Montclair

Images of America: New Jersey

by Elizabeth Shepard, Royal F. Shepard Jr.

For a century and a half, Montclair has been known as one of America's most attractive residential suburbs. Yet for an equally long period, it was a simple, rural settlement. As one historian put it, when the trains came in 1856 they "completely changed the character of our town from a sparsely settled agricultural region to a community of elegant suburban homes." Elegant homes remain, and at the opening of the latest century, they lured a new surge of refugees from Gotham. Some of the finest homes are shown in these pages. This history meanwhile reflects the rich mix of race, ethnicity, and opportunity that went into the making of the town. Montclair presents various aspects of the town, from Washington's Headquarters, to Italian immigrants laying pipes, to the No. 29 trolley climbing past the Food Fair.

Genres: History

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2003

Reviews

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this photohistory of my town. As usual, the best part was finding pictures of buildings that still exist and hearing about their history and seeing them surrounded by fields. My street, St. Lukes Place, was featured with the first St. Lukes Church and no other buildings.

On another note, I was excited to discover that Lucy Stone, the suffragist and abolitionist who is best known as the first American woman to keep her maiden name after marriage, had lived in Montclair briefly with her husband, Henry Blackwell. That name rang a bell and indeed, he was the brother of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to graduate from medical school in England and become a doctor. I feel a historical novel coming on! I love local history.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a number of the "Images in America" series and have a feel for the general format that is typical. You get a mix of historic pictures of people and places, from early in the location history onward.

This book was different. It was mainly focused on pictures of businesses. Most historic pictures were from the 60's and 70's, despite the town history going back to settling in the 1900s.

There also are a confusing amount of pictures from 2005 of unremarkable places. Who wants to see the Elephant Bar in 2005? In some cases it was to compare to an older picture, but there was a decent amount that weren't.

Speaking of the comparison shots, there were several where the before and after weren't of the historic building versus the new, but instead of a building halfway demolished versus the new. No photo of the actual original.

Overall this left me confused, disappointed, and wanting for more history of the town.