchard, Jr. Two solid lead Pegasus statues by Wheeler Williams overlooked the pool and are still there today.
Postscript to 2023 Visit
As we drove back to town from Greenwood Gardens, all of a sudden the disparate buildings in town made sense together. This main route that countless people traveled from Greenwood Gardens and back showed the relationship between an estate and town.
2024 Visit
Books were the reason for our return visit on December 29, 2024, and The book House was our destination. Right away at the front door they have the top 10 books from the NYT Fiction and Non-fiction categories displayed on face. While compact, each section had a good assortment of carefully picked titles. Towards the back of the store is the cash wrap and also a cafe with seating area to read. We enjoyed having the store to ourselves for nearly an hour which gave time to peruse nearly every title, skim a few books, and make our purchase.
The A-frame sign outside reinforced the Shop Local vibes we were feeling. It advertised the store and the experience there while not even having the name of the store itself.
The Millburn Courtyard is one of several public spaces created to connect parking to the rear of buildings with the businesses. The placement of seatings and plantings further makes this into a place that people are likely to want to spend time in together.
While this passage is simpler than the others, from a design perspective it is unique in the sense it is covered by a fabric canopy. The pavers on the retail street break up the sidewalk and alert pedestrians to the presence of a passageway here.
The George H. Bauer Community Center is a substantial building located in a park. The slate tiled hip roof and the half-timbering detailing on the entrance building make the community center stand out.
This one-story building has some handsome Art Deco detailing with a frozen fountain over the arched entrance.
The way-finding in Millburn is attractive and useful, though has one weakness. The back of the sign is left blank. There may be an opportunity to add a reverse face to the sign with a positive phrase such as “Welcome to Downtown.”
During our prior visit the Rahway River Walkway was more activated with furniture and games. This time it was nearly entirely empty. This reflects the need to program public spaces 365 days a year.
These Hampton Bay Hard Top Gazebo structures set on the sidewalk are well intending. As public space goes they are too low. Also, they appear to have been shifted after installation and are not in a straight line. Finally, at the time of our visit some discarded materials from a prior event created an unsafe situation for people passing by on the sidewalk.
One last feature we observed are the benches near Borough Hall. They are situated similar to conversation landscapes, with two benches at an angle to each other. Missing is a small knee height table for people to place items on. Otherwise, this is a welcome design feature that should encourage connection between people.