Secaucus Town Museum Opens

SECAUCUS, NJ — Come check out the brand-new Secaucus town museum, which just opened Thursday in what used to be the old library at Plaza Center.

The Secaucus Museum was the brainchild of residents such as John Bueckner, Scott Schaffer, Tommy and Anna Schwarz, George Broemmer and Charlene Hallam, all of whom have spent the past nine months collecting items of interest from town residents. If it is free to tour the museum. It is only open Thursdays from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 2.

Beverly McKay Smentkowski, 80, was born and raised in Secaucus and she said it was emotional and quite moving to look through old photographs of town from years gone by.

"When I was growing up, this town was all pig farms. I was born on a pig farm and my father worked with the pigs," Smentkowski told Patch Thursday. "What's now the MVC inspection station used to be Lanner's vegetable farm and my dad worked there during the summers, too. People had horses and animals in their yards. I remember watching the last truckload of pigs being taken out of town on July 18, 1959. I will never forget it."

"The town has changed so much since then," she said wistfully. "It was only 3,000 residents. Everyone knew everyone."

All photos and reporting copyright Carly Baldwin/Patch