January 07, 2022

Grovers Mill, The War of the Worlds Broadcast, and a unique Coffee House | West Windsor, New Jersey

Mischief Night

It was on October 30th, 1938 – Halloween Eve, also known as Mischief Night.

Part of the regularly scheduled Mercury Theater of the Air, the radio program aired a modernized play version of the H.G. Wells’ classic science-fiction novel, The War of the Worlds.

It was delivered as if it was a regular broadcast interrupted by news bulletins. It was interspersed with occasional comments about it being an adaptation of a literary work.

Was It Real?

Listeners were advised that a large object had fallen on a farm in Grovers Mill, New Jersey, not far from Princeton.

Startled listeners heard that 7,000 soldiers had been killed fighting alien invaders.

There were reports of people shooting at the water towers in the park.

Panic grew – at least in the East Coast. How much hysteria was caused nationwide is still a subject for debate. Newspapers wrote of widespread hysteria.

It even made from the top of the front page of The New York Times!

Today it is considered highly unlikely that thousands of people around the country were really that frightened.

Snopes considers it doubtful. But there were some people who were genuinely frightened.

It Happened In New Jersey?

The invasion was supposedly occurring in Grovers Mill, New Jersey, then a very rural part of West Windsor, New Jersey.

This area near and around Princeton is an affluent and well educated area, and has grown exponentially since then. It is sometimes called Princeton Junction.