Morristown is one of the more well-known and wealthiest cities in the Garden State, otherwise known as New Jersey. I lived in Morris County (not exactly Morristown, but a city next to it) for about 6 months, and it had been one of my recent stays. I lived there just to see if I would enjoy living back in the home state I was raised in after almost 7 years spent in the desert. Some life circumstances had pushed me to move back to Arizona… and for the long term! (Hint: I wanted some of my life goals to be experienced back to where I was used to.) 

However, I had the pleasure of exploring some of the museums that are in that part of New Jersey. I learned there’s such a rich history, especially tied to the Revolutionary War, over there, and I, who still loves exploring when she can, checked out a lot of those spots. It’s not just the Revolutionary War that is the only history to be found by the city of Morristown, but the Industrial Revolution was huge there, and the pre-Gilded Age and Gilded Age thrived there.

Below is a list of the best 11 museums and parks by Morristown, NJ that I compiled and have mostly visited; I visited all but one on this list.

1. Morristown National Historical Park

Morristown National Historical Park consists of a few areas labelled under the same park name. They are: Jockey Hollow, the Ford Mansion and Washington’s Headquarters, Fort Nonsense, and the New Jersey Brigade Encampment Area. 

The only area I got to visit in part of the national historical park is Jockey Hollow, a large section where 10,000 Continental Army troops were encamped during one of the harshest winters recorded in New Jersey during the years of 1779-1780.

The other areas are all related to that time of the Revolutionary War, such as the Ford Mansion and Washington’s Headquarters, which was once General Washington’s headquarters during that winter encampment. Fort Nonsense was a site that acted as a communication hub. New Jersey Brigade Encampment Area was also used in the winter encampment as a place where the troops could build more log cabins. 

In the Jockey Hollow area, you can find the Wick Farm House and Soldier’s Huts, consisting of a replica of some huts that the soldiers stayed in.

2. Morris Museum

This is probably one of my favorite museums on this whole list. Morris Museum is a Smithsonian-affiliate museum that features different exhibits, and at the time when I went, they were exhibits on 1800s automata toys (most coming from France), 1800s and 1900s music boxes and other instruments, and featured artists with their artwork and choice of medium. Their exhibits will change from time to time.

In Morris Museum, you can also find a 300-square-foot train model set that was once part of the Nabisco Headquarters. There are a lot of fine art paintings in one area, a spot to learn about fossils, and the Native American tribes that lived in New Jersey. There is a section for everyone to admire.

3. The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms

The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in the adjacent city, Parsippany, New Jersey, is the estate of early 20th-century designer Gustav Stickley, the designer who was once a pivotal furniture maker in America. Stickley founded The Craftsman magazine and developed a type of lifestyle and architecture called the “Craftsman Farms”. He is also known for making the popular Mission oak furniture that broke through the Arts and Crafts movement, representing clean horizontal and vertical lines in furniture and aesthetics.

When you visit the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, you’ll find some beautiful rustic architecture and the furniture displayed that represents the time he lived there from 1908 to 1917. It is now registered as a National Historic Landmark. If you like to learn more about craftsmanship in history, you’ll like the next place mentioned in this list.

4. Museum of Early Trades and Crafts

The Museum of Early Trades and Crafts is a museum in Madison, New Jersey, that focuses on the craftsmen and artisans around the 18th and 19th century. There are a lot of exhibits and gallery spaces featured in this museum, and you’ll see a lot of tools, textiles, pottery, and archival materials that will bring you to learn about the people who lived and worked through these. The building itself is historic too and served as the first library for Madison from 1900-1967.

5. Speedwell Lake Park

The Speedwell Lake Park in Morristown is a stunning outdoorsy site that features a dam, waterfall, and a stone house. This was the site of Speedwell Ironworks, an importance to the manufacturing industry to create parts for engines, like the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It is also next to the Historic Speedwell, a building where Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse worked to perfect the electro-magnetic telegraph and to send the first telegraphed message in 1838. 

6. Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Thomas Edison is probably one of the most famous inventors in American history. Located in West Orange, New Jersey, about 19 miles from Morristown, this national historical park contains his home and laboratory. I recommend visiting both, and trying to tour inside them! His bright orange home in Glenmont Estate takes you back to Edison’s time in the 1800s, spent with family, and it cannot be photographed or videographed inside at all, so booking a tour inside would be best. 

The 20,000 square feet laboratory served as an industrial center where many of Edison’s key inventions were developed, including the phonograph, motion picture cameras, alkaline battery, and more. 

7. Grace Lord Park

Grace Lord Park is most known for the Boonton Falls over there, a series of cute little waterfalls. It is also home to the paths of the Rockaway River. But the history that lies beneath these scenic nature views is that it was home to Boonton Iron Works, a 1770 company that manufactured nail rods and bar iron. You can find remnants of a stone foundation in a trail in the park from Boonton Iron Works.

8. Parsippany Rock House

I did not live far from this site at all. The Parsippany Rock House is just right by a suburban neighborhood, and it connects to a short trail as well. Over 3000 years ago, Native Americans, most particularly the Lenape tribe, used these glacial granite-gneiss boulders as shelter. An archaeologist, Edward J. Lenik, discovered there are about 3 petroglyphs on these boulders in 1973. They are really hard to find though! This site was featured on a PBS show called Drive By History.

9. Mount Tabor

Not far from Parsippany Rock House, Mount Tabor is a community in the city of Parsippany, about 13 minutes away from Morristown. There are so many colorful Victorian cottages, or some called as the “gingerbread” framed houses. It used to be a Methodist campground meeting around 1869, and these houses were originally built for that. Now, they are residential houses, and Mount Tabor is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

10. Morris County Historical Society – Acorn Hall

Acorn Hall in Morristown is a stunning preserved Victorian Italianate country-style house that was once owned by a family (The Cranes), and now it is owned by the Morris County Historical Society. You can visit this home and take a guided tour. You can also watch this YouTube short I made to learn about the story a bit!

11. Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

This is the one place on this list I did not get to visit. Also in Morristown, Macculloch Hall Historical Museum is a mansion built in 1810 and lived in by the Macculloch family, and five generations of that family lived there until 1949. It was then sold to W. Parsons Todd, who then wanted the house to become like a museum.