Highland Park W Department

Highland Park W Department Municipal Water Report Info

The Lenape people originally inhabited this hilly region along the gentle Raritan River, with their pathways crisscrossing the land. Among the earliest documented European settlers in Highland Park was Henry Greenland, who owned 384 acres and operated an inn along Mill Brook on the Assunpink Trail during the late 1600s. A portion of the Cenacle Retreat House on River Road is believed to be part of his establishment.

George Drake, Reverend John Drake, and Captain Francis Drake (relatives of the famous explorer) also settled in the area with a group of Baptist dissenters. During the early 1700s, wealthy Europeans acquired large land tracts, establishing an isolated farmstead development pattern that would continue for 150 years.

In 1685, John Inian purchased land on both banks of the Raritan River and built two landings downstream from the Assunpink Trail's ford. He established ferry service, redirecting the main road to his landing. Various owners operated this river crossing for generations until a toll bridge replaced the ferry in 1795. The wooden Albany Street Bridge was demolished in 1848 and rebuilt in 1853. The current stone arch road bridge was constructed in 1892, became part of the Lincoln Highway in 1914, and was widened in 1925.

In 1809, Reverend John H. Livingston, newly appointed president of Queen's College, acquired a 150-acre plot that became known as Livingston Manor. Today, a Greek Revival house stands at 81 Harrison Avenue surrounded by the Livingston Manor neighborhood. Owned by the Waldron family throughout most of the 20th century, it remains Highland Park's most prominent historic structure.

During the 1830s, both the Delaware and Raritan Canal and New Jersey Railroad were constructed. In 1836, the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company built a rail line terminating on Highland Park's side of the Raritan at a station called East New Brunswick, a nickname that persisted for years. The Camden and Amboy Railroad's 1838 bridge eliminated this station stop. The two-level wooden railroad bridge carried pedestrians and wagons on its lower level until its destruction by fire in 1878. An iron truss bridge was quickly built on extended stone piers, later replaced in 1902 by the 12-span stone arch railway bridge visible today.