History of the Heritage Museum
Many of the displays in the museum got their start In Washington Township 35 years ago. In 1986 Warren Hills Board of Education purchased the site of the former Consumers Research on Bowerstown Road and established Project Excel, an alternative high school that serviced at risk students from throughout Warren County.
As part of an interdisciplinary curriculum the students studied local history and constructed several scale models of local historically significant sites. The Excel Museum was developed, and the high school students gave presentations to local fourth grade students.
When Project Excel was discontinued in the early 2000’s the displays were turned over to the Highlands Project, a non-profit that used adult volunteers to work with young people that needed to satisfy community service hours assigned by the juvenile court. The adult volunteers and the young people moved the displays to Bread Lock Park just west of New Village along Rt. 57. The Museum at Bread Lock Park was established and operated for the next 20+ years. With the help of the young people, additional historical displays were added to the collection.
In 2019 the Highlands Project was dissolved and the displays and responsibility for operating the museum were turned over to the non-profit Warren County Parks Foundation.
Most recently, in 2024 the building that housed the Museum at Bread Lock Park was needed to develop a new environmental center for the park. In October 2024 the Washington Township Committee approved this historic homestead to house the new museum site. Ownership of all the displays was transferred to the Washington Township Historic Preservation Commission.
The museum and displays have now returned to Washington Township after beginning in the Township 35 years ago.