Taylor Swift's childhood vacation spot opens museum exhibit with family photos

STONE HARBOR, N.J. — Longstanding residents in a New Jersey coastal town can still remember the time they saw Taylor Swift, a blue-eyed girl with blond coiled curls and a lot of ambition.

“I still see her standing there," says Madilynn Zurawski, the owner of Coffee Talk, a 30-year-old cafe. Zurawski points to a front corner of her store that, in a previous decade, served as a stage where local talent would play. One of those artists, Swift, had barely entered her teenage years. "We have a picture of her up front on the stage. Want to see?"

Zurawski walks to a chimney mantle and picks up a black frame with white matting of a lithe girl in a white tee and black pants singing into a microphone and strumming her guitar. The coffee shop owner pulls out her cellphone and shows a video of Swift singing, "Lucky You," a song not found on any of the singer's 11 era albums. 

“I wish it would have been a little longer," Zurawski says. "I mean she was here for two years, and that’s when we had entertainment every night. So she would come in and sing. She was adorable.”

Swift told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2009, “I used to drag my parents into those places all the time, and all of their friends would show up and put dollars in my tip jar.”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

A dozen years of countless memories

From ages 2-14, Swift's family's would make the three-hour drive from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, to the Jersey Shore where they stayed in their beach house along Third Avenue. The summer home may have been torn down, but a blue engraved plaque on a new home in the same spot reads "Swift Waters."

Before Swift took off for Nashville, she spent her vacations with her brother Austin and parents enjoying the ocean from sunrise to sunset. She penned an 87-page book copyrighted as "Girl Named Girl" and wrote an unreleased song, "Smokey Black Nights."

Swift's dad, Scott Swift, volunteered as an EMT with the fire department.

“My understanding he was a member of the rescue squad back in the day," says Chief Roger Stanford who has been with the department for 34 years. "We used to have a separate organization but would still have a rescue squad that would run the ambulance. Now it’s all combined with the fire department.”

Coincidentally, the department number is 13, Swift's favorite number.

Childhood photos on permanent loan at museum

A handful of photos are on permanent loan to the Stone Harbor Museum, a time capsule forever freezing a little girl with her hand on her hip, sporting a green-and-yellow bathing suit. A large cutout is on display where fans can take photos.

"Everybody loves to pose," says Teri Fischer, the museum's president of the board of trustees. "You know the little girls will do like this and we’ll take pictures of them. And they can take all of the pictures they want."

Since opening the exhibit on June 13, the downtown museum has seen six times the traffic.

“A good day for us was like 25 people," Fisher adds. "Now a good day for us is 150 people.”

Aside from childhood photos, the museum offers several scavenger hunts that trace the singer's history with the town. As music videos on the wall play, fans can learn about how Swift used to sing karaoke at Henny's, a since-closed restaurant.

“Honestly this is a huge gift that she’s given to this museum," says Fisher. The exhibit will be open through the end of September, and although admission is free, the museum is looking for donations to help pay off its $437,600 mortgage.

Fans can donate here.

Don't miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the free, weekly newsletter This Swift Beat.

Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.