A 19th Century Rural Farm Village

FROM PAST TO PRESENT

In 1973 Dr. Joseph Salvatore and his wife Patricia Anne acquired Cold Spring Grange #132, thus beginning Historic Cold Spring Village. Over the next ten years the Salvatores assembled a collection of 18th and l9th century buildings on twenty-two acres of wooded land between Routes 9 and 626. The Salvatores and their children, Rick and Kate, collected furnishings, fixtures, tools and implements for the buildings. Their objective was to provide the visitor with a sense of stepping back in time to a mid-1800's South Jersey rural community. After eight years of development, the Village was opened to the public in 1981. In December 1984 the buildings and land were donated to the citizens of Cape May and operated by the County for eight years. In January 1993 the Village was returned to the Salvatores and immediately donated into a public non-profit corporation, owned and operated by HCSV Foundation.

The first two decades of Historic Cold Spring Village have been exciting ones. The next twenty years promise to be even more challenging. As the new HCSV Foundation begins its fourth year of making the past come alive through a variety of techniques, it encourages visitors to become involved in the 1996 season. The Board of Trustees, Foundation Advisory Board and Friends of the Village fervently believe that without a past, the future has little meaning. Their pledge is to continue to expand upon the Mission Statement of Historic Cold Spring Village by preserving history and improving our understanding past.