Millstone Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

Welcome to Baird Homestead

Photographed by Richard Peterson, August 25, 2026

1. Welcome to Baird Homestead Marker

Inscription. The Baird Homestead gives us a glimpse of what Millstone was like when family farms filled the landscape. The farmhouse was the centerpiece of the property, surrounded by outbuildings that stored equipment, housed animals and preserved harvested crops. Beyond those, fields cultivated with potatoes, grains and other crops along with orchards filled with fruit-bearing trees covered acres and acres.

Today, though it is no longer a working farm, the Baird Homestead is a center for local history and agricultural education presented through programs that use the farmhouse and the buildings that surround it. The Friends of Millstone Township Registered Properties with the help of Millstone Township has brought this former family farm back to life for a modern audience.

Baird House
Built by Thomas and Eleanor Baird shortly after their marriage in 1825, the house was one of the finest and largest in Millstone for its time. The house’s ample, four-room, center-hall plan is highlighted by Greek Revival-style front door and wood trim, wide floorboards and a kitchen hearth with a beehive oven.
Left: Baird Homestead’s front parlor.
Right: Baird Homestead photograph. Circa 1930.

Farm Artifact Storage
Baird

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Homestead houses a significant collection of farm tractors, machinery and tools from New Jersey farms. The New Jersey Museum of Agriculture in New Brunswick, which closed in 2011, donated a large collection of farming implements, such as buggies, wagons, bob sleds, tools, blacksmith items and housewares that are featured in the home and barns.
Left: Rumely Oil Pull Tractor. The Advance-Rumely Company of LaPorte, Indiana, made this popular tractor from 1910 to 1930.
Right: Harvesting potatoes on Nurko Farm in the late 1930s. Millstone has always been a rural farming community. By the early 1900s the shift from animal-powered machinery to mechanically powered was a game changer for the hard occupation of farm life.

Greenhouse
Commercial greenhouses began being used by Millstone’s farmers in the late 1800s to grow nursery stock, flowers and vegetables, extending the growing season and opening up new markets. Baird Homestead now uses this greenhouse for educational programs in agricultural science and the basic operations of a family farm.
Left: Agricultural education.
Right: Greenhouse at Mendies Farm, a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.

Allen Barn
Originally

Baird Farmhouse image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Richard Peterson, August 25, 2026

2. Baird Farmhouse

located at the Charles Allen Farm on Stagecoach Road in Clarksburg, this barn historically was used to store hay and crops. The Friends of Millstone Township Registered Historic Properties hired the New Jersey Barn Company to relocate and reassemble the hand-hewn, timber-frame barn at the Baird Homestead. Since 2014, it has happily served as a space for public events.
Over one hundred trees were felled to build this barn. It was built by hand without the use of electricity.

Blacksmith Shop
This small timber-frame building, originally located at the Charles Allen Farm in Clarksburg, has been repurposed as a working blacksmith shop. Today blacksmiths offer public demonstrations during special events.
Left: Blacksmithing demonstration.
Right: Digby's blacksmith tool collection donated by the New jersey Museum of Agriculture.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Agriculture. A significant historical year for this entry is 1825.

Location. 40° 14.55′ N, 74° 23.55′ W. Marker is in Millstone Township, New Jersey, in Monmouth County. It can be reached from Baird Road 0.4 miles west of Smithburg Road, on the left when

Allen Barn and Blacksmith Shop image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Richard Peterson, August 25, 2026

3. Allen Barn and Blacksmith Shop

traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 24 Baird Road, Millstone Township NJ 08535, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Central Jersey

and in the New York City Metropolitan Area.

It is also in the American Northeast,

in the Mid-Atlantic,

and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region,

North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Netherland

and also one of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 5 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Woodville (approx. 0.4 miles away); Mary Hays, nicknamed “Molly Pitcher" (approx. 4 miles away); Combs Hill Cannonade (approx. 4.1 miles away); Monmouth Battlefield (approx. 4.1 miles away); General von Steuben (approx. 4.1 miles away); D’Annae: A French, Swedish-Style 4-pounder (approx. 4.1 miles away); Monmouth Battlefield State Park (approx. 4.1 miles away); Molly Pitcher (approx. 4.1 miles away).

Credits. This page was last revised on August 28, 2026. It was originally submitted on August 25, 2026, by Richard Peterson of East Windsor, New Jersey. This page has been viewed 12 times since then. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on August 25, 2026, by Richard Peterson of East Windsor, New Jersey. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.