The New Jersey State Review Board for Historic Sites recommended the creation of the Olcott Avenue historic district on February 10, 2009 said Darlene Yuhas, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The board’s recommendation was reviewed and signed by acting DEP commissioner Mark Mauriello and took effect on May 20, 2009 -(SR#4896).
Bernardsville’s first historic district designation also now moves on to the U.S. Department of the Interior for consideration to include the area on the national historic registry. The Olcott Avenue historic district includes Olcott Avenue and portions of Childsworth and Highview avenues, Church Street, and a small portion of Mullens Lane.
The designation follows a long detailed process that was coordinated by Dan Lincoln, an Olcott Avenue resident and long time historic advocate, along with the Bernardsville Historic Preservation Advisory Committee, the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills and other Bernardsville neighborhood and community organizations. Dan Lincoln is also the current President of The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills.
Olcott Avenue District History
Olcott Avenue is named after Frederick Pepoon Olcott (1841-1909), a Bernardsville mountain colony resident who was president of the Central Trust Company in New York which later was merged with JP Morgan. Olcott owned a Bernardsville estate which included the area including the Somerset Hills Country Club.
In 1905 a local resident, Frederick P. Olcott bought twenty-seven acres of what was then known as the Wolfe tract of what is now Olcott Avenue for $10,000. He erected the present stone 9 room Olcott Building at a cost of approximately $100,000 and presented the property to the Bernards Township school district (Berndardsville was still part of Bernards Twp until 1924).
This building served as the first high school in Bernards Township and also housed Bernardsville’s elementary grades. That building was designed by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. Hardenbergh also was the architect for the Plaza Hotel, the Waldorf Hotel and the Dakota Apartments in New York City, Lincoln said.
While the Olcott Avenue School is but one historic structure within Bernardsville’s first historic district area, the areas appeal and historic significance remembers the story of the rise of the middle class in Bernardsville and how this particular location impacted the entire region, from the downtown, Little Italy, and even the Mountain Colony areas.
