Bringing History to Life at East Jersey Old Town Village Through Place-Based Storytelling

Many historically significant places face a similar challenge: how to engage modern audiences in meaningful ways while preserving the integrity of the site and its stories.

East Jersey Old Town Village is one such place. As a living history site made up of historic structures from across Middlesex County, the Village offers a powerful window into everyday life in New Jersey’s past. The challenge is not a lack of history, but how to help visitors explore it in ways that feel intuitive, engaging, and accessible.

To support this goal, QuestUpon partnered with Middlesex County to develop an interactive walking tour experience that complements the Village’s physical setting and encourages deeper, self-guided exploration.

Enhancing a Living History Site With Interactive Walking Tours

East Jersey Old Town Village already provides a strong sense of place. QuestUpon’s role was to layer storytelling, interpretation, and interactive moments directly into the visitor experience—without disrupting the site itself.

Using QuestUpon’s platform, historical context, stories, and prompts were woven into a location-based walking tour that guides visitors throughout the Village. As participants move between buildings and landmarks, their smartphones surface narratives tied to daily life, craft, work, and community, allowing history to unfold naturally as they walk.

This approach supports visitors in exploring at their own pace while reinforcing the physical environment rather than competing with it.

A Sustainable Model for Municipal History Interpretation

One of the goals of the East Jersey Old Town Village Quest was to create an experience that could operate alongside existing programming without adding staffing or operational burden.

The walking tour experience:

• Is available during regular site hours
• Requires no additional staffing or scheduled programming
• Encourages self-paced exploration
• Integrates educational content directly into the landscape

This model allows municipalities and heritage organizations to expand public history interpretation in a way that is flexible, durable, and easy to maintain over time.

Part of a Broader Middlesex County Program, Featured by the New Jersey State League of Municipalities

The East Jersey Old Town Village Quest is part of a broader set of QuestUpon experiences developed with Middlesex County, including interactive walking tours at Raritan Landing and the Cornelius Low House.

This county-wide approach was recently featured in NJ Municipalities, the official publication of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, in an article titled “Uncover Raritan Landing.” The article highlights how immersive, place-based storytelling and interactive walking tours are being used across multiple sites to bring history into public spaces in ways that resonate with contemporary audiences.

Read the article here (subscription may be required):
https://www.njlm.org/civicsend/viewmessage/message/277147

A Replicable Approach for Historic Sites

East Jersey Old Town Village demonstrates how interactive walking tours can enhance a site with a strong physical presence while remaining adaptable to other contexts.

Across New Jersey and beyond, many communities steward places that vary widely in form—from reconstructed villages to archaeological landscapes. Projects like those at East Jersey Old Town Village show how:

• Existing historic sites can be enhanced without altering the landscape
• Walking and place can become central to interpretation
• Digital storytelling can support education alongside traditional programming

As municipalities plan for anniversaries, heritage initiatives, and long-term visitor engagement, this approach offers a scalable way to connect people with local history.

Looking Ahead

For QuestUpon, projects like East Jersey Old Town Village and Raritan Landing reflect a core principle: history is most impactful when it is experienced where it happened.

We’re grateful to our partners at Middlesex County and to the New Jersey State League of Municipalities for recognizing this work, and we look forward to continuing to support communities seeking new ways to surface and share their local stories.

If your municipality or heritage organization is exploring new ways to interpret local history, create interactive walking tours, or prepare for upcoming anniversaries, we’d be glad to start a conversation.

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