Located on New Jersey Route 12 within Kingwood Township, in Hunterdon County, is the tiny community of Baptistown. Baptistown is named for the two Baptist churches which were founded there by early settlers. The Baptistown Post Office was established May 1, 1822. The old graveyard next to the post office contains tombstones that date back to the 1800's. The Kingwood Township First Aid & Rescue Squad is a non-profit, all volunteer organization which serves Kingwood & parts of Alexandria & Delaware Townships. It was formed by members of the Kingwood Township Civil Defense Committee in 1953. In 2003, the Rescue Squad celebrated 50 years of serving the Community. Although a small town, it did however have its taste of an odd scandal in 1980 when a couple tried to trade their baby for a new car at Patinella's Auto Sales in Baptistown. In more current events, Baptistown is now the location of a solar farm, which is run by Frenchtown Solar, and is on Route 12. It was designed to generate 3.5 megawatts of electricity. The power station was developed in conjunction with Con Ed Development. It interconnects to Jersey Central Power and Light, which in turn in is part of the PJM Interconnection. Flemington Solar is a similar project located in adjacent Raritan Township. This solar is just one of three which form Frenchtown Solar. Further Reading: 2 solar arrays rising in Kingwood along Route 12 Kingwood gives preliminary OK to solar field on Route 519 Recollections of Baptistown Toddler for Corvette Laura Gonzalez
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In the town of Cold Spring Harbor in Suffolk County in Long Island New york is the Uplands Farm Sanctuary. Once part of the “Uplands” estate, it was donated by Jane Nichols, the daughter of the financier J. P. Morgan. Nearly a century ago the land was used for sheep ranching for wool. It was built by Effingham Lawrence in 1917 . In 1926 it was bought by wealthy financier J.P. Morgan and given as a wedding present for his daughter, Jane and her husband George Nichols who was a cottons merchant dealer and yachtsman. The sanctuary is dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Nichols. Jane is credited with stopping the proposed freeway extension that would have connected Long Island to Connecticut. She hired an environmentalist to find any reason of something that may become endangered thereby stopping the expressway's extension that would have run through her property. Opposition by the wealthy to advancements in infrastructure was quite common in those times given the shape of the Northern State Parkway’s snake like appearance as it winds through the edges of the once grand estates of the Gold Coast. Besides the addition of intense traffic the parkway has not changed in appearance all that much since its construction. In 1920, the Nichols family began raising cattle and ultimately ran a dairy at Uplands Farm until 1962. In 1981, when she passed away, the land was donated to the Nature Conservancy. The property originally contained six residences, two greenhouses, a Georgian manor house and two large garages. In 1982, the Conservancy sold off the manor house and five acres of well-kept lawns to a homeowner to bring in much needed revenue to the organization and to finance the upkeep of the preserve. Today, the old farm buildings serve as an office for The Nature Conservancy's Long Island Chapter. And the trails are open to the public 7 days a week. Laura Gonzalez
Along the eastern edge of New Jersey lay the steep cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades/Hudson River Palisade which stretch north from Jersey City to Nyack, New York. Known for their vertical drop down to the Hudson River's edge they are approximately 300 feet high in Weehawken. Established in 1859, Weehawken is situated on the western shore of the Hudson River, along the southern end of the New Jersey Palisades.Weehawken was known as a town who used a wide varieties of methods to battle the cliffs of the Palisades. Wagon lifts, stairs, and even an elevator designed by the same engineer as those at the Eiffel Tower were put in place to accommodate the tourists and summer dwellers who came to the area for its natural breeze of its location. One of these was the Weehawken wagon lift which was a funicular wagon lift. It ascended from the foot of Hackensack Plank Road to then West Hoboken. In 1887, the great Weehawken Elevators and Railroad began construction and was completed in 1891. By April of 1892 it began operations. Near it were steps running down the cliff leading from Mountain Road. The elevator and stairs are no longer in service but its remnants can still be found. In the overgrowth behind a commercial business along the cliffs and under a highrise is where what is left of the lift can be seen. The ruins of the stairs are visible from the road. Laura Gonzalez
Frederick G. Bourne was President of the Singer Manufacturing Company between 1889 and 1905. Indian Neck Hall was his country residence and reputed to have been the largest estate on Long Island when it was built in 1897. The Georgian-style home was designed by noted architect, Ernest Flagg. In 1926, the property was sold and became La Salle Military Academy. St. John's University acquired the property in 2001 and offers a number of its graduate degree programs from the Oakdale campus. Read the rest of the story here.
Perth Amboy was founded in 1683 and today is 4.7 square miles in size. It served as a capital of the Province of New Jersey from 1686 until 1776. In 1684, Perth Amboy became the capital of East Jersey and remained the capital until the union of East and West Jersey in 1702. It, then, became an alternate colonial capital with Burlington until 1776. Being situated on the waterfront, it has a long maritime and fishing history, and was also big during the Industrial Revolution. It played a major part on New Jersey history as immigrants flocked to fill the factory jobs and to avoid strict immigration inspection laws of New York. With the coming of the railroad also came major growth. It was the tidewater terminal for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and a coal shipping point. It was once home to one of the largest and oldest Jewish communities in the state, but since the 1950’s an exodus of the Jewish population occurred. I visited Perth Amboy over the course of a few days in the early days of the summer, each day taking in a different part of this historic city with its rich history. Being that it's a fairly large city, I've decided to break it up into sections and with this walk I'm focusing on the waterfront surrounding the city and the historic area near City Hall. To the read the full story click here....
Dutch traders first settled in Passaic in 1678 with the founding of a fur-trading post. After the river was dammed, industrial growth blossomed. Some of the most successful mills of New Jersey were built in Passaic. Many of them were German worsted mills. The town used to be full of European immigrants, which had come to fill the factories. In the 1970's came deindustrialization, which was pretty much the downfall of many American cities. Passaic would prove no better. The industrial section of the city of Passaic known as the lower Dundee, the east side neighborhood that runs along the bank of the Passaic, is filled with ruins of the cities legacy as an industrial powerhouse. I made my way down to the area to walk the streets where 15,000 woolen mill workers fought for the rights of workers in the Passaic textile Strike of 1926. Built in the 1880's near the Canal was the Pantasote Leather Company, which produced imitation leather. Pantasote is an imitation leather material made by the Pantasote Company, beginning in 1891. It was a durable, relatively inexpensive material used as upholstery and fabrics used on trains, for tents, and awnings. The factory was abandoned in 1993 and was the site of illegal toxic waste dumping. Read more here...
Frederick G. Bourne was President of the Singer Manufacturing Company between 1889 and 1905. Indian Neck Hall was his country residence and reputed to have been the largest estate on Long Island when it was built in 1897. The Georgian-style home was designed by noted architect, Ernest Flagg. In 1926, the property was sold and became La Salle Military Academy. St. John's University acquired the property in 2001 and offers a number of its graduate degree programs from the Oakdale campus. Read the rest of the story here.
The Meadowlands is a large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey. The 20,000 acres of wetlands was once home to hundreds of species of plants and animals. The region was formed by the Wisconsin Glacier which was the most recent major advance of the North American ice sheet complex happened about 20 thousand years ago. The glacier stretched all the way to Perth Amboy. When the ice sheet began to melt and retreat, it gouged out the area between what is now the Palisades and the ridge along Schuyler Avenue. It also formed a deep freshwater lake now known as Glacial Lake Hackensack. This, in turn, formed a large swamp. The area of the Meadowlands includes portions of Kearny, Jersey City, North Arlington, Secaucus, Lyndhurst, Rutherford, East Rutherford, Carlstadt, North Bergen, Moonachie, Ridgefield, Ridgefield Park, and Little Ferry. The history of the Meadowlands is filled with Landfills, (no pun intended), pig farms, abandoned rails, and marshy polluted swampland. You can read the rest of the story here.
Built in 1848 for Dr. James Boardman of the Seaman's Retreat hospital, the house on Bay Street is a perfect example of Italianate architecture . After he passed away his widow sold it to Captain Elvin Eugene Mitchell, a founder of the Sandy Hook Pilots Benevolent Association. He had received award money for the rescue of 176 people from the SS Oregon sinking in 1886. It remained in the Mitchell family until 1968 and has been sold several times since. In 2009, it was given to Barnett Shepherd, a local preservationist who started restoring the building. The home has views overlooking the Narrows to the Manhattan skyline. The Seaman's Retreat hospital is a Greek Revival Building constructed between 1834 and 1837 and is located not too far from the historic home. Laura Gonzalez
The NX Annie Drawbridge is an out of service drawbridge that has been left in its raised position built by the Erie Railroad. The bascule bridge was once part of the Newark Branch. It is a moveable bridge. The bridge was built as a double-track structure, but after the elimination of commuter train service it was changed to single track service. Freight train service continued through the creation of Conrail in 1976, but the bridge was abandoned in the 70s. In 1982 it was used in the filming of "Annie" which is why it is often referred to as the "Annie Bridge". Laura Gonzalez
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ABOUT THE AUTHORLaura Gonzalez is a photographer, blogger and historian currently residing in Newark, New Jersey. Archives
April 2021
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