Grovers Mill, New Jersey

Unincorporated community in New Jersey, United States

Grovers Mill, New Jersey

Unincorporated community

"Martian landing site" historical marker commemorating the 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast

Grovers Mill, New Jersey

Grovers Mill's location in Mercer County (Inset: Mercer County in New Jersey)

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Grovers Mill, New Jersey

Grovers Mill, New Jersey (New Jersey)

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Grovers Mill, New Jersey

Grovers Mill, New Jersey (the United States)

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Coordinates: 40°19′00″N 74°36′34″W﻿ / ﻿40.31667°N 74.60944°W﻿ / 40.31667; -74.60944[1]
Country|  United States
State|  New Jersey
County| Mercer
Township| West Windsor
Elevation

[1]

| 69 ft (21 m)
Time zone| UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)| UTC−04:00 (EDT)
ZIP Code|

08550

FIPS code| 34-28560 [1]
GNIS ID| 876839 [1]

Populated place in Mercer County, New Jersey, US

Grovers Mill is an unincorporated community located within West Windsor in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[1] It is centered around the intersection of Clarksville Road and Cranbury Road, adjacent to the community's mill-pond.

## History[edit]

The original saw/grist mill at Grovers Mill, 164 Cranbury Road. Viewed from Clarksville Road.

The community grew around a saw/gristmill at 164 Cranbury Road, which was likely constructed in the mid-1700s. The mill's first owner was Daniel Wolsey in 1759. It's presumed that the adjacent mill pond was formed around the same time through the damming of the Bear Brook, whose flow through a concrete-walled raceway turned a large wooden water wheel for generations.[2]

Grovers Mill assumed various named depending on its ownership: "Woolsey's Mill" (1750s), "Wright's Mill" (1760s), "Bergen's Mill" (1770s-1805; 1811-1816), "Walker's Mill" (1805-1811), "Thomas' Mill"/"Bear Mill" (1816-1837), "Schwenger's Mill" (1837-1868), and, after Joseph H. Grover purchased it in 1868, "Grover's Mill." The apostrophe in the name is often not included in colloquial writing.

Several adjacent houses date to the 1700s and 1800s; it is believed they most have housed tenant workers. Another house at 175 Cranbury Road was historically the millwright's house from the late 1700s onward, although a possibly-older house at 429 Clarksville Road, nicknamed "Ladyfair," may have been the original millwright's house before then.[3]

On October 30, 1938, the community was made famous in Orson Welles' radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, where it was depicted as the first landing site of a Martian invasion.[4] The War of the Worlds scriptwriter Howard Koch selected Grovers Mill by randomly dropping a pencil point onto a map of New Jersey, and later noted he'd "liked the sound" of the name.[5]

Grovers Mill experienced suburban growth (and thus the loss of most surrounding farmland) starting in the mid-1900s. However, a number of its 1700s-era and 1800s-era buildings remain.[6]

In October 2019, the Historical Society of West Windsor started an online museum exploring the history of West Windsor - including a series of web-pages dedicated to Grovers Mill.[7]

## In popular culture[edit]

The mid-1700s Grovers Mill barn- located at the intersection around which the hamlet is centered.

There have been numerous references in fiction, including The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, the Wild Cards book series, and a town called Miller's Grove in the 1996 The X-Files episode "War of the Coprophages".

In issue 11 of DC Comics' The Shadow Strikes (1989), The Shadow teams up with a radio announcer named Grover Mills, a character based on the young Orson Welles, who has been impersonating The Shadow on the radio. Welles played the Shadow on radio prior to the War of the Worlds broadcast. An episode of the War of the Worlds TV series takes place in Grovers Mill on the 50th anniversary of the Welles radio drama, and expands on the town's ties to the infamous broadcast.

Grovers Mill is also a 2006 film shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 2018 saw the release of the black comedy audio series Grovers Mill, a true-crime satire about a forensic psychic investigating the Moon landing conspiracy.

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e "Grovers Mill, New Jersey", Geographic Names Information System, United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior
2. ^ "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
3. ^ "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
4. ^ "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
5. ^ https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2749
6. ^ "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
7. ^ "Grovers Mill". THE SCHENCK FARMSTEAD. Retrieved September 29, 2020.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grovers Mill, New Jersey.

* Mars Attacks! 75 years ago, 'War of the Worlds' broadcast put nation in a panic

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Municipalities and communities of Mercer County, New Jersey, United States

County seat: Trenton

City|

* Trenton

Map of New Jersey highlighting Mercer County

Boroughs|

* Hightstown
* Hopewell
* Pennington
* Princeton

Townships|

* East Windsor
* Ewing
* Hamilton
* Hopewell
* Lawrence
* Robbinsville
* West Windsor

CDPs|

* Groveville
* Hamilton Square
* Lawrenceville
* Mercerville
* Princeton Junction
* Robbinsville
* The College of New Jersey
* Titusville
* Twin Rivers
* Washington Crossing
* White Horse
* Yardville

Other
communities|

* Bear Tavern
* Berkeley Square
* Berrien City
* Braeburn Heights
* Cadwalader Heights
* Cedar Grove
* Chambersburg
* Clarksville
* Coalport/North Clinton
* Duck Island
* Dutch Neck
* East Trenton
* Edinburg
* Eldridge Park
* Ewing
* Ewing/Carroll
* Ewingville
* Grovers Mill
* Harbourton
* Hopewell Valley
* Lamberton
* Mill Hill
* Mount Rose
* New Canton
* North Trenton
* Nottingham
* Penns Neck
* Pleasant Valley
* Port Mercer
* Princessville
* Princeton North
* Quaker Bridge
* Rosedale
* Slackwood
* South Trenton
* Stoutsburg
* The Island
* Top Road
* West Trenton
* Wilbur
* Wilburtha
* Windsor

* New Jersey portal
* United States portal

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H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds

* Related texts: "The Crystal Egg"
* Star Begotten

Concepts|

* Fighting machine
* HMS Thunder Child

Characters|

* Martians

Derivative
works|

| Novels|

* Fighters from Mars
* Edison's Conquest of Mars
* Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds
* The Space Machine
* New Millennium
* The Martian War
* The Massacre of Mankind

|

Radio|

* "The War of the Worlds" (1938)
* The War of the Worlds (1968)

Films|

* The War of the Worlds (1953)
* The Night That Panicked America (1975, television)
* The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981)
* H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (2005, Pendragon Pictures)
* H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005, The Asylum)
* War of the Worlds (2005, Paramount)
* War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008)
* Goliath (2012)
* The True Story (2012)

Comics|

* Killraven
* Superman: War of the Worlds
* The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II
* Scarlet Traces
* H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds

Music|

* Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
* "Forever Autumn"
* Highlights
* The New Generation

Television|

* "The Night America Trembled"
* The Great Martian War 1913–1917
* War of the Worlds (1988–1990, syndicated)
* The War of the Worlds (2019, BBC)
* War of the Worlds (2019–2022, Fox/Canal+)

Video games|

* War of the Worlds (1982)
* The War of the Worlds (1984)
* Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds
* 1998 video game
* 1999 video game

Short fiction|

* Global Dispatches
* "Mars: The Home Front"
* "To Mars and Providence"
* "The Soul Selects Her Own Society"
* Rainbow Mars

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