Long before the Kiwanis Fair, there was the annual Basking Ridge Firemen’s Carnival.  Beginning in 1910, the carnival was held on the grounds of the old Maple Avenue school (now site of the Bernards Township Library) and drew crowds from across the region.  Beginning in 1912, the firemen hired a merry-go-round and it soon became

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western train wreck of 1894 is largely forgotten today, but claimed at least 14 lives, 4 of which were from the Somerset Hills. The wreck occurred Jan. 15, 1894 at 8:20 am in the Hackensack meadows just west of the tunnels that go under Jersey City toward Hoboken, NJ.  Three cars

Maple Lawn, seen here in a c.1913 postcard, still stands at 30 East Craig Street in Basking Ridge, NJ.  It is an impressive Victorian house in the Second Empire style featuring a Mansard roof.  Architectural surveys (c.1990s) and John C. Smith’s historical map of Basking Ridge date the house to around 1865.  However, the building

The THSSH Archives contain a wonderful record book from The Somerset Water Company with the original stock certificates issued by this early public utility and its successor, the Bedminster Water Company.  Seventy-six beautifully engraved certificates are filed alongside their issue stubs.  See certificates and catalog record including name index.  High-quality images are available on request. 

Millionaires with mansions weren’t the only people who created postcards featuring their homes.  Frank and Myra Boppe of Basking Ridge had this colorful one made sometime around 1913.  The house was probably built around 1900 and is still standing at 36 North Maple Avenue. The Boppes bought the house and farm which they called “Glenside”

If you run, bike, or walk your dog through Evergreen Cemetery in Basking Ridge, you may have noticed a large monument at the northern end near the railroad station.  The Swaim family monument dwarfs its neighbors, including that of Ferdinand Van Dorn of Van Dorn’s Mill fame. Large monuments often tell interesting stories and the

In 1918 with World War I raging in Europe, the world suddenly faced a global influenza outbreak.   New Jersey and the Somerset Hills were soon impacted and hospitals in Morristown and Somerville were crowded with seriously ill patients.   Local organizations needed to step up to meet the public health emergency. In the Somerset Hills, the

Rail service came to Basking Ridge in 1872 when the New Jersey West Line railroad (now NJ Transit) was extended from Summit, NJ.  Back then, the line ended at Bernardsville and Basking Ridge was the next to last stop.  The arrival of trains soon triggered a development boom on the northern side of the village. 

Osborn’s sawmill in Bernards Township, NJ, operated from as early as 1850 until at least the 1880s.  Jonathan H. Osborn (1796-1881) and his son Lewis F. Osborn (1823-1884) ran the mill which was situated along the Passaic River near Madisonville.  Osborn Pond, which still exists, was the mill pond. Around 1910, the site was acquired

In the winter of 1777, after the battle of Princeton, while the American army was encamped at Morristown, NJ, General Washington sent a division under General Nathanael Greene to Basking Ridge, about four miles to the south. A document called “A General Return of Waggons [sic] and Horses….,” relating to this time was received last year