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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
METUCHEN, 11 miles (l00 alt., 5,748 pop.), has long been known, half
seriously, as the "Brainy Borough." Its residents, including many New
York businessmen, take pride not only in fine dwellings and shaded streets
but also in cultural pursuits. Outstanding literary and artistic figures have
made their homes here. The AYRES or ALLAN HOUSE (private) is a one-story, cedar-shingled dwelling on Durham Ave. just off the intersection of
Main St. and Middlesex Ave. Built in 1740, it is still in good condition.
Beams are hand-hewn, pegged, and mortised. The original chimney remains, but the building never had a fireplace because it was designed to
house servants.
The FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, erected 1793, is on the northern
side of Woodbridge Ave. adjoining Railroad Sq. The church is a large L-shaped frame building of a type common in the post-Colonial period, with
hip roof and high windows. A square tower supports an octagonal belfry
and a bell-shaped cupola covered with weather-stained copper. The
FRANKLIN Civic House (L), on Middlesex Ave., a frame, peak-roofed
structure with a bell tower, was an early New Jersey schoolhouse. It served
as the town hall, and as the meeting-place of the Revolutionary Committee of Safety. Civic organizations, including a Little Theater group, now
use the building.
Metuchen, known to the Indians as Matochshoning because of a former
chief who lived here, was founded by Dutch and English settlers in the
late seventeenth century. In 1777 and later, Metuchen was held by a strong
outpost of Americans watching the British at New Brunswick. There were
minor engagements in the vicinity.
At 11.2 miles State 27 turns L. in front of the FRANKLIN SCHOOL, making an S-turn under a bridge of the Pennsylvania R.R. and then over a
bridge of the Lehigh Valley freight line to Perth Amboy, after which a
sharp R. turn is made. On the latter railroad was made the first installation
of automatic switch control, and it was on this line that Edison experimented with wireless telephony.
The highway runs through a flat and fertile farming country.
At 14.3 m. is the junction with an asphalted road.
Right on this road is STELTON, 0.5 miles (110 alt., 700 pop.), a residential
community, formerly called Baptist Road. It was later named for the Stelle family,
descendants of a French Huguenot who came to Staten Island about 1670. The
Baptists in Stelton in 1689 organized the second Baptist congregation in New Jersey.
NORTH STELTON, 2 miles, celebrated its 25th anniversary as a cooperative community in 1937. The origin of the colony was a series of advertisements in the old
New York Call in the summer of 1,912, urging heat-worn city dwellers to "get
back to the land." By October a small group of German Socialists and other enthusiasts had, with the advice of George Littlefield, raised $8,000 and made plans
for the purchase of a farm. The Letson farm and manor-house were selected upon
the recommendation of the New Jersey State Agricultural Experiment Station, and
a small band of settlers spent the winter on the tract. The group had formed the
Fellowship Farm Cooperative Association, under which each member leased and
individually farmed an acreage in proportion to the number of shares held; 11
years later deeds were granted. The farms were not successful on the whole, although poultry-raising became popular. Many of the colonists built bungalows on
their plots and continued to commute to jobs in New York and other cities. Such
community enterprises as a store and a bus line gradually passed into private
control, largely because of the unwillingness of the democratically minded but inexperienced cooperators to delegate full authority to a competent management. During
the depression, however, the colony established a cooperative garment factory that
was operated successfully. An efficient volunteer fire company, housed in a building
erected by the colonists, plays an important part in North Stelton's social life.
Established in about the same period was the adjoining Francisco Ferrar Colony,
built around a progressive school with a philosophy that was predominantly
anarchistic. Among the teachers in the Ferrar School were Manuel Komroff, Will
Durant, and Rockwell Kent. The institution is still functioning as the Stelton
Modern School.
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