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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
Right on this road is CRANBURY, 1.4 miles (110 alt., 1,278 pop.), a center of
a potato-growing district. It has early-American charm, plus such earmarks of more
recent development as an apartment house and a Lions Club. The main street is
lined with old frame houses, some of them converted into stores, others the homes
retired farmers. The post office is almost concealed within the bulky MASONIC
HALL (L). Cranbury was settled in 1682 and here, 50 years later, David Brainerd,
the young follower of George Whitefield, often preached to the Indians under one
of the village elms. After his death of tuberculosis in 1747 at the age of 29, Brainerd's diary was an inspiration to many another "witness to the spirit."
On the northern edge of the town is (R) the L. P. CURTIN HOUSE, easily recog-nized by the white frame walls and the iron grillwork on the porch. Aaron Bu:.
slept here in 1804 while fleeing from New York to Philadelphia after wounding
Alexander Hamilton in the fatal duel. In summer the blossoms of the giant lotus on
BRAINERD LAKE form one of the county's most beautiful spectacles. South of
the lake is CRANBURY INN, a long, large, white frame house with a porch
across the front. In 1780 the inn began to supply meat and drink to travelers on:
what was then the old York Road. Two of these wayfarers were Washington and
Hamilton. The well-proportioned FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, built in 1734, 15
painted an immaculate white; it has two fluted columns and a graceful lantern. In
the well-kept cemetery behind the church, dates from 1758 are on the gravestones.
The highway by-passes Cranbury (R) through fields and across the eastern end of Brainerd Lake (R).
At 13.7 miles, at a traffic circle, is the junction (R) with Cranbury's main
street and a concrete road (L).
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