Wayne Savings Bank Welcomes You
Back To Wayne Township Circa 1921
Complete Research Paper
To commemorate our 75th Anniversary, Wayne Savings Bank commissioned famed New Jersey artist Ann Reeves to create a map showing the township as it looked in the year we were founded. By conducting inter-views, taking drives, and doing extensive research with the help of both the Wayne Public Library and the Wayne Historical Society, Ms. Reeves completed her painting, which has now been programmed for the internet.
The fertile valley in which Wayne of 1921 is nestled is perfect for both dairy farming and agriculture. Although the railroad brought the beginnings of industrialization in the mid-nineteenth century - with saw mills, cider mills, gunpowder manufacturing, and brickyards springing up - truck and dairy farming remains at the heart of our economy.
The top of the map faces east; north is to the left. In the far distance to the east is High Mountain. The road going down to the left is the Hamburg Turnpike, and halfway down it we'll drive past the Preakness School (red) and the No. 2 School (white); just down the road (on the south side) is the Van Riper house. If we drive back up and turn left at the Preakness School onto Berdan Avenue, we'll come to the white-columned Van Riper-Hopper house and the small Van Duyn house. If we had stayed on the Turnpike and turned right onto Church Lane (between Alps Road and Valley Road), we would have come to the Preakness Reformed Church.
But let's get back on the pike and head west again. There's the Schuyler-Colfax house (red with white columns), and there's where Pompton Lake feeds into the Pompton River after roaring over the Pompton Falls.
The road in the middle of the map is Ratzer Road, and at the very western end of it is the Pequannock) School. The small stream below the school is a feeder to the famous Morris Canal. If we follow the feeder south, we end up at Mountain View; here the trains stop to let off people from New York who come each summer to vacation on the beautiful Pompton Rive r- The Mountain View Hotel, the large white building that stands on the end of Mountain View Boulevard across from the Morris Canal, dominates the center of the Township of Wayne, the hotel is such a draw to city dwellers wishing to escape the summer swelter of the city that bungalows have been built along the river to accommodate the overflow of vacationers.
That long log building east of the hotel on Parish Drive That's the Community House, where the Wayne Fire Department is headquartered. Off to the south you can see the smoke coming from the brick kilns. They sprang up because the clay brought from Mountain View is perfect for brick making,- the clay is brought from open pits to tempering pits, where it's mixed with sand and water molded, then dried in the kilns.
East between Valley Road and Totowa Road is the famous Dey Mansion (red). And on Parish Drive is the Parish Mansion (white). La Grand Parish had vast holding in the area, and he generously left much of them to the township.
Well, that's about the end of our tour. Except, of course, to note the fact that the history of Wayne Township is still being written and will continue to be written - by those of us who proudly live here and work here.
Take Your Buggy To ...
High Mountain
Fire Department On Parish Drive
Historical "1921" Sites Of The Internet
Developed for Wayne Savings Bank by 