Clik here to view.
Turtle Lake Cascades. Then and Now
Water features were one of the most photographed elements at Duke's Park - the early 20th-century estate of tobacco millionaire James B. Duke in Hillsborough, New Jersey. The Raritan River, Duke's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Camp Ajaybe - Princeton Hills Golf Club - Hillsborough Golf Club (1947 -...
What would you do if it was time for your annual summer vacation and you realized you just didn't have enough money to go anywhere or do anything? That was the question facing employees of the ABC...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Frog Fountain, Then and Now
The Frog Fountain was one of the early water features at Duke's Park, the Hillsborough Township, New Jersey estate of tobacco king James B. Duke. This playful pool featured perched frogs spraying...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DeCanto Shopping Center, Inc. (1961 - ?)
The reason for the question mark in the title of this piece is that much like the Ship of Theseus, DeCanto's is a paradox. With but one plank remaining from its earliest days (the barbershop) we can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lawson Goat Dairy (1954 - 1960)
A year after their marriage in 1937, Thurman and Mary Lawson moved to a 4-acre homestead on North Willow Road in Hillsborough. It was there that they raised a family that eventually grew to include...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Duke's Parkway Bridge, Then and Now
As part of James B. Duke's massive construction project at his Hillsborough, New Jersey estate at the beginning of the last century, he had all of the road bridges rebuilt in stone to fit the new motif...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad
The Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad - later a division of the Philadelphia and Reading and known in Central New Jersey today as the West Trenton Line - is one of the most important railroads in New...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Belle Mead Farm Colony and Sanatorium - Carrier Clinic (1910 - present)
Two hundred years ago, at the base of the Sourland Mountain on the border of Hillsborough and Montgomery Townships where the East Mountain Road met the road to Blawenburg, there was a tiny hamlet by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
His Visitor Was Dead...
Friends of Stephen P. Tallman began arriving at the foot of Liberty Street before 9 a.m. on the morning of June 25th, 1897. As they waited for the Central Railroad of New Jersey ferry that would take...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Farm Barn Stone Well House, Then and Now
Nearly all of the stone structures built at Duke Farms over a century ago - well houses, spring houses, summer houses, bridges, etc. - still exist today. They were a favorite of photographers in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Foothill Acres Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (1954 - present)
Foothill Acres Nursing Home - early 1960sDr. Samuel H. Husted received his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1929. In July 1930, he opened his own practice on North Bridge Street in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Enduring Mystery of Millstone's Secession
The Hillsborough Township Committee meeting minutes for June 7th and 8th, 1894, barely hint at it. Local newspapers published that spring are silent. The well-researched 1976 history "Portrait of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Family Feud at Frankfort, 1907
In the late afternoon of January 22, 1907, Morris "Max" Breen took a break from his chores to regale his friends with stories of his ongoing feud with Thomas Cox. Breen and Cox were rival shopkeepers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Duke Farms Bronzes, Then and Now
A small blurb in the May 3, 1902, issue of the New York Tribune contained the news that 200 pieces of bronze statuary - three railroad cars full - had just arrived at the James B. Duke estate in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Easton and Amboy - Lehigh Valley Railroad
Our story begins in 1851 when railroad entrepreneur Asa Packer became the majority stockholder in the stalled Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna Railroad (DLS&S) and changed the name to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Raritan Gate Fountain, Then and Now
While many features of Duke's Park - the early 20th century Hillsborough, New Jersey estate of tobacco magnate James B. Duke - are still present and available to be discovered by visitors almost a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Unsolved Murder of Philip Jankowitz, 1978
Two years before America was asking "who shot JR?" - the fictional millionaire oilman of TV's Dallas - Somerset County was asking "who bludgeoned PJ?" - Hillsborough's real-life millionaire recluse...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Hotel Asbestos (1919 - 1929)
Hear the phrase "asbestos hotel" in 2021 and you might be inclined to shout, "Yikes!" But to Hillsborough Township, New Jersey residents of the 1920s, those words provoked an entirely different...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Lovers' Tower, Then and Now
Located at the southern end of the historic core of Duke Farms, the stone structure known a century ago as The Lovers' Tower is still a popular photo spot for 21st-century tourists.Postcard circa...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Woods Tavern (circa 1738 - 1932)
Let's begin by lamenting that the one singular iconic structure that identified historic Hillsborough Township, New Jersey was lost in a fire 89 years ago. Variously renamed by owners-of-the-moment as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Somerville Quartermaster Sub-Depot (1942 - 1947)
A few weeks after the Belle Mead Army Service Forces Depot opened in August 1942, the Army officially announced that a second depot in Hillsborough was "rapidly nearing completion". This facility was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chris Lovering, Sourland Mountain Outlaw
It was the morning of Friday, August 21, 1896, and Somerset County Detective George Totten had just spent his second sleepless night alone in a snake-infested cave on the Sourland Mountain in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Anna Case - Roots in Hillsborough
Over the years people have asked me where Anna Case - the South Branch girl who became a national sensation as an operatic soprano, concert and recording artist, and radio and film star - fits in with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hillsborough Celebrates its Bicentennial, May 1971
Hillsborough, New Jersey received its royal charter on May 31, 1771. Two hundred years later, the township residents came together came together to celebrate their bicentennial.The week-long...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Loneliest Job in the World
I did not originate the "On Hillsborough" blog. In the months leading up to my first post appearing here on June 7, 2007, the blog was helmed by another Hillsborough resident - a former mayor and...
View Article