Views: 7,512 National Award-Winning Landscape Architect Lives and Breathes History with His Map Creations. The Mr. Local History Project introduces you to a dear friend and history connoisseur who has taken cartography to a whole new level, overlaying history onto… Read More »Somerset Hills Cartographer John Smith Maps Local History
Views: 24,621 If you live in the Somerset Hills area around Bedminster and Tewksbury you hopefully have heard the name Mellick. The Mellick name goes back to one of the founding family names in the area. In fact, the name… Read More »Bedminster History – Look To the Old Mellick Farmhouses
Views: 14,889 UPDATE: While we wrote this piece years ago, the Bedminster Charter came back in the news on October 21, 2019, when it was announced that the Forbes family was donating the charter back to Bedminster Township. The story… Read More »The Lost Charters of Bernards Township & Bedminster
Views: 4,202 Hey, Bedminster, we’d love your opinion. We’re looking to hear what you think are the most historic icons in Bedminster, New Jersey. Loading… Vote in the Series:Know Bernardsville? Vote for their most historic Click HereKnow Bernards Township? Vote for… Read More »Vote for Bedminster’s Most Historic Icons
Views: 11,854 UPDATE: July 31, 2025: A new Bedminster Township-led commission has taken over the property and its contents, creating a new mission to preserve and promote the Vanderveer House and Museum in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. Learn More Bedminster’s… Read More »Bedminster Township’s Vanderveer Knox House
Views: 196,590 America’s First Military Academy, the Pluckemin Academy (Dec.1778) was 24 Years BEFORE West Point (Mar. 16, 1802). One of the greatest untold stories of the American Revolution.The Pluckemin Winter Cantonment, part of the overall Middlebrook Encampment of 1778-1779.… Read More »Before the West Point Military Academy (USMA) There was Pluckemin
Views: 10,273 So we’re over at the Bedminster Farmers Market, and while meeting a few locals, one of the patrons mentioned, “Why don’t you research what’s going on over at the slave burial grounds in Bedminster. Here we are. We… Read More »A Unique Bedminster Cemetery-“God’s Acre”
Views: 10,100 Tucked in the northern section of Somerset County, New Jersey, the area known as the Somerset Hills has a rich history that Mr. Local History is proud to document. Each property was researched prior to submitting documentation to… Read More »Somerset Hills Historic Sites on the National & State Registers
Views: 16,549 History is a strange thing. The myth often outweighs the truth in many cases, sometimes distorting it to create a more compelling narrative. Sometimes, it’s like the game where you whisper something to someone, then they whisper to… Read More »Finding the Truth About the KKK in Basking Ridge & the Somerset Hills
Views: 10,065 Map Identifies Historic Properties, Owners, Building Locations, Local History Including the Often Ignored Pluckemin Artillery Park With over 2,000 hours of painstaking research and countless renderings, the landscaping firm of John Charles Smith & Associates of Far Hills… Read More »Bedminster Map Project Reveals Historic Pluckemin Artillery Park
Did you know that US Route 206 actually used to be Route 31 and what is US Route 202 was actually Route 32?
Here are the signs!
So now you tell your friend “Take Route 31 North Thru Bedminster
and Turn Right onto Route 32 straight into Bernardsville.” Huh. “Route 31 goes to Clinton right? Left? WRONG! Confused?
Travel back to 1935 and you definitely would have been.
Maybe you could travel down Mine Brook Road to Bernardsville and the directions read take Route 32 south to Bville and stop at the dairy. Or maybe you’re coming down from Chester and you wanted to visit the Brady’s Hamilton Farm in Peapack/Bedminster and you actually have to go down Route 31. Well that was actually the case right up until 1935 when the transition began to change these two crossroads across the Somerset Hills to Routes 202 and 206.
How Confusing?
Have you ever had such a major roadway change names in your lifetime? Your whole psychic changes. Think about how much confusion there is when the Department of Transportation changes highway exits and how long it takes you to forget the old ones and replace it with the new numbers. Geeze, I think there’s still exit signs on the southern end of Route 202 South that still say Old Exit 2B.