 |  | |
 |
|  |
 |  | |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
|
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
PLAINFIELD, 13.2 miles (l00 alt., 34,442 pop.), is a busy commuters'
town with smart shops and substantial manufactures. Here are all types
of dwellings from the huge, French-roofed, high-ceiled Victorian mansion
of the 1870's to the most modern Cape Cod-type cottage. The QUAKER
MEETING HOUSE (R), Watchung Ave. (open daily by request on premises), a plain brick structure with a small burial ground adjoining,
was built in 1788. At the MARTINE HOMESTEAD (private), 950 Cedar
Brook Rd., the banker-poet, Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908),
lived as a child. A large part of the white, clapboarded, two-winged house
belongs to the original building erected on the same site in 1717.
WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS (open daily 10-5), NW. cor. W. Front
St. and Washington Ave., built 1746, was the dwelling of Deacon Nathaniel Drake, a staunch patriot. Washington stopped here while on reconnoitering expeditions into the plains E. of the town. The two-and-one-half-story, white, clapboarded Dutch Colonial building, oldest in the city,
is occupied by the Plainfield and North Plainfield Historical Society.
GREEN BROOK PARK, entrance at Plainfield Ave. and W. Front St.,
extends 1.2 miles along both banks of Green Brook. It was the site of
Blue Hills military post. a large earthworks fort guarding the paths to the
American stronghold in the Watchung Mts. during the Revolution. CEDAR
BROOK PARK, Somerset Ave. at the southern end of Plainfield, features a
SHAKESPEARE GARDEN: trees, flowers, and shrubs found in Stratford on
Avon and mentioned in Shakespeare's works have been planted here and
labeled. Opposite is the IRIS GARDEN with more than 5,000 plants of
1,200 varieties. Nearby is a large ORCHID GARDEN, and 60 flowering
dogwood trees.
|
|
|
Return To |
|
|
