"Millville" a Millville Travel Page by asturnut

In the past 8 years I have seen such a phenominal improvement downtown it has left me virtually speechless. A few years ago, when I first heard about Millville's plan to "revitalize" downtown I thought it was a hairbrained scheme that would be fruitless. I expected nothing more than an embarrassingly lame attempt would be made to make downtown seem like a cool place to shop again. I vastly underestimated the foresight of the planners of this project.

Downtown Millville, High Street is metamorphasizing into a chic, artsy place that intelligent people with expendible income want to be. The art galleries, coffee shops, pubs, boutiques and you-need-a-reservation-to-eat here restaurant are all stylish and appealing. There's even a "spa-lon" and yoga studio. The whole project has come off really nicely. It feels authentic and not too pretentious. I was sure that at the very least the revitalization effort would come off as contrived, but I was mistaken. This is the real deal. High Street is a really nice place to visit. It will be wonderful when the effort is complete and the empty store fronts are restored. Soon, the washed up "5 and dime" feel will have been erased from downtown.

Millville is tangible proof that when a group of motivated citizens get together they can really make a difference. The state has finally gotten behind Millville too, and has enabled the city of Millville to become the home of the NJ Motorsports Park. The racetrack will funnel money into downtown Millville and bring much needed jobs to this economically depressed community.

Residential downtown Millville, like my hometown Vineland, is full of wonderful examples of late 1800's early 1900's architeture. Unfortunately this is a very economically depressed area and many of the homes have fallen into disrepair or have been subdivided. But there are several grand old homes in town which are still maintained in all their glory. These houses, with high ceilings, huge bay windows, turrets, horse-hair plaster walls, wood floors and large rooms and secret spaces are architectural wonders that harken to a better time when quality counted for something.

Interesting history about Millville can be found at this site: http://www.millville.org.
Millville's official website: http://www.ci.millville.nj.us

I live in next tiny village over from Millville, Cumberland. Cumberland doesn't appear on most maps it's so small. I lived in this county for over 20 years and had never heard of Cumberland until my (now) husband invited me over. (When he gives directions he doesn't even bother trying to explain we live in Cumberland, he just tells people we live in Millville, which is the next town over.) It's especially confusing because we live in Cumberland County and when I tell people I live i Cumberland they want to know where in Cumberland and they look at me like an idiot like I don't know where I live. The reason for this is Cumberland at the very southern tip of the county in the middle of Peaslee Wildlife and Game Reserve. It's very beautiful, unspoiled and remote. There are only 111 houses in village, which range from upscale custome built homes, to dilapidated trailers that are perpetually being tacked onto. There's no school, police station or stores. We have a gas station and a volunteer fire department however, and the only reason we have the firehouse is to protect the game reserve from forest fires, which are common. Other than Peaslee Game Reserve (which is beautiful) there is no reason to visit Cumberland, which is exactly why we live here and love it!