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A restored 1928 movie palace that now hosts concerts, comedy and touring shows anchors downtown Rahway, a Union County city of about 30,000 people on the river of the same name, some 20 miles from Manhattan. Northeast Corridor trains stop right in the center, and a small arts district has grown up around the station.
Rahway's roots reach back to colonial times, when it became a stop on the busy road between New York and Philadelphia. The Merchants and Drovers Tavern, a four-story inn from the late 1700s, survives from those stagecoach days as a museum. Factories later turned Rahway into an industrial town, and the drug maker Merck has kept a large campus here since the early 1900s.
Visitors come to catch a show at the Union County Performing Arts Center or its Hamilton Stage, browse galleries and cafes downtown, and walk the shady paths of Rahway River Park, laid out as a county park in the 1920s. Staten Island, Elizabeth and the northern Jersey Shore are all within easy reach.
The restored 1928 Rahway Theatre, once a vaudeville and movie house, now presents concerts, comedy, tribute bands and community theater beneath its ornate ceiling, with a Wurlitzer theater organ still in place. Check the calendar for weekend shows and park in the municipal lots nearby.
A small black-box theater run by the arts center a short walk away on Hamilton Street, used for intimate concerts, plays, cabaret and readings. Seats sit close to the performers, so even modest shows feel personal, and tickets are often cheaper than in the main hall.
A four-story tavern from the late 1700s at St. Georges and Westfield avenues, where travelers and cattle drovers rested on the road between New York and Philadelphia. Volunteers lead tours of the restored rooms on select days, so check the museum's schedule before you go.
A Union County park laid out in the 1920s from plans by the Olmsted Brothers firm, with riverside paths, a running track, ball fields, a summer swimming pool and shady picnic groves. Joggers and families fishing along the bank keep it busy on weekends; the river paths are quietest early.
The compact blocks around the train station and Irving Street, where galleries, murals, cafes and the performing arts center sit within a few minutes' walk. Come on a show night to pair dinner with a performance, and look out for street fairs and art walks in warmer months.
A small park around Milton Lake, a pond formed on the Robinson's Branch of the Rahway River, with a paved walking loop, benches and good chances of seeing ducks, geese and herons. It is a peaceful break from the downtown traffic; go in the morning for the calmest water and softest light.
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