Ongoing historical research on a variety of topics.
Views: 943 Congratulations, Basking Ridge and Bernardsville, on being the foundation for the New Jersey Historical Wooden Village collection, a group of over 40 Jersey collectibles. Each keepsake brings awareness to historic area icons created by the world-famous Cat’s Meow… Read More »Bernards Township/Bernardsville Historic Wooden Village Keepsake Collectibles
Views: 1,065 Just like the racetrack that was on the southern end of Westfield in the 1930s, another lost icon, the Westfield Airport, sits at the coordinates 40°36’36.0″N 74°19’08.4″W. Our research started here. As with all Mr. Local History retrospectives,… Read More »The Lost Westfield Airport In Union County
Views: 245 Take the Survey – What are the Most Historic Icons in Bernardsville? Olcott School, The Old Library, Jerolaman’s, the Bernards Inn, the Old Stone Hotel, Dunster Squibb house, Bernardsville Cinema, and Kenilwood, NJ Brigade are some of the… Read More »Vote For Bernardsville’s Most Historic Venues
Views: 1,224 Jersey Lost Racetrack Series We found a story in the Paterson Call newspaper on April 22, 1936, stating that on May 15, 1936, after spending over $100,000, the Union (Township) Speedway would open with a 1/2-mile oval, including… Read More »Lost Racetrack Series: Auto Racing’s 10,000 Seat Track In Union, New Jersey
Views: 965 Jersey Lost Racetrack Series For a short period, racecar drivers from all over the tri-state area gathered just off Raritan Road on the Westfield/Clark border for the most exciting spectacles of the time, sanctioned midget dirt car racing.… Read More »Retrospective: Auto Racing on Jersey’s Westfield-Clark Border
Views: 508 1924 is the year Bernardsville passed a resolution to separate from Bernards Township and form an independent borough. Just a year after Far Hill did it in 1921, Bernardsville had to try once previously before succeeding the second… Read More »Bernardsville 100 – A Birthday Party – Ah the History
Views: 16,737 Special Community Ask: MLH would love to know any positive outcomes that have come since this tragid day in American history. If you have a story to share, please post at the end of this story (e.g. did… Read More »#911neverforget-Somerset Hills Family Friends and Neighbors & Their Stories
Views: 5,855 On the clear crisp morning at 8:46 am on September 11, 2001, the first plane hit the North Tower, and our community was changed forever. Please take a moment to remember those 21 residents from Basking Ridge, Bernardsville,… Read More »#911neverforget in the Somerset Hills
Views: 876 Walk down memory lane as we journey back to a time when Westfield was a much younger community. “Penny postcards” were primarily used in the early 1900s when you wanted to write to your family and friends from… Read More »Westfield Penny Postcards
Views: 1,325 Mr Local History loves history with a social twist. It’s our motto! So we thought: How fun would it be to share some of the most loved Westfield, New Jersey businesses that have disappeared? (Two of our Trustees… Read More »Wearing Lost Westfield Area Businesses is Fun History
Views: 15,786 How about a game? A fun game. A game that mixes history and memories and will take you back to the simpler times growing up in Westfield, New Jersey. We take two businesses no longer in town and… Read More »Loved Businesses Lost In Westfield – The H-GOAT GAME
Views: 1,853 Television executives have always known people have an obsession with true crime. It is quite possible that this obsession can trace its roots back to an unfortunate event that occurred in Somerset County. On the night of September… Read More »The Hall-Mills Murder: The Country’s First Sensationalized Trial
Views: 593 Mr Local History loves history with a social twist. In fact, it’s our motto! So we thought how fun it would be to share some of the most loved New Jersey businesses that have disappeared. We started researching… Read More »Wearing Lost Jersey Local History and Our Foodie Collection
Views: 1,267 The Westfield (NJ) Historical Society presented ‘My Recollections of Westfield, ‘ or, as I transcribed it, Frank Betz’s recollections of his childhood thoughts while growing up in the mid-1900s in Westfield, New Jersey. The Betz family came to Westfield in… Read More »Egypt Hill, Brown’s Pond and The Great Loves of My Childhood in Westfield, New Jersey
Views: 7,482 Investigating the tales of lost caves in Peapack, New Jersey, our first visit was to Town Hall in mid 2006 and the township administrator. They provided two articles that she had on file regarding the Peapack Caverns that… Read More »The Secret Peapack Caves Caverns & Grottos