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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
ELIZABETH, 0 miles. (70 alt., 114,589 pop.) (see ELIZABETH).
Lawn-trimmed cottages line the highway in this suburban section. Well-
ordered, unaspiring and pleasant, they are commuters' homes; by day the
wide main street is almost bereft of a male population.
At 0.4 miles. the roadbed becomes concrete, and Elizabeth peters out into
the edge of Union with scarcely a noticeable change.
At 0.9 miles. the route turns sharply L. into Morris Ave.
At 1 miles. (R) is LIBERTY HALL (private), screened from the road by
tall trees and a green picket fence; it faces URSINO LAKE. Built in 1773
by William Livingston, first Governor of the State of New Jersey, the
rectangular building now belongs to Capt. John Kean, son of former U. S.
Senator Hamilton F. Kean. Tall spreading horse-chestnut trees, planted in
1772, shade the three-story white frame house where Sally Livingston, the
Governor's daughter, married John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United
Mates; where George and Martha Washington slept; and where Alexander Hamilton was once quartered. Erected on a solid brick foundation and
surrounded by 300 green acres of maples, elms, and hilly meadowland,
the place, now called Ursino, houses many relics of the Revolutionary
period, including a bed in which both Washingtons slept.
A large estate opposite Liberty Hall is GREEN LAKE FARM (L), property of former Senator Kean. Fifty blooded Guernseys stabled in marble-paneled stalls share a barn with many valuable volumes and State records,
the ex-Senator's private library. Running the place as a hobby, Mr. Kean
delights in his library above the cow barn and in his chickens, which annually carry off blue ribbons at Manhattan's Madison Square Garden.
At 3.2 miles. is the junction with US 22 (see Tour 2).
Sprawled over to acres of mud and scrub at 3.5 in. (L) are the unimposing remains of a once flourishing cooperative colony of reformed derelicts. SELF-MASTERS' COLONY, patterned after Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters of East Aurora, N. Y., was founded in 1908 and led by Andress S.
Floyd. Here, on 50 acres, approximately 40 hoboes, drunks, and dope
fiends lived and worked, desperately trying to make good. During the
boom years the men left for outside jobs; the camp failed in 1929, leaving
the ruins of a print shop, a weaving place, and two dilapidated frame
buildings. Michael Moore, a tall, 69-year-old, bewhiskered native, who
speaks intelligently and says he's the last of the Mohicans, still holds the
fort, weaving silk and cotton rugs and table covers on hand looms.
Points of Interest: First Presbyterian Church, Union County Courthouse Annex
(museum), Carteret Arms, Scott Park, Boudinot House, Singer Sewing Machine
Plant, and others.
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