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Home, Home on the (Morris) Plains 2

by Erin Feith, Coordinator of Research & Visitor Engagement
January 13, 2025

From its agricultural past to its bustling downtown, Morris Plains has long been an industrious community that made its mark on Morris County’s history, as captured in early 20th century postcards.

For more, check out Home, Home on the (Morris Plains)

A longtime feature of the landscape near Central Avenue, Thompson Pond was originally the site of Thomas Pierson’s sawmill. The sawmill stood from arrival in the area in 1685 to 1882 when the tract was divided into two estates : Brookbank, owned by Arthur Thompson, and Stephen Whitney’s Fairlawn.

 

Water power assisted the growth of industry in 19th-century Morris Plains, leading to the presence of six forges and a variety of mills in the area, including F.W. Jacqui’s Gristmill. As the 20th century dawned, these water sources, like Jacqui’s Pond, also became the site of wintertime recreation.

 

The so-named “new frame schoolhouse” was built on West Hanover Avenue in 1866 as a replacement to the “old stone schoolhouse” that had previously occupied the site. By 1908, it too would be replaced by a newer, “new public schoolhouse” that was moved closer to the growing town’s center.

 

The Gilded Age brought millionaires seeking a bucolic atmosphere to Morris Plains. Among them was Mutual Life Insurance Company president, Richard A. McCurdy. He constructed a sprawling 475-acre estate known as Dover Ridge in 1884. Before it was destroyed by fire in 1934, the estate became home of the Idlewild Country Club under the ownership of Lewis Grove.

 

Located on the corner of Jacqui Avenue, this structure has long acted as a fixture of business in the community, beginning as Jacob Young’s provisions store in the 1700s. The first mayor of Morris Plains, Daniel Merchant, clerked at the shop under storekeeper Isaac Clark before purchasing it himself in 1887.

 

By the turn of the century, downtown Morris Plains became a hub of business, as seen in the example of the Davis Bakery and Lunch Room, which became the Morris Plains Bakery in 1920.

 

Signaling further development, a new public school was constructed in 1923, and the 1908 schoolhouse became home to the Fire Association and Police Department. While the original structure was lost to fire in 1940, the land subsequently became the site of a new municipal building.

 

Just ahead of its incorporation as a borough in 1926, this bustling downtown scene captured the area’s development from early mills and agriculture to a diverse array of businesses and community institutions like the Morris Plains Post Office.

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