Welcome to the Mr. Local History Project
“A 501c3 Non-Profit Dedicated to Preserving and Promoting Jersey History with a Social Twist”
The Mr. Local History Project is about bringing New Jersey’s past into the present through the stories of real places, real people, and real communities. Focused especially on New Jersey history, the project celebrates local history in a way that feels personal, engaging, and relevant, not something locked away in textbooks, but history that lives where we live. As we head into 2026, the 250th anniversary of the United States, Mr. Local History is turning history into a shared experience. With a social twist, this is about connecting online and in the community, sharing memories, spotlighting hometown stories, and honoring New Jersey’s outsized role in America’s founding. It is history you can explore, share, and be part of together.
Today in America’s History (We Update Every Day)
- 1901: The U.S. Steel recognition strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers begins.
- 1949: An amendment to the National Security Act of 1947 enhances the authority of the United States Secretary of Defense over the Army, Navy and Air Force, and replaces the National Military Establishment with the Department of Defense.
- 1954: At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway is held.
- 1961: Vietnam War: The U.S. Army begins Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20 million US gallons (76,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover.
- 1971: The Society for American Baseball Research is founded in Cooperstown, New York.
- 1977: In Yonkers, New York, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") is arrested for a series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year.
- 2020: Derecho in Iowa becomes the most costly thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history.
What Can You Do Today to Celebrate America’s 250th?
Our Readers’ Top 10 MLH Posts this Week
Latest Posts
Celebrating 100 Years of the Cranford Theater
Views: 34 CRANFORD, NEW JERSEY, 1926–2026. For generations of Cranford families, going downtown to the movies has meant going to the Cranford Theater. This year, one of New Jersey’s great surviving neighborhood movie houses reaches an extraordinary milestone: 100 years…
NJ Cinemas Honored in Exclusive Miniature Wooden Collection
Views: 8,039 Remembering classic movie theaters that not only showed first-rate films, but anchored our towns and kept us full of memories. Three of the last remaining old-time, downtown movie theaters in New Jersey, each with over a century of…
History Remembers Lost Swim Clubs – Now It’s Your Turn
Views: 229 For many families growing up in the Somerset Hills and surrounding communities, summer meant one thing: the local swim club. From the 1950s through the 1980s, private clubs, lakes, beaches, and municipal pools became summertime gathering places where…
Looking Back at Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club
Views: 1,002 Clover Hill Swimming ClubA Beloved Summer Retreat That Changed New Jersey History PREVIEW RELEASE: For those who subscribe to early releases of Mr Local History Research. Additional updates will be provided as we receive answers to our research…
Reggie’s Playland Farm: Forgotten Jazz Club That Became Millridge Swim Club in Millington, NJ
Views: 1,027 Our story begins as we were researching another story tied to swim clubs in New Jersey’s Basking Ridge area, and we were preparing a story about Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club. A fun story you can read later,…
Windsurfing On the Columbia River Gorge in the 80s
Views: 789 Before kiteboarding, before wing foiling, and before extreme sports filled television screens, there was windsurfing, and nowhere captured its spirit quite like the Columbia River Gorge. Throughout the 1980s, this remarkable corridor between Oregon and Washington became the…
Remembering the Columbia River Gorge’s Wind Ranch in the 80s
Views: 1,588 Ah, who remembers the Wind Ranch in Bingen, Washington? Just across the bridge from Hood River was a place, no, an iconic place, that remains now only in my memory. This post is more of a community plea…
The Missing Cemetery of the Basking Ridge Continental Army Hospital
Views: 234 For decades, visitors to Jockey Hollow believed they were standing beside the burial ground of Continental soldiers who died during the terrible winter of 1779–1780. However, archaeological investigations found no human remains, and the National Park Service now…
History Helps Realtors Sell Real Estate
Views: 4,149 Realtors’ History Guide to Selling Basking Ridge, Bernardsville, Bedminster and the Rest of the Somerset Hills, New Jersey It probably comes as no surprise that realtors have a fairly easy time selling homes in Bernards Township and the…
Homer’s The Odyssey & The Gods Told This Time By Christopher Nolan
Views: 531 At Mr. Local History, we believe history is at its best when it connects people. That’s why our motto is “History with a social twist.” Every place has a story, every family has a connection, and every generation…
A Tiny Roadside Cemetery in Basking Ridge
Views: 540 Isn’t it strange that you might drive by something 1,000s of times and never notice something….until you do. This is one of those stories. Just to the south of the former Millington quarry entrance on Stonehouse Road sits…
MLH Loves To See The Public Engaged….. The Latest Comments
Our family loved it here. Many happy memories of summer and also winter skating!
Millridge is where a lot of us went. Ridge Class of 1966 after-graduation party was at Millridge. Bill Friars was…
Spent almost every day there in the summers, packing up a lunch picnic and staying until late afternoon. Scrounging for…
Growing up in Basking Ridge, if you were lucky you either belonged to Clover Hill or Pennbrook. My mom hated…
Clover Hill: red frog, blue frog, green fish, gold fish, red shark, maroon shark, silver dolphin, golden dolphin. IYKYK
We lived to the west in Homestead Village and the planes would take off right over our house. Saw many…
Very interesting article and information. It’s a shame that none of the historical remnants exists anymore. There should at least…
Extremely thorough explanation, appreciate the effort put into this.
I remember when Robbie Naish won the pro-am one year, and it was sponsored by Yamaha (88 or 89 maybe?).…
Our Summer 2026 Magazine is HERE!
Full of great local Jersey History to keep you on the edge of your history seat.
Special Edition – America’s 250th The SEMI-QUIN-CENTENNIAL is HERE!
See our special digital magazine. Full of great local Jersey History.
I was young , but I remember learning how to swim at Copper Hill! They’re we’re frogs there too—right? I…