The Town

South Orange Village is a township in Essex County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 16,964. Seton Hall University is located in South Orange.

The town is one of only a few in New Jersey to retain gas light street illumination (others include Riverton, Palmyra, Glen Ridge and some parts of Orange). The gaslight has long been the symbol of South Orange (together with the distinctive Village Hall); a local tavern, the Gaslight, is named for them. Many of the major roads in town do have modern mercury vapor streetlights (built into gaslight frames), but most of the residential sections of the town are still gaslit. A proposal to replace all the gaslights in town with electric streetlights was explored as both a cost-saving and security measure during the 1970s. And although the changeover to electric was rejected at the time, the light output of the lamps was subsequently increased to address the concern that the streets of South Orange were too dimly lit. Be that as it may, there have been claims that South Orange has more operating gaslights than any other community in the United States.

Architecture is extremely varied. Most of the town is single-family wood framed houses, but there are a few apartment buildings from various eras as well as townhouse-style condominiums of mostly more recent vintage. Houses cover a range that includes every common style of the Mid-Atlantic United States since the late nineteenth century, and in sizes that range from brick English Cottages to giant Mansard-roofed mansions. Tudor, Victorian, Colonial, Ranch, Modern, and many others are all to be found. Most municipal government structures date from the 1920s, with a few being of more modern construction.

Many residents commute to New York City, but others work locally or in other parts of New Jersey. South Orange has a central business district with restaurants, banks, and other retail and professional services. There are a few small office buildings, but no large-scale enterprise other than Seton Hall University.

The town has a municipal swimming pool open to all residents. Residents may purchase a Photo I.D. badge for an annual fee of $20, which provides access to the South Orange Community Pool and full access to other community facilities and programs; non-residents may use the pool for a small fee on a per visit basis on a guest pass that must be purchased by a resident. The non-resident also must go to the pool with a resident. In most area towns, municipal pool memberships are restricted or costly, but the pool in South Orange was built on land willed to the town for common use. The original pool, built in the 1920s, was reportedly the first free community pool to be built in the United States. It was replaced by an Olympic-size pool in 1972.

The town was the first in the nation to have an Affinity credit card scheme, the idea of the municipal affinity credit card being originated by former village president William Calabrese.

When the town was wired for telephones and electricity in the early 20th century, the poles and wires were not allowed to run along the curb lines of streets as they do in most towns. In some sections they run along property lines in the middle of blocks, and in others they run underground. This is aesthetically pleasing but complicates access to the lines, and it delayed the introduction of cable television. Occasional proposals to replace gas lights with electric lights run across the obstacle that there is no source of electric power along the streets.

South Orange and Maplewood share one of the largest online communities in the nation, featuring a very active message board at www.maplewoodonline.com.

South Orange's full official name is the "Township of South Orange Village." This name was originally adopted in lieu of the Village of South Orange because it allowed South Orange to receive more federal aid that was directed to Townships during the 1970s as many federal authorities were unfamiliar with the New Jersey municipal system, in which a township is not formally different from any other municipal designation. Other municipalities in New Jersey also adopted similar strategies, notably the Township of the Borough of Verona.

South Orange was the first municipality in New Jersey to recognize civil unions for homosexual couples. Exactly one hour after unions became legal in South Orange, they were recognized in neighboring Maplewood.

The News-Record weekly newspaper reports on both South Orange and Maplewood, and there are other shared institutions as well.

Back To Top Of Page

Education

The township shares a common school system, the South Orange-Maplewood School District, with the adjacent town of Maplewood. The district has a single high school, Columbia High School, located in Maplewood (but nearly on the town border), two middle schools and several elementary schools in each town.

Schools in the district (with 2004-05 school enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are:

Elementary Schools (K-5)

Clinton Elementary School (K-5, 464 students) - Maplewood

Jefferson Elementary School (3-5, 386 students) - Maplewood

Marshall Elementary School (K-2, 382 students) - South Orange

Seth Boyden Elementary School (K-5, 485 students) - Maplewood

South Mountain Elementary School / Annex (K-5, 513 students) - South Orange

Tuscan Elementary School (K-5, 578 students) - Maplewood

Middle Schools (6-8)

Maplewood Middle School (720 students) - Maplewood

South Orange Middle School (748 students) - South Orange

High School (9-12)

Columbia High School (2,021 students) - Maplewood

Higher Education

Seton Hall University is located in South Orange. The University was founded in 1856 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark and named after Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint. South Orange has a college feel with this Division I university located along the east side of South Orange Avenue, the community's main boulevard. The school serves approximately 9,700 students.

Back To Top Of Page

Local arts

South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) is located at 1 SOPAC Way, nestled right next to the NJ Transit South Orange station. The performance venue is a 415-seat proscenium theater, with a 5-screen Clearview Cinemas movie theater, and a dance studio/rental space in the same complex.

SOPAC presents music, family, dance, theater, and comedy programs throughout the year. Notable artists and companies who have performed at SOPAC include Paquito D'Rivera, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Olympia Dukakis, Richie Havens, Yo-Yo Ma, Eddie Palmieri, Madeleine Peyroux, Paula Poundstone, Anoushka Shankar, Phoebe Snow, Angie Stone, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Dionne Warwick, and Nancy Wilson.

The plans for SOPAC were first spoken of during the mid-1990s, and in the early 2000s the project was set into motion, with Seton Hall University partnering with SOPAC and construction in August 2004. The complex opened on November 3, 2006 to the general public.

SOPAC is still relatively young for an arts organization, but is making big strides in programming, arts education, and reaching out to the community. Partnerships with NJ-based companies like Lydia Johnson Dance and Battery Factory Theater have expanded their arts education initiative. SOPAC also partners with Seton Hall University to present Seton Hall Arts Council events throughout the year. These events include the Classical Concert Series, Jazz 'n the Hall, and Seton Hall Theatre--student theater productions.

Back To Top Of Page

Local media

WSOU-FM, "Seton Hall's Pirate Radio", is a non-commercial radio station licensed to South Orange and has studios and offices on the campus of Seton Hall University. The station operates at 89.5 FM.

Popular culture references

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (October 2007)

Teenagers from Columbia High School were the first to play the game of Ultimate Frisbee.

New York Yankee greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played at least one exhibition game during the 1920s for the South Orange baseball team at Cameron Field. Reportedly, the game was attended by more than 12,000 fans and featured a tape-measure home run by Gehrig, which was noted to have traveled over the railroad tracks before hitting a house on Vose Avenue, approximately 600 feet away, where an apartment house stands presently.

Portions of the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete were filmed in South Orange for the first season and part of the second, ending with the episode Halloweenie.

Actor and director Zach Braff was born and raised in South Orange, and filmed portions of his film Garden State in South Orange and surrounding areas.

Back To Top Of Page

Notable residents

Notable current and former residents of South Orange include:

Paul Auster (born 1948), author known for works blending absurdism and crime fiction.

Robert "Kool" Bell (born 1950), lead singer of Kool and the Gang.

Kelly Bishop (born 1944), actress, current resident.

Zach Braff (born 1975), actor on the TV series Scrubs and writer/director of the movie Garden State.

Andre Braugher (born 1962), actor, current resident.

Chris Browne (born 1952), cartoonist, Hägar the Horrible.

Mark Bryant (born 1965), former NBA player.

John Davidson (born 1941), rented in neighboring Maplewood in 1998, then bought a home in South Orange in 1999. He moved to the Jersey shore in 2006.

James Delany (born 1948), commissioner of the Big Ten Conference.

John Dossett, actor, current resident.

Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886), painter.

John Franklin Fort (1852-1920), 33rd Governor of New Jersey, from 1908-1911.

Lauryn Hill (born 1975), musician, solo and with the The Fugees.

Adam Horovitz (born 1966), member of Beastie Boys.

Wyclef Jean (born 1972), member of The Fugees.

James Kaplan, novelist.

Stacey Kent (born 1968), singer and recording artist Blue Note Records.

Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956), sex researcher, who moved to the town in 1904.

Lee Leonard (born 1929), journalist, current resident, husband of Kelly Bishop.

Sean McCourt, Broadway actor.

Walter I. McCoy (1859-1933), represented New Jersey's 8th congressional district from 1911 to 1913, and the 9th district from 1913 to 1914. Served as village trustee from 1893-1895, 1901-1905, and in 1910.

Michele Pawk, actor, current resident.

Thomas J. Preston, Jr. (1862-1955), Professor of Archeology at Princeton University. He married Frances Cleveland, widow of President Grover Cleveland.

James Rebhorn (born 1948), actor, Independence Day, Meet the Parents.

Vin Rock, member of rap group Naughty by Nature.

Andrew Shue (born 1967), actor, ClubMom founder.

Elisabeth Shue (born 1963), actress.Joel Silver (born 1952), director and producer.

Tony Smith (1912-1980), sculptor.

Kevin Spacey (born 1959), actor.

Jeff Van Note (born 1946), former Atlanta Falcons player and Georgia Tech broadcaster.

Dionne Warwick (born 1940), singer.

Max Weinberg (born 1951), drummer for E-Street Band and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Aaron D. Wyner (1939-1997), information theorist noted for his contributions in coding theory.

Back To Top Of Page

What is now South Orange was part of a territory purchased from the Lenape Native Americans in 1666 by Robert Treat, who founded Newark that year on the banks of the Passaic River. The unsettled areas north and west of Newark were at first referred to as the uplands. South Orange was called the Chestnut Hills for a time.

There are two claimants to the first English settlement in present-day South Orange. In 1677 brothers Joseph and Thomas Brown began clearing land for a farm in the area northwest of the junction of two old trails that are now South Orange Avenue and Ridgewood Road. A survey made in 1686 states, "note this Land hath a House on it, built by Joseph Brown and Thomas Brown, either of them having an equal share of it" located at the present southwest corner of Tillou Road and Ridgewood Road. Minutes of a Newark town meeting of September 27, 1680, record that "Nathaniel Wheeler, Edward Riggs, and Joseph Riggs, have a Grant to take up Land upon the Chesnut Hill by Raway River near the Stone House". The phrasing shows that a stone house already existed near (not on) the property. Joseph Riggs (seemingly the son of Edward Riggs) had a house just south of the Browns' house, at the northwest corner of South Orange Avenue and Ridgewood Road, according to a road survey of 1705. The same road survey locates Edward Riggs's residence near Millburn and Nathaniel Wheeler's residence in modern West Orange at the corner of Valley Road and Main Street.

Wheeler's property in South Orange extended east of the Rahway River including the site of an old house now known as the "Stone House", standing on the north side of South Orange Avenue just to the west of Grove Park. By 1756 or earlier this property was owned by Samuel Pierson. A survey of adjoining property in 1767 mentions "Pierson's house" forming accidentally the earliest documentation of a house on the property, which may be much older. Bethuel Pierson, son of Samuel, lived in this house and when he inherited it in 1773/74 he was said to live "at the mountain plantation by a certain brook called Stone House Brook." Sometime during his ownership (he died in 1791) "Bethuel Pierson had a stone addition added to his dwelling-house, which he caused to be dedicated by religious ceremonies". This would appear to be the stone-walled portion of the "Stone House".[6] Stone House Brook runs west along the north side of the east-west road, past the "Stone House" and joining the Rahway River at about the location of the Brown and Riggs houses already noted. The oldest parts of the Pierson house are the oldest surviving structure in South Orange.

A deed of 1800 locates a property as being in "the Township of Newark, in the Parish of Orange, at a place called South Orange", marking the end of the name Chestnut Hills. Orange had been named after the ruler of England, William of Orange. Most of modern South Orange became part of Orange Township in 1806, part of Clinton Township in 1834, and part of South Orange Township in 1861. Gordon's Gazetteer circa 1830 describes the settlement as having "about 30 dwellings, a tavern and store, a paper mill and Presbyterian church".

A country resort called the Orange Mountain House was established in 1847 just north of town. Guests could enjoy the "water cure" from natural spring water and walk in the grounds that extended up the slope of South Mountain. The main house was right on Ridgewood Road. The hotel burned down in 1890. The only remnants today are the names of Mountain Station and the Mountain House Road leading west from it to the site of the hotel.

South Orange could be reached by the Morris and Essex Railroad which opened in 1837 between Newark and Morristown. As of 1869, the M&E became part of the main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad which ran from Hoboken to Buffalo with through trains to Chicago.

The Montrose neighborhood was developed after the Civil War. Its large houses on generous lots attracted wealthy families from Newark and New York City during the decades from 1870 to 1900. The Orange Lawn Tennis Club was founded in 1880 at a location in Montrose, and in 1886 it was the location of the first US national tennis championships. The club moved to larger grounds on Ridgewood Road in 1916. Major tournament events were held at the club throughout the grass court era, and even into the mid-1980s professional events would occasionally be held there.

What is now the Baird Community House was up until about 1920 the clubhouse for a golf course that encompassed what is now Meadowlands Park. In fact, until regrading was performed during the 1970s, the outline of one of the course's sandtraps was still visible near the base of Flood's Hill, a spot that has historically been one of the favorite sleigh riding spots in Essex County.

The construction of Village Hall in 1894 and the "old" library building in 1896 indicate how the village was growing by that date. Horsecar service from Newark started in 1865, running via South Orange Avenue to the station. Electric trolley cars began running the line in 1893 and by about 1900 a branch of this line also ran down Valley Street into Maplewood. Another separate trolley line, eventually dubbed the "Swamp Line", ran from the west side of the station north through what is now park land and along Meadowbrook Lane into West Orange where it ended at Main St. An old postcard photo shows a station shelter at Montrose Ave. The DL&W rebuilt the railroad through town in 1914-1916, raising the tracks above street level and opening new station buildings at South Orange and Mountain Station. In September 1930, a frail Thomas Edison (he would die about a year later) inaugurated electric train service on the M&E between Hoboken and South Orange, with further extensions of service to Morristown and Dover being initiated over the coming months.

The South Orange Library Association was organized by William Beebe, president of the Republican Club, where on November 14, 1864, a group of men and women met. Books were donated and the library was established in a corner room on the second floor of the Republican Club where it remained until 1867 when it was moved to a second floor room of the building next door on South Orange Avenue, near Sloan Street. It stayed there until 1884, when the building, with the library still on its second floor, was moved by horses up South Orange Avenue to the northwest corner of Scotland Road. Although supported as yet only by members' dues and a few gifts of money which were put into an endowment fund, in 1886 a new association was formed to establish a free circulating library and reading room which took over the loan books and other property of the old association. It was during this period, before Village Hall was built, that Village Trustees met in the Library's room. On May 1, 1889, the library was moved to a ground floor space at 59 South Orange Avenue.

At an annual meeting in 1895, Library Trustees considered the question of obtaining a library building and Eugene V. Connett's offer of a library site on the corner of Scotland Road and Taylor Place, with condition that $7,500 be subscribed, was accepted and the subscription was met. On May 8, 1896, the library was moved into the building on that corner. A referendum held on April 27, 1926, showed that citizens had voted ten to one in favor of the town taking over full support of the library. It thereupon became "The South Orange Public Library." In February, 1929, the Village Trustees passed an ordinance providing funds to construct a rear wing on the library and to provide a Children's Room in the basement, book stacks and a balcony on the floor above, together with rehabilitation work on the older part of the building. In November of 1968, the new library building on the corner of Scotland Road and Comstock Place was dedicated.

Good transportation and a booming economy caused South Orange and neighboring towns to begin a major transformation in the 1920s into bedroom communities for Newark and New York City. Large houses were built in the blocks around the Orange Lawn Tennis club, while in other areas, especially south of South Orange Avenue, more modest foursquare houses were put up for the growing American middle class. The only large area not developed by 1930 was the high ground west of Wyoming Avenue.

There were at one time two rock quarries within the village supplying trap rock for construction. Kernan's operated as late as the 1980s at the top of Tillou Road. The town's other larger businesses were lumber and coal yards clustered around the railroad station that supplied them. The town's business district is still located in the blocks just east of the station.

The old Morris and Essex Railroad is still operated today by NJ Transit. Midtown Direct, initiated in 1996, offers service directly into Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan, and has since caused a surge in real estate prices as the commute time to midtown dropped from about 50 minutes to 30, as the service eliminated the need for passengers to transfer to PATH trains at Hoboken. As a result, demand for commuter parking permits in lots adjoining the train and bus stations is extremely high. 

Historic designations

South Orange is proud of its historical focus and has a number of places listed on the State and national Historic Register.

Old Stone House by the Stone House Brook (ID#1364), 219 South Orange Avenue

Baird Community Center (ID#3146), 5 Mead Street

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception (ID#4121), 400 South Orange Avenue

Eugene V. Kelly Carriage House (Father Vincent Monella Art Center) (ID#1360), Seton Hall University, South Orange Avenue

Montrose Park Historic District (ID#3147), roughly bounded by South Orange Avenue, Holland Road, the City of Orange boundary and the NJ Transit railroad right-of-way

Mountain Station Railroad Station (ID#1361), 449 Vose Avenue

Old Main Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Historic District (ID#3525), Morris and Essex Railroad Right-of-Way (NJ Transit Morristown Line), from Hudson, Hoboken City to Warren, Washington Township, and then along Warren Railroad to the Delaware River.

Prospect Street Historic District (ID#4), bounded by South Orange Avenue on the north, Tichenor Avenue on the east, Roland Avenue on the south and railroad track on the west

South Orange Fire Department (ID#41), First and Sloan avenues

South Orange Railroad Station (ID#1362), 19 Sloan Street

South Orange Village Hall (ID#1363), corner South Orange Avenue and Scotland Road

Temple Sharey Tefilo Israel (ID#78), 432 Scotland Road

Back To Top Of Page

External links

• The Township of South Orange Village
• Main Street South Orange Inc. (Not-for-profit community-based downtown improvement organization)
• National Center for Education Statistics data for the South Orange-Maplewood School District
• Orange Lawn Tennis Club
• South Orange Historical and Preservation Society
• South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race (Community organization providing information about town for prospective buyers and organizing events for current residents)
• South Orange-Maplewood School District
• South Orange-Maplewood School District's 2006-07 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
• South Orange Performing Arts Center
• The South Orange Public Library