Florham Park Historical Society

tHE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF Florham Park 

Today's Borough of Florham Park may be categorized as a community consisting almost entirely of post-World War Two middle-class suburban development.  Without a true "downtown" - in the traditional sense - and with no public school beyond a Middle School, Florham Park developed as a friendly community of residential homes.  There has been no heavy industry, no railroad, and, for many years the town could not have been regarded as a "destination."  Throughout its growth through the Twentieth Century, Florham Park could not be regarded as a site of historical buildings, in any appreciable concentration.  The opposite is true, and Florham Park is today rich in scattered sites that reflect the community's rural past.  There is even a working farm that, with the establishment of the Interstate Highway system, can be reached by automobile in less than an hour from midtown Manhattan in New York City.

In the Eighteenth Century, the area now known as Florham Park Borough was part of the Town of Hanover.  A small settlement called "Hoppingtown" was formed by members drawn from the families Campfield, Canfield, Fish, Hedges, Hopping, and Richards.  The rich land between the Passaic River and the Black Meadows attracted farmers, who prospered after the American Revolution.  The manufacture of brooms was an important local industry, giving rise to "Broomtown" as a nickname for the town.

The name Florham Park is derived from the activities of the Gilded Age, when Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, granddaughter of Cornelius  Vanderbilt, and her husband Hamilton McKown Twombly established a country estate here.  That estate, "Florham," was named by combining Florence and Hamilton.  Dr. Leslie Ward, a founder of Prudential Insurance, established his own country estate.

In 1899, an important political milestone was taken in the history of the town, when Florham Park became a Borough.  By then, Twombly and Ward owned half of the real estate and employed 80% of the people - and paid 90% of the taxes.   The Twombly estate, known as Florham Farms, survives as the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University, which straddles the towns of Madison and Florham Park.  Ward's estate, along Brooklake Road, remains what is today the Brooklake Country Club.  The residences in that part of the Borough, courtesy of Twombly and Ward, were in an Eclectic and Colonial Revival style, and continued during the Depression without pause, attested to by the name of Roosevelt Boulevard.  During the Revolution, some of General Washington's Continental Army forces were billeted and fed at today's Fish Farm along Brooklake Road.

in 1831, a public school building was built and, from 1866, the Little Red Schoolhouse served the community beyond education, including Red Cross sewing activities during World War One.  It was also the site of dances and community meetings.  In 1935, The Historical Society of Florham Park was founded, specifically to preserve the Little Red Shoolhouse and collect artifacts documenting the community's history.  Today, thanks to the generosity of many town residents, the Schoolhouse collection includes farming implements, early household objects, and broom-making machinery, connecting modern Florham Park to its agricultural past.  Interesting items in the collection inlude a reconditioned period sleigh and a dress worn at a social event that honored Martha Washington. 

The Florham Park Rotary Club is one of more than 35,000 clubs in the global Rotary International network, with Rotary Clubs in 200 countries.  In Florham Park, the local Rotary Club - with members inspired by the credo "Service Above Self" - dedicates its fund-raising activities to a continuing, sustaining, scholarship fund that benefits graduating high school seniors whose young lives demonstrate community service, in addition to scholarship achievement.