Grovers Mill is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located within West Windsor in Mercer County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. It is centered around the intersection of Clarksville Road and Cranbury Road, adjacent to the community's mill-pond. It is southeast of

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

, northwest of Hightstown, and northeast of Trenton, the state capital.

History

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 is 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. Grovers Mill assumed various names 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 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. 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. 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.

In popular culture

On October 30, 1938, Grovers Mill was made famous in

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

' adaptation of ''The War of the Worlds'' for his

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

radio program ''

The Mercury Theatre on the Air ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' is a radio series of live radio dramas created and hosted by Orson Welles. The weekly hour-long show presented classic literary works performed by Welles's celebrated Mercury Theatre repertory company, with mus ...

'', in which the community was depicted as the initial landing site for a

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celes ...

invasion of Earth. The radio play's 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. There have been numerous other references in fiction, including '' The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension'', the ''

Wild Cards ''Wild Cards'' is a series of science fiction superhero shared universe anthologies, mosaic novels, and solo novels. They are written by a collection of more than forty authors (referred to as the "Wild Cards Trust") and are edited by George R. ...

'' book series, and a town called Miller's Grove in the 1996 ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...

'' episode " War of the Coprophages". In issue 11 of DC Comics' ''The Shadow Strikes'' (1989),

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibs ...

teams up with a radio announcer named Grover Mills, a character based on the young

, 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 Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, 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

External links

Mars Attacks! 75 years ago, 'War of the Worlds' broadcast put nation in a panic
The War of the Worlds West Windsor, New Jersey Unincorporated communities in Mercer County, New Jersey Unincorporated communities in New Jersey {{MercerCountyNJ-geo-stub