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Grovers Mill, New Jersey
Unincorporated community
"Martian landing site" historical marker commemorating the 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast
Grovers MillShow map of Mercer County, New JerseyGrovers MillShow map of New JerseyGrovers MillShow map of the United States
Coordinates: 40°19′00″N 74°36′34″W / 40.31667°N 74.60944°W / 40.31667; -74.60944
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Mercer
Township	West Windsor
Elevation	69 ft (21 m)
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EDT)
ZIP Code	08550
FIPS code	34-28560
GNIS ID	876839

Grovers Mill is an unincorporated community located within West Windsor in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is centered around the intersection of Clarksville Road and Cranbury Road, adjacent to the community's mill-pond. It is 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Princeton, 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Hightstown, and 12 miles (19 km) 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 most have 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' adaptation of The War of the Worlds for his CBS radio program The Mercury Theatre on the Air, in which the community was depicted as the initial landing site for a Martian 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 book series, and a town called Miller's Grove in the 1996 The X-Files episode "War of the Coprophages".

In issue 11 of DC Comics' The Shadow Strikes (1989), The Shadow teams up with a radio announcer named Grover Mills, a character based on the young Orson Welles, 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, 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

1. ^ "Grovers Mill, New Jersey", Geographic Names Information System, United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior
2. "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
3. "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
4. "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
5. "Grovers Mill". THE SCHENCK FARMSTEAD. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
6. "Grovers Mill". THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WEST WINDSOR. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
7. "Martian Landing Site Monument, Grovers Mill, New Jersey".

External links

• Mars Attacks! 75 years ago, 'War of the Worlds' broadcast put nation in a panic

v t e Municipalities and communities of Mercer County, New Jersey, United States
County seat: Trenton
City	Trenton
Boroughs	Hightstown Hopewell Pennington Princeton
Townships	East Windsor Ewing Hamilton Hopewell Lawrence Robbinsville West Windsor
CDPs	Groveville Hamilton Square Lawrenceville Mercerville Princeton Junction Robbinsville Center The College of New Jersey Titusville Twin Rivers Washington Crossing White Horse Windsor Yardville
Other communities	Bear Tavern Berkeley Square Berrien City Braeburn Heights Cadwalader Heights Cedar Grove Chambersburg Clarksville Coalport/North Clinton Duck Island Dutch Neck East Trenton Edinburg Eldridge Park Ewing Ewing/Carroll Ewingville Grovers Mill Harbourton Hopewell Valley Lamberton Mill Hill Mount Rose New Canton North Trenton Nottingham Penns Neck Pleasant Valley Port Mercer Princessville Princeton North Quaker Bridge Rosedale Slackwood South Trenton Stoutsburg The Island Top Road West Trenton Wilbur Wilburtha
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