Metuchen

By Stacy E. Spies

Located in central New Jersey’s Middlesex County,
Metuchen was historically known for the stellar
collection of literary, artistic, and industrial talent who resided here, and earned the nickname the “Brainy Boro.” Since its beginnings as a village within Raritan township, Metuchen has matured from its roots as a commercial center for area farmers into a desirable suburban community. Metuchen compiles photographs from the rich collections of the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society, including some of the hundreds of photographs taken in the early years of the twentieth century by resident J. Lloyd Grimstead. The pages of Metuchen invite you to shop the businesses along Main Street, wait for the morning train with the commuters, and tour the gracious homes along Graham and Lake Avenues. In sharp, illustrative detail, you can visit historic
Borough Hall and the library, and meet or reacquaint
yourself with some of the people who made Metuchen
their home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439627372

Stacy E. Spies

Stacy E. Spies, an architectural historian and historic preservation consultant, has lived and worked in the Metuchen area for the better part of a decade. She has researched and documented historic sites throughout New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

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INTRODUCTION

This book is intended as a sampling of the photographic collection of the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society and as a celebration of the history of Metuchen, both before and after its incorporation as a borough in 1900. This album contains photographs taken as early as c. 1880 and as late as 1973, ranging in content from 18th-century farmsteads to a 1950s dinner dance. I hope that you will see something of yourselves in the familiar faces and settings. I also hope that you may learn something new about the community around you.

Metuchen’s identity came about more than 200 years before it actually became an independent borough. The name first appears in colonial records in 1688. In 1701, an overseer of roads was appointed for the Metuchen district. The first survey of Main Street, then known as Bonhamtown (Oak Tree) Road, was undertaken in 1705 to rework an existing road. At that time, the Presbyterian church was the only one in Metuchen, and the minister’s duties were shared with the Woodbridge congregation. Woodbridge Avenue was laid out c. 1700 to facilitate his travel between the two congregations. A meetinghouse for these religious services had been constructed on the site of the present-day Colonial Cemetery.

Metuchen was a quiet community within what was then Woodbridge Township. Only a dozen buildings were located along and near Main Street on a map from c. 1800. The creation of the Middlesex and Essex Turnpike (now Middlesex Avenue and Route 27) in 1806 and the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook Turnpike in 1808 created a small crossroads community of taverns and residences at the intersection, which is near present-day Middlesex Avenue and New Durham Road. A second crossroads community appeared at the intersection of Main Street and Middlesex Avenue.

In 1836, the New Jersey Railroad was completed to New Brunswick. The construction of a station at Main Street a few blocks north of Amboy Avenue solidified this location as the new center of town. The intersection of Main Street and Amboy Avenue had served as the center of town until this time. Businesses became more prominent between Middlesex Avenue and the railroad, and houses began to be removed from the main thoroughfare.

Metuchen came into its own during the second half of the 19th century. The railroad brought commercial development to the community, and residents began to commute to jobs far away from town. Several churches were constructed during this period. The second Franklin School was constructed to accommodate the larger student population. Raritan Township, which included Metuchen and what is now Edison Township, was separated from Woodbridge Township in 1870. Metuchen was the largest community within this rural township and became its logical commercial and social center. Civic organizations such as the library were constructed, and social events were held at the new Robins Hall.

Metuchen was incorporated as a borough on March 20, 1900. This independence reflected the strength of the community and a distinct character unlike the surrounding township. Rural Raritan Township remained based in agriculture until well into the 20th century; Metuchen was already a compact commuter town with a strong commercial base by the late 19th century. Almost one-quarter of Metuchen’s residents waited for the morning train every day. The borough’s accessibility, fine homes, and bucolic setting made it attractive to New York bankers and engineers as well as newspapermen, authors, literary editors, sculptors, and illustrators. The ranks of the talented grew to such a number that the borough was dubbed the Brainy Boro by the press. Metuchen continues as a larger version of its earlier self. Commuters remain a large percentage of residents, and the brainy aspect of the populace is now represented by the many professors and other successful residents that have chosen Metuchen as their home.

The content of this book can be defined by what is absent as much as by what is included. Images of people or places significant to Metuchen’s history were sometimes not in the historical society’s collection or simply did not exist. Photographic portraits of Metuchen’s historic residents are under-represented in the collection; I appeal to the reader to assist the society in seeking out such photographs. Perhaps their images may be found in an album in your living room or attic.

The following passage contains some of the fascinating people who were residents of Metuchen, but whose likenesses are not represented in the collection:

Henry Mills Alden, editor of Harper’s Weekly, became the managing editor of Harper’s Weekly in 1863, a position he held for 50 years. He put pen to paper in later years as an essayist and writer. Frank Ballou, a cartoonist, worked many years for the magazines Puck and Judge. Nonfiction writer Helen Christine Bennet wrote regularly for American Magazine, the Pictorial Review, McCall’s, Collier’s, and other magazines. Newspaperman S. S. Carvalho began as a staff writer and became the general manager of all the Hearst newspapers. Another newspaperman, William Dinwiddie, worked for several New York City newspapers and served as a war correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War and for campaigns in South Africa, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Architect Clement W Fairweather Sr., the designer of Borough Hall, was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and served as chairman of the New Jersey Board of Architects. Julia Hart Beers Kempson, a Hudson River Valley School painter, was one of the nation’s first women landscape painters. Newspaperman Chester Lord was a staff writer for the New York Sun in 1872 and became its managing editor in 1880, a position he held for 33 years. Lewis Nixon, a shipbuilder at Crescent Shipyards in Elizabethport, was responsible for the construction of the Holland, the first U.S. Navy submarine. He also designed the battleship Oregon in 1890 and was associated with the Nixon Nitration Works. Mary Stanahan Hart (Mrs. Frank) Pattison, a domestic engineer, was active in the New Jersey State