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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
MORRIS PLAINS, 33 m. (400 alt., 1,730 pop.), an unobtrusive residential community, is the home of the G. Washington Coffee Co.
Right from the center of Morris Plains on a tar and graveled road, Glennbrook
Pl. , which turns L. to Central Ave.; R. on Central Ave. to GREYSTONE PARK,
5 miles, site of New JERSEY HOSPITAL for the mentally ill. Topping a high ridge
a rolling valley region, wide graveled driveways wind through its 400 gracefully
landscaped acres, in the center of which the tremendous gray stone administration
building looms as a dead end to Glennbrook PL Here, despite numerous building
additions since 1871, when the hospital was founded, more than 5,000 patients receive treatment in space planned to provide for 3,080. The policy of this State institution is to restore all possible patients through active treatment. Individual attention
from physicians and nurses, as well as from trained teachers of occupational therapy
and physical education, has produced some excellent results in mental readjustment.
social-service bureau attached to the hospital investigates the history of patients
admitted and assists in returning the recovered or improved person to a satisfactory
place in society. Another extra-mural activity is the provision of psychiatric advice
neighboring communities.
At 33.9 miles, just north of Whippany River Bridge, on a private estate
(L) is the small salmon-colored ALFRED VAIL HOUSE, a barnlike frame
structure where Samuel F. B. Morse and Alfred Vail developed the magnetic telegraph in the fall of 1837. Three miles of wire were looped
around the old building that day early in January 1838 when Vail ticked
out "A patient waiter is no loser" – the first message officially recorded on
Morse's instrument.
South of the bridge is the SITE OF THE SPEEDWELL IRON WORKS (R)
where Stephen Vail, Alfred's father, supervised construction of the driving shaft for the S. S. Savannah, the first vessel to cross the Atlantic using
steam as an auxiliary to sail (1819). The foundry has long since been
abandoned. Crumbled sections of wall rise out of the ground here and
there, and keen-eyed visitors can still find great, rusted, hand-wrought iron
spikes. A nearby hollow, once a pond, has been reconstructed as a lake by
the WPA. Adjacent to an old wall of the iron works is a large community fireplace built in 1918, providing the comfort of a roaring log fire in
the open. The Whippany Bridge marks the northern entrance of Morristown.
At 34.6 miles is the junction with Sussex Ave., a tar road.
Right on Sussex Ave. to the MAGNETIC HILL, 3.3 miles, a puzzling refutation
of the maxim that "seeing is believing." The spot can be picked out accurately by
a wooden pike fence about 7 feet high (R). At a point where this fence forms an
L, in what appears to be a shallow valley with a steep hill ahead and a gradual
upward slope behind, the motorist should shut off his motor, release the brake and take the car out of gear. The car will coast slowly backward, up the gradual slope. The phenomenon is an optical illusion: the road here is really a slight downgrade; it appears uphill (in the wrong direction) merely because of its juxtaposition between two steeper hills.
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