| 1700s: Tradesman Daniel Sayre built a home near what became known as Shallcross Pond, one of several local ponds that formed in gullies left behind by an Ice Age glacier. The other ponds � including Jackson�s Pond (located where David Brearley Middle/High School now stands), Hiller�s Pond (situated where St. Theresa�s School now is) and Station Pond (located in the northeast area of town) � no longer exist. Daniel Sayre used water from a nearby stream to cure leather. The home is believed to have later belonged to Sayre�s grandson, a soldier in the U.S. Continental Army. It is Kenilworth�s oldest surviving structure.
Another of the area�s pre-Revolutionary farmhouses, the Higgins home, was built on the old Galloping Hill Road. It was the birthplace of J. Wallace Higgins, who later designed Kenilworth�s original Master Plan. The home was demolished in the 1930s. Tin Kettle Hill, a prominent 186-foot landmark located in the northeast area of Kenilworth, was designated by Gen. George Washington as a key beacon hill during the Revolutionary War for alerting soldiers in the heights above Springfield that the British were on the move. The Springfield troops would, in turn, fire a cannon signaling the militia to prepare for battle. Between 1903 and 1906, the soil from Tin Kettle Hill was removed and used to elevate the tracks for the Pennsylvania Railroad. 1850: The Chestnut Grove School House was constructed near Black Brook Park. 1894: A group of real estate developers from Elmira, N.Y., formed the New Orange Industrial Association with the intent of purchasing and developing farmland in and around the area now known as Kenilworth. They hired local engineer J. Wallace Higgins to design a Master Plan for their real estate project that included wide thoroughfares, industrial zones, and connections with mass transit via trolley lines and a railroad, which later became known as the Rahway Valley Railroad. They referred to the project as �New Orange.� 1897: The New York and New Orange Railroad was constructed. It ran from the Jersey Central at Roselle Park into New Orange (Kenilworth), along the base of Tin Kettle Hill, then west. The railroad station at North 31st Street served at the turn of the century as the hub of community activity and as a backdrop for many movies, particularly Westerns. By 1903, the railroad was carrying approximately 50,000 passengers. In 1905, the railroad reorganized as the Rahway Valley Railroad and began servicing Springfield and Summit. 1898: The building boom in Kenilworth drew to the area such tradesmen as James Arthur, who contracted to build �a hundred homes in a hundred days.� Around this time, other well-known family names such as Hoiles, Knudson, Hiller, Gow, Grippo, Vitale, Amorosa and Rego also became established in Kenilworth. Upsala College of Brooklyn, N.Y., accepted the New Orange Industrial Association�s offer of free land to any institution of high education and constructed a campus on College Hill, north of Oak Street. The college was instrumental to the community�s growth. 1899: The U.S. government established the New Orange Post Office. |
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| Historical Highlights of Kenilworth, N.J. 1700 -1899 |