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What we are

A Time Machine...

In the Making

FAQ

Frequenty Asked Questions

1. Who owns Howell Farm? The farm is owned by Mercer County and is operated by the Mercer County Park Commission.

3. Where did the Farm get its name? The Farm is named for the Howell family who owned it last. Charles and Inez Howell owned the Farm in the 1960s and 70s. After Charles Howell died, Inez gave the farm to Mercer County to be used as an educational and recreational facility where people, especially children, could learn about family farming in the period 1890-1910 when horses were still being used.

4. What is living history? It is a method of preserving and presenting history by re-enacting events, activities and practices associated with a historical site such as a farm, village or battlefield. Visitors to the site can talk with interpreters (often costumed) who explain, demonstrate or re-enact what happened.

5. How big is Howell Farm? The farm is 130 acres - a size typical of many family farms at the turn-of-the-century. Land usage is also fairly typical, with acreage including 45 tillable, 35 pasture, 30 woods, and 5 acres for house and barns. The 15 acres now used for visitor and maintenance facilities were once pasture and woods.

6. How "authentic" are the farming operations? All of the 45 tillable acres are farmed using tools and techniques representative of the 1890-1910 time period. Plowing, planting, cultivating, manure spreading and many other operations are done with horse drawn equipment. Some haying operations will continue to be done with modern equipment until the Henry Phillips barn is restored and equipped for storing loose hay.

7. How authentic are the crops and livestock? Like the farming methods, the crops and animals raised on the farm are chosen for their similarity to ones that were common in the region a century ago. The overall mix of crop and livestock operations represents an economically viable farm, circa 1900.

8. Are the buildings original to the site? The farmhouse, Phillips barn (biggest barn), wagon house and corncrib are original to the site, and are listed on NJ State and National Registers of Historic Places. The Friends of Howell Farm restored the icehouse in 1991 on its original foundation. Other buildings, such as the chicken house and sheep barn were reconstructed to complete the portrait of a typical, turn-of-the-20th century farm.