Showcasing the mill before it’s snuffed out Historical groups team up for exhibit on history of Helme mill BY SETH MANDEL Staff Writer PHOTOSBYJEFF GRANIT staff Above, Tom Bodall looks at memorabilia from Helmetta’s snuff mill, including a photo, window and a work bench, part of an upcoming exhibit at Jamesburg’s Lakeview mansion. At left, Bodall is beside a case with snuff products and artifacts. With the days of the Helme snuff mill buildings now numbered, area historians are hoping to preserve the memories of what was once the focal point of the town. The Helmetta Historical Society has been donating artifacts from the mill for the upcoming display, “Helmetta: From Snuff to Snuffed Out,” which will spotlight the area’s historical connection with the mill. “All we ever want to accomplish is just to share the history of Helmetta, get it out in front of more folks, just enjoy our heritage and history,” said Historical Society member Lisa Macyda. “I’m a firm believer that you don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.” The upcoming display, the result of a joint effort between the Helmetta Historical Society and the Jamesburg Historical Association, will open June 12 at the Buckelew Mansion in Jamesburg. Jamesburg Borough Historian Tom Bodall said he plans to keep the display up through Buckelew Day, which will take place on Sept. 10. “One of our missions is that we should promote and educate the public about the history of the area, and not just Jamesburg,” Bodall said. “So this is part of fulfilling that mission. We want to make people aware of the whole area’s history, because it’s all intertwined.” As part of Helmetta’s recently announced redevelopment plan for the snuff mill property, all the buildings of the mill will be demolished to make way for age-restricted housing, retail space, and recreational and open space. The snuff mill ceased operating in 1993, when the company consolidated operations with its mill in Wheeling, W.Va. Members of Jamesburg’s and Helmetta’s historical groups both recently attended each other’s meetings, Macyda said. Although the Helmetta Historical Society has historical artifacts from the borough, it does not have a proper location in Helmetta for a display. Bodall offered to let the group use a room in the Jamesburg Historical Society’s headquarters, the Buckelew Mansion, also known as “Lakeview,” on Route 522. The mansion, which can be reached at (732) 521-2040, is open from 2 to 4 p.m. on the second and fourth Sundays of each month. “I’ve talked to them about the impending demolition of the mill,” Macyda said. “I don’t know what the future of the Historical Society holds, and they graciously offered us a place with them.” Helmetta’s historical items, Bodall said, deserve to be displayed where they can be appreciated by all residents, but because the room where they are currently stored in Helmetta is not wheelchair-accessible, it cannot be used as a museum or showroom. “So it has just been sitting there in boxes, and I said we may as well work together, two small organizations, and help each other out,” Bodall said. “That’s how we got started.” But the two organizations, and their respective towns, have another connection, thanks to each town’s namesake. George Helme’s son married James Buckelew’s daughter, providing a sturdy link in the chain connecting the towns and their historical groups. Among the mill artifacts in the exhibition are a variety of snuff tins, bottles and cartons, memo books and other Helme tobacco products, a large number of past and present photographs taken inside the mill, and postcards from the early 1900s. Many of the items, including a wooden work bench and a window, were recovered from the mill by members of the Helmetta Historical Society during a visit to the buildings in 2002. Bodall was able to obtain a glass jar and a needle packet from the eBay Internet auction site. “I figured while [the mill] is still standing, we might as well explain its history to people who don’t know about it,” Bodall said. Macyda said many people are not aware of the mill’s historical significance. During the Great Depression, George Helme held the payroll for his factory workers and helped residents with their grocery bills, causing Helmetta to be the only town in the county that did not require public assistance. “And that talks a lot to me, the more I learned about Mr. Helme, about the character of the town and the kind of people that seemed to have migrated there,” Macyda said. “Very simple, quiet, easy life. Small-town living, here in the hub of Middlesex, which is the place to live if you want to go to Manhattan or Atlantic City, and yet, right in the middle of it, is this town that time really hasn’t touched until now.” Joe Sapia, who for many years has been considered Helmetta’s unofficial historian, is among those looking forward to the display, which will pay tribute to a historical landmark that will be sorely missed. “I think any display on the history of Helmetta is a pretty good idea,” Sapia said. “I’m sad that the mill is going to be coming down. I think that’s going to be a big mistake.” Sapia noted that although the demolition of the mill is a relatively new component of the plan to redevelop the area, it appears as though officials are set in their decision to tear the buildings down. Because of that, he said, any presentation that will increase awareness and understanding of the mill and its significance is important. “Anything that fosters that knowledge is fine with me,” Sapia said. Sapia, in fact, will kick off the exhibit by giving a talk about the snuff mill, aspects of a mill town and its change toward suburbia, at 2 p.m. June 12. Macyda, who now resides in Monroe Township but lived in Helmetta for 10 years, echoed Sapia’s sentiment that the mill’s demolition will be a sad moment for residents, but said she is excited for the town to have the much-needed tax ratables the new development represents for the town. “It’s just like when Holly House came down,” Macyda said, referring to the mansion where George W. Helme and his wife, Margaret, lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The house was demolished in 2002, making way for the Regency Walk senior community. “The senior housing looks beautiful in there, but we lost the founder of the town’s home, so it’s bittersweet, definitely. [The mill] is just a fixture that’s been there as long as anyone can remember,” Macyda said. Bodall originally planned to provide a room in Buckelew Mansion for Helmetta’s historical artifacts, but when the demolition of the mill was announced, he wanted to take it a step further and put together a comprehensive retrospective of the mill, Macyda said. Bodall called the mill an “icon” of Middlesex County, whose demolition affects the entire area, not just Helmetta. “Of course it’s a shame to see it go, but it’s part of progress,” Bodall said. “Balancing progress and history is important. Sometimes the best we can do is just have displays.”