The Archives recently incorporated new material into the records of Independent Hose Fire Company Number 1 and published a finding aid to the collection on our site. The records trace the history of the volunteer fire company dating back to its inception in 1826 and details its administration and activities. Its earliest materials include scrapbooks concerning local fires and fire companies, as well as their members and families, and general events in the community.

After the Town of Morristown separated from the Township in 1865, Independent Hose No. 1 became the first to organize within the new municipality, effectively replacing the old Morristown Fire Association. The Jerseyman newspaper described its formal approval from the Board of Aldermen in 1867 thusly: “A few young men, ever ready to sacrifice time and money, to say nothing of the bewitching maiden, for the welfare of their fellow beings, met for the purpose of organizing a hose company. They were nineteen in number, but nineteen true, noble and unselfish men.”

Throughout the nineteenth century, six other companies followed Independent’s lead and organized in Morristown. The Independents were originally housed in a building on Court Street, where the Morris County Court House now stands. In 1870 the Council purchased a lot on Market Street and built new headquarters, where the Company resided alongside Washington Engine Co. No.1 until 1996.

The records of Independent Hose Company No. 1 document the professional, financial, social and personal activities of one of the oldest and most vital volunteer fire companies in Morristown. These materials reflect its careful organization, the commitment to duty and the camaraderie of the membership and its place in the larger community. The records are available in the History Center’s reading room by appointment.

The History Center’s fall exhibit, Forging a New Nation: Morris County’s Iron Industry, is now on view in the Library’s second floor F.M. Kirby Gallery. Iron manufacturing in northwestern New Jersey dates back to the early 1700s when colonial settlers ventured west from Newark in search of valuable minerals. They began extracting iron deposits and processing the ore in small forges. During the Revolutionary War, these forges supplied the Continental Army with shot, shells, and tools.

As demand for New Jersey’s high-grade magnetite grew throughout the 19th century, ironmaking facilities expanded and acquired improved equipment and skilled work forces. The towns of Rockaway, Dover, Mine Hill, and Boonton all enjoyed healthy iron industries through the early 20th century. Company owners made lasting contributions to Mount Hope and Boonton Falls by building churches, schools, and housing to attract workers.

The legacy of North Jersey’s ironmaking past remains with us today. The modern town of Boonton was founded after the ironworks relocated uphill to take advantage of resources provided by the Morris Canal. Thousands of acres of nature preserve occupy land that once buzzed with mining activity. And the complex web of underground tunnels created by hundreds of years of mineral extraction expose today’s residents and business owners to the risk of sinkholes.  Forging a New Nation will remain on view until January 2027.

William Nathaniel Watson (1883 – 1933) moved from his home state of Virginia to Morristown, New Jersey at the turn of the 20th-century and found work as an ash collector, a job that he turned into a successful waste removal businesses and later expanded to trucking and real estate. Together, he and his wife Addie L. Daly (1882 – 1961) raised seven children: William Nathaniel, Jr.; Clara; Francis; John Morton; Hazel; Gertrude; and Evelyn, all of whom attended and graduated from Morristown High School.

William owned and operated William Watson and Sons, located a short distance from the couple’s home in Morristown near where Headquarters Plaza was eventually built. In his spare time, Mr. Watson founded the Morris County chapter of the NAACP, was a leader of the Colored Republican Club, president of the Booker T. Washington branch of the YMCA, and member of both the Elks and Union Baptist Church in Morristown.

Two of William’s sons, John and Francis, joined their father’s business after high school and would inherit it following his death in 1933. Many of Addie and William’s children studied for careers in education and medicine, with Evelyn becoming a teacher and Clara a registered nurse. William Nathaniel, Jr. studied dentistry but died shortly after fulfilling his World War II Army service, and while Francis initially pursued a career as a physician he ultimately joined his brother John to run the family business for forty years.

The 0.5 linear foot collection consists of obituaries and funeral programs, an account book from William Watson and Sons, and a number of diplomas, yearbooks, and reunion programs. It also contains a series of letters to Nannie Watson from her grandchildren and children. The papers include photographs of patriarch William N. Watson, Sr. and his son William, Jr., in addition to the former’s obituary that features his portrait. A small group of ephemera hint at some of the family’s charitable, religious, and social activities. An interview with Clara Watson Pinkman recorded in 1983, in which she discusses her family’s life in Morristown can be found here.

The Rockaway Valley Railroad spanned twenty-five miles from White House, New Jersey to Morristown and it operated between 1888 and 1913. The line was primarily built to deliver peach harvests to market from Morris County orchards located near the southern terminus. At peak harvest season, the Railroad shipped as many as seventy carloads of peaches per day.

The railroad’s designer lacked formal civil engineering training and chose to route the line through severe grade changes and curves that led some locals to refer to it as the “Rock-a-Bye-Baby”. Nevertheless, the line served a genuine need for the region’s farmers and the company endeared itself to residents by offering excursions from Morristown to the countryside and providing school children a shortcut on their walk to and from school.

A peach blight in 1904 killed many of the region’s peach trees and subsequent attempts to revamp the railroad’s business model were unsuccessful. By 1913, the business struggled to meet payroll and its final trip concluded on October 18, 1913. Morris County hikers can still traverse portions of the original RVRR route along stretches of Patriot’s Path near Morristown and the Rockabye Meadow Preserve in Peapack Gladstone.

Archivist Jeffrey Moy preserved, arranged, and described the collection. A finding aid to the records may be found here, and they are available for review in the History Center’s reading room during normal Library hours.

William and Nathan Brittin emigrated from England to Long Island in 1635 and later became farmers and innkeepers. Notably in 1670, Nathaniel was involved in negotiating the sale of Staten Island from the Lenape to English colonists . The history of their lineage from the 1600s through the early 1940s is outlined in the Brittin Family Genealogy Collection, which Assistant Archivist Katelyn Leffler recently processed.

The materials include letters, notebooks, genealogy charts, and manuscripts. Also of note are nineteenth century receipts for William and Abraham Brittin and L.H. Brittin’s incomplete autobiography draft. A finding aid to the collection can be found here, and the papers may be consulted in the History Center’s reading during normal Library hours.

Anyone who tried visiting the History Center in late January noticed we were closed following a significant leak that occurred on January 22^nd and impacted several floors of the Library. Fortunately, our librarians and archivists acted quickly to move the historical collections out of harm’s way and evaluate nearby materials for water damage while first responders dealt with the emergency upstairs. Library staff assisted Department Head James Lewis, Digital Librarian Chris Larlee, and Library Assistant Cynthia Muszala to vacate the affected storage room.

Of the thousands of rare books, photographs, and maps that were at risk, damage was limited to a few dozen items which are now offsite for conservation. The Library remained closed for several days as disaster recovery professionals dried flooded areas of the building, and History staff were onsite through the weekend checking for damage, stabilizing affected items, and assisting other departments of the Library with their cleanup efforts. Archivist Jeffrey Moy led the disaster response team over the following three weeks while coordinating with recovery workers to ensure storage areas were repaired, as well as overseeing conservation efforts.

As the main building reopened and resumed operations a week later, History Center staff continued performing collection recovery work while contactors completed repairs to our storage areas. Unfortunately for our visitors, the only available space to temporarily keep the displaced materials was the reading room where they occupied every flat surface including rolling book carts.

Department Head James Lewis responded to questions from researchers eager to resume their work and coordinated day to day logistics. Library Assistant Leigh Whitworth conducted the time-consuming task of checking each book as Assistant Archivist Katelyn Leffler inspected the condition of the glass plates. Digital Librarian Chris Larlee provided crucial collections management support throughout the recovery effort.

With storage room repairs completed in early February, staff returned collections as quickly and carefully as possible and reopened the reading room to a steady stream of researchers beginning February 11^th. We appreciate everyone’s patience throughout the disaster recovery process and look forward to helping you explore history soon. For additional information on the History Center and its collections, as well as where to follow us on social media, please visit our About Us page.

Constructed in 1937, the Community Theatre served as Morristown’s single-screen movie theater exclusively presenting first runs of films. It opened on December 23, 1937 with a screening of Nothing Sacred, starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March. The theater briefly showed live performances such as vaudeville shows in the 1940s, although the building primarily spent its first few decades as a thriving movie theater.

While the theater did well in its early years, it experienced a decline of revenue and attendance during the 1970s amidst competition from television and newly emerging multiplexes. Amid these financial difficulties, the Community Theatre was sold by the Walter Reade Organization to Maurice Macabian in 1973 who also struggled to return the business to profitability as a movie house. In 1977 it reopened as The Morris Stage, a live performance venue that featured ballet performers, rock bands, and jazz musicians. Despite strong ticket sales, the theater eventually closed in 1987.

1994 ushered in a new era with the assistance of hundred of volunteers who worked to restore the building’s interior, culminating in the Kirov Orchestra’s September performance while on an international tour. By 1995, the venue was reborn as a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting live musical, theatrical, and comedy shows. Major renovations followed and in 2007, the structure was renamed the Community Theatre at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts; shortened to the Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) in 2011. Notable performers have include Aretha Franklin, Liza Minelli, Joan Rivers, Bob Newhart, Kenny G., Judy Collins, and Tony Bennett.

The materials in this collection include documents relating to its history as a movie theater, a large volume of records related to renovations in 1994 and 2001, behind-the-scenes work done by the performing arts center staff, and the performances held at the theater. Document types include programs, brochures, administrative papers, posters, audiovisual materials, and photographs. Those interested in viewing the records may consult the finding aid for a fuller description, and contact the History Center for an appointment.

The working papers of one of New Jersey’s notable landscape architects, Joan Shapiro Greentree, are now open to researchers in the History Center’s reading room. Born in Brooklyn, Joan Shapiro (1929-2012) graduated high school at sixteen years old and briefly attended Alfred University before dropping out due to the lack of courses in her preferred field of study. Instead, she pursued independent study in landscape architecture at the State University of New York, Fairleigh Dickinson University, New York University, and the New York and Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

As a self-taught landscape architect, Joan adopted the professional name “Greentree” and developed an architectural philosophy that centered around environmentalism and was reflected in her practice of working with the ecology specific to each site. This design aesthetic stressed the use of native plants in a manner consistent with a property’s topology, a practice that gained wider acceptance through the late 20th century.

Greentree became an award-winning landscape architect whose work featured prominently in private homes and businesses in New York, New Jersey, and Colorado. During her long career she oversaw projects for the San Francisco firm Lawrence Halperin and Associates, a number of public parks, and numerous private gardens. Joan became one of the first women accepted by the American Society of Landscape Architects. During the 1960s, she founded one of New Jersey’s first recycling centers.

Included with the Joan Shapiro Greentree papers are a significant collection of research notes and photographs related to Claude and Helen Habberstad that she collected with a neighbor and wildlife artist, Mary Pratt Champenois. The Habberstads were journalists and artists who built a series of arts and crafts style cottages in the 1930s, mostly in the Boonton and Parsippany area. Wanting to create affordable homes set in natural surroundings, Claude and Helen selected large parcels of land in Morris County where property was inexpensive. Each cottage was unique and included design features intended to maximize space while blending into the surrounding landscape.

Greentree and Champenois both owned Habberstad homes and, during the 1990s they pursued extensive research on their history, construction, and place within American architecture history. Their work resulted in numerous photographs documenting the homes, a series of oral histories taken by those who knew and worked with the Habberstads, as well as a number of speaking engagements and exhibits about the cottages. The finding aid to the Joan Shapiro Greentree Collection is available online, and the papers may be requested for use in the reading room.

 

Due to construction in the History Center during the week of November 11, 2024, the reading room will offer limited services. Some collections will be inaccessible and excessive noise is to be expected; therefore, researchers are advised to plan around these dates.

If you must visit between 11/11 and 11/15, please contact the History Center by Friday 11/8 with a list of any materials you need to refer to and we will endeavor to retrieve them prior to your visit.

One aspect of preserving New Jersey history involves identifying weaknesses in our collections. While reviewing materials related to the state’s military history, Archivist Jeff Moy noted a lack of detailed information on Picatinny Arsenal, which is one of Morris County’s most active and consequential installations. He contacted the base’s Engineering Historian, Jeff Ranu who graciously agreed to share copies of their newspapers, The Picatinny News and The Barrage that date from 1947 to 1958.

Published for the benefit of active duty military and civilian personnel, the bi-weekly newspaper reported on various aspects of work life at Picatinny. It is a good source of information for genealogists with family who once worked at the facility, as well as those studying American military history. The digitized issues of the Picatinny News and the Barrage are available online, and we will include additional years as they are made available to us.

Several of the History Center’s manuscript collections originate from active organizations who periodically transfer recently created records. Assistant Archivist, Katelyn Leffler processed a group of new additions to the Morris School District collection. The records contain nearly two centuries of information on education in Morris Township and Morristown including  documentation on the Board of Education, district schools, Morristown High School, as well as photographs and audiovisual material.

The Morris School District Records date from 1817 to 2013 and comprise 33.5 linear feet in over 60 boxes; the finding aid to the collection may be found here. Those interested in reviewing the collection should contact History Center staff in advance to make an appointment.