Part A - Mendham Borough

MENDHAM BOROUGH HISTORIC DISTRICT……..
EVOLVING WITH THE TIMES
T
he Mendham Borough Village Center has appeared on the earliest maps of the area, long before the
formal Historic District was created. The original Historic District created in 2000 included most
all of the properties shown on the original maps that evolved through the 1800s and early 1900s.
19
The
original District covered the central crossroads of the village and extended as far as the area nineteenth
century maps illustrate as “Mendham, P.O.,” the original village core containing the post office.
Through expansions up to 2011, additiona
additionall homes along Main Street, Hilltop and Orchard were added to
create an overall period of significance for the District up to WWII. It was after this time that significant
development and subdivision took place in the Borough. The compilation of religious,
religious residential, and
commercial buildings that have established Mendham’s village character are well preserved today.
Mendham Borough was established in 1906 for the purpose of establishing a municipal water system.
Prior to that it had been part of Mendham Township which over the years included present day Mendham
Township, Chester Borough and Township and Randolph Township. The rolling hills characteristic of
the Borough give rise to two of New Jersey’s major rivers, the North Branch of the Raritan River and the
Passaic River. The Passaic actually bbegins
egins within the bounds of the Historic District, and it carries
important historical associations as a major reference point for early maps.
The area of Mendham’s Historic District covers fairl
fairlyy level land, and stretches along Route 24, which
today is known as East and West Main Street by Mendham Borough
Borough, and Route 517 by Morris County. At
various times in history, the road has been called Washington Turnpike, Mendham--Morristown Road,
and William Penn Highway. The east
east-west
west roadway is well over 200 years old and was originally formed
as a stagecoach route between Easton, Pennsylvania and Morristown, NJ
NJ. The north--south intersection
of the District which
hich divides Route 24 into East and West Main Street is a very early roadway as well.
South of Main Street, it is known as Hilltop Road leading to Hilltop Church and on toward Somerset.
North of Main Street, the road is called Mountain Avenue heading tow
toward
ard a ridge roughly paralleling
Route 24, sometimes called “Mendham Mountain”.
The Beginning……
T
he earliest land transactions in Mendham date to 1708, but permanent settlers did not arrive until
the 1720s. The first settlement was made west of the present Borough, along the stream of India
Brook. A meeting house was erected there around 1730, and a ggrist
rist mill set up along the creek. The
settlement called Roxiticus, and now Ralston
Ralston, remained a small hamlet. It was soon overtaken in size and
importance by a settlement which moved
up the hill from the creek and to the east.
This was Mendham, which had fixed its
center by the early 1740s and in 1749,
gave its name to one of Morris County’s
original townships.
Through the eighteenth century, Mendham
was settled by families from New England
and Long Island. The town received its
name from Mendon, Massachusetts,
chusetts, home
of Ebenezer Byram, one of the prominent
early settlers
ers of Mendham. Ebenezer and
his family established a tavern, the Black
Horse Inn, in the center of the village.
Much enlarged and altered to meet current
needs, the Black Horse Inn still stands to
mark the center of Mendham, and has
been a continuous use as an inn and
tavern since 1742.
In 1745, Byram was the leader in establishing a new church
church, or meeting house on the site of the present
Hilltop Church. Byram persuaded John Cary, a carpenter
rpenter and neighbor in Massachusetts to come to
Mendham to build a new church. The meeting house he built was the center of town life. It was used as a
hospital for the Continental Army in 1779
1779-80
80 while Washington’s troops wintered at nearby Jockey
Hollow.
ow. The old meetinghouse was struck by lightning in 1813, and demolished in 1816 to make way for
a new church. Two more fires and reconstructions of the church preceded the pres
present
ent Hilltop Church
built in 1860.
The village of Mendham played a part in the
American Revolution, not only in caring for
the sick of the army. A village resident,
Lebbeus Dod, made and repaired guns for the
Continental Army at his home which still
stands
nds in the western part of the District.
D
After the Revolutionary War, a generation of
relative inactivity and poverty affected
Mendham, but as the nineteenth century
dawned activity began. In 1806 a company
was chartered to build
ild a turnpike from
Phillipsburg/Easton
/Easton to Morristown. Known as
the Washington Turnpike, it passed through
Mendham following the older stage route.
The regular passage of travelers and good
over the turnpike prompted growth of the local
inn, and Ebenezer Byram’s Black Horse Inn
was transformed to a gambrel-roofed,
gambrel
Federal
style structure.
(Continued in Part B)