The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills (THSSH) recently received a set of five blueprints of the Lyons Railroad Station.    The drawings are a welcome addition to our archives because the building is on the national and N.J. registers of historic places (since 1984). Rail service began at Lyons in 1872 when the New Jersey

In 1915, the Greulock Dairy in Basking Ridge, NJ, delivered milk in bottles like the one pictured.  The dairy was run by Carl Martin Greulock who was born in Lyons, NJ, on May 27, 1887, son of George Greulock and Mathilda Rother.   Carl had earlier run an ice business, which he had taken over from

If you’re unable to attend the “The Natirar Estate and Kate Macy Ladd Convalescent Home” exhibit at the Brick Academy in Basking Ridge, you can still view the digital version.  The physical exhibit premiered November 14 and can be viewed during our monthly open house—the next is Sunday December 1st from 2pm to 4pm.  The

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

Parking your carriage on Olcott Square in Bernardsville, NJ, around 1908 was apparently no problem.  These two are shown in front of the Westlecraft Block, named for local builder Charles Westlecraft.  The site  is occupied today by The Coffee Shop, Buona Pizza, and other businesses. The Westlecraft Block was built around 1904 and contained businesses

Back in 1919, the Bernards Protective Association, a private organization formed the previous year to support the police, issued this warning to the “Automobilists” of Bernards Township (which then included both Far Hills and Bernardsville).

THSSH has released another Online Collection of documents—this time featuring Bernards High in Bernardsville, NJ.  Bernards High was built in 1905.  Two years later a class of two–Effie Beekman and Florence Rowell Conklin–became the first students to graduate. Until construction of Watchung Hills High and Ridge High, Bernards was the only high school in northern

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

The October issue of Inside the Brick Academy is available now and includes a page-one article on the Fenner House in Pluckemin, NJ, where General George Washington is said to have written his report on the Battle of Princeton.  The article is the first in a series covering Pluckemin historic houses. For the Bernardsville Centennial,

An archaeological team from Monmouth University returned to The Coffee House in Madisonville, N.J.,  last Saturday, September 21, 2024.   The group continued the excavation of foundations found in 2023 and surprisingly discovered that they extend further than originally thought–there may have been a second building at the site.  In addition to the work on foundations,