West Windsor resident Marilyn Stebbins has been engulfed in history her entire life. From her family’s historic roots in Lawrence, to her 26-year career as a teacher, Stebbins always felt that students deserved more history in their lessons.
For the past 10 years, Stebbins has found her own way of promoting history as a tour guide at the State House in Trenton. And now, the State Office of the Legislature is looking for more volunteers like her.
Born in Lawrence, Stebbins grew up in the Slackwood section of Lawrence, and rightfully so — her grandmother was a member of the Slack family, one of two main farming families in the town at the time. “History was always part of my family,” said Stebbins. Her grandmother was from a farm family. Her grandfather was a blacksmith. After their marriage, they owned a blacksmith shop, which evolved into a car dealership and as a repair garage, known as Mason’s Garage on Route 1 at Slack Avenue, where the Heritage senior complex is now located. That’s where her father also worked.
“It was three businesses combined into one,” she said. “Eventually, the blacksmith shop went when all the horses went.” Stebbins, who has lived in West Windsor for 53 years now, says that at the time, West Windsor was all farmland. Because there was land available, Stebbins and her husband, a carpenter, bought a plot of land near Mercer County Park, where cattle and vegetable farms were prominent.
Still, Stebbins remained actively involved with the Slackwood volunteer fire company, as well as the West Windsor Volunteer Fire Company — and she has been recognized for serving 50 years at each. Once her two children — a son and a daughter — were in school, Stebbins began her teaching career as a pre-school teacher, while going back to school at Trenton State College (now, the College of New Jersey), for her teaching degree. Stebbins went on to teach 26 years in Monroe.
But, the way teaching had progressed in America, “I had been disappointed on the way our textbooks were eliminating people from history,” says Stebbins. “There was a time when I went to school where geography, civics, and history were taught as three separate subjects. Now, everything is squished together as social studies.”
“I always felt our students lacked some of the background information that was fun about history,” added Stebbins. It was this philosophy and her knowledge of tours she had taken her students on as teachers that led her to become a tour guide at the State House in 1999.
Having taken her classes on tours before, Stebbins knew the tours were available and realized it was something she could do with her spare time in retirement, mostly because she considered it an extension of teaching.
“To me, it’s a way of giving small input into what I consider a necessity of understanding our political system and laws and history,” Stebbins said. “This was sort of my classroom in retirement.”
Stebbins says it has been one of the most fulfilling things she has done in retirement. The tour she gives is not limited to history, but also includes the architecture and structure of the building, and how it was constructed in phases and how it has changed.
Those who take the tour will also learn why Abraham Lincoln was an important part of New Jersey history, and about the gold dome (a symbol of strength), which was made possible by students.
Students around the state had participated in a “Dimes for Dome” program in which they would place a dime in a jar every time they completed reading a book, and had organized various other fundraisers for the funding. “The students ended up earning $40,000 throughout the state on various fundraisers, including car washes and bake sales. It’s the students who ended up paying for it — it’s not taxpayers’ money.”
As much as students cared about the history of their home state, they had become part of it, and “that is one of the important issues we’re trying to get across — it’s that they are history,” Stebbins explains.
Most of the tours that Stebbins gives are one hour in duration. The tours begin at the main entrance of the State House and end at the Senate chambers. While the full-length tour is one hour, express tours at the State House are also available, which highlights certain ares of the tour based on a group’s interest or depending on where it is from. Sometimes, these tours will feature a visit from a legislator or other political figure, she said.
Walk-in tours are also available, Stebbins said, and the tours are open to all ages, including Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts, and adults.
In addition to the tours, Stebbins gives a 45-minute class in the welcome center following the tours called, “Make a Law,” in which she gives visitors the background about how a law is formed, including the beginning of the process and the final steps. “That’s an important part of social studies,” she said.
The tours at the State House have been in heavy demand, especially over the last year. “It seems as though the economy has created a lack of availability of field trips, and the price is right here because it’s all free,” she said. “It’s a nice field trip; it’s inexpensive and it reinforces what students are required to know in the curriculum, and it’s fulfilling for me as an educator and to be back with the children and teaching, in respects.”
When Stebbins began the process in 1999 to become a tour guide, she had to undergo an extensive interview to determine her knowledge of history and from there, the tour guides in training were given instructional time, where they took an in depth look at the State House’s architecture and were given a thick handbook of information. At the end of training, they were given a brief section of the tour to guide and were evaluated by their fellow classmates. “It was a fun way of making sure we were ready,” she said.
The State Office of the Legislature is currently looking for more volunteer tour guides, and will hold another training session in January.
“If you have a love of history and a joy of children, as being a teacher automatically is important to me,” then you should consider volunteering, she said. “It’s very rewarding to see them light up and then to get some of the thank-you notes that you get about making history fun. It’s sort of an unwritten reward.”
“It’s a very enriching experience in sharing a history with our youth and next generation,” she added. “If nothing else, passing along a love of understanding history, I consider valuable.”
Anyone interested in becoming a tour guide should call the state Office of the Legislature Tour Office at 609-633-2709 and speak with Carol Rogers.
