A Brief Introduction

A Short History of Allentown, New Jersey

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The original inhabitants of the Allentown area were Native Americans of the Delaware Nation. Belonging to the Lenape-Unami Tribe, their particular totem-clan-symbol was the turtle. Native Americans were known by the streams along which they lived, therefore they were named the “Crosswicks” Indians – both creeks transversing Allentown are considered to be part of the Crosswicks Creek Watershed. Approximately 2,500 years ago, there were several known semi-permanent settlements in the area. A prehistoric Early Woodland Native American village was located along Doctors Creek downstream on a bluff toward what is now Breza Road. Found Native American artifacts, such as pottery and tools, indicate another settlement upstream along Indian Run Creek.
 
Allentown, included in Upper Freehold Township at that time, developed along two Native American Indian paths – one along Doctors Creek led through Allentown to the rich bayshore and coast, while the other connected the settlements in East and West Jersey. The Lower York Road was the first roadway across New Jersey, connecting the capital of East Jersey – Perth Amboy – with West Jersey’s capital – Burlington. Authorized by Deputy Governor Gawen Lawrie in 1683, this road led to a direct route for travelers from New York to Philadelphia. Main Street in Allentown developed from this Lower York Road, also known as Lawrie’s Road or the Queen's Highway.
 
The Eighteenth Century
 
Robert Burnett, a Scottish Quaker who emigrated from England to Perth Amboy in 1690 to escape religious persecution, patented 4,000 acres east of Doctors Creek. Burnett had two daughters who settled locally – Margaret, who married Nathan Allen, and Isabel, who married William Montgomery. In 1706, William Montgomery acquired a parcel of land in Upper Freehold Township from his father-in-law, and named their home “Eglinton” after their home in Scotland. In the same year, Nathan Allen acquired two parcels of land from his father-in-law. One parcel contained 110 acres on the east side of Doctors Creek, the other, 528 acres on the north side of Indian Run Creek. (Most of the larger parcel is located in Robbinsville Township, Mercer County.) Nathan Allen, cited on many early eighteenth century deeds, became the town’s namesake. The name “Allenstown” appears on a 1749 Lewis Evans map of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, as well as on a 1776 Moses Moon map, with a 1785 inset illustrating “Allens Town Street.” By 1795, the Village became “Allentown” on the Samuel Lewis Road Map of New Jersey.
 
Allen's Town developed around its earliest mills. Around 1714, Allen built a gristmill and a fulling mill, advertised for tradespeople, and began selling lots in Allen's Town. The gristmill processed grains for flour, animal feed, and molasses. At the fulling mill, flax and wool were cleaned for weaving linen or woolen cloth. During the colonial period, Allen's Town had both a brewery for making beer and a molasses factory clustered near the gristmill. By 1800, John Imlay built a sawmill on Indian Run Creek, later operated by his sons, Joseph and William. In total, there were three early mills in what is now the Allentown Historic District, with two more along Doctors Creek located nearby. (By 1855, Abel Cafferty had moved the fulling mill and built a new four-story, brick gristmill alongside Nathan Allen's gristmill. The Allen gristmill was taken down in 1857.)
 
The Mill House (Steward-Cafferty House*) was the original home of Allen's Town founder, Nathan Allen. The rear and earliest section of the Mill House was built in 1714, when Nathan Allen built his original gristmill and fulling mill. The brick portion was built before 1737, when his will left his “home plantation and gristmill” to his son Nathan Jr.. In 1750, Nathan Allen Jr.'s widow, Elizabeth Salter Allen, sold the Mill House to Stoffell Longstreet with a brass door-knocker engraved with the Allen family name attached to the door. (Able Cafferty exercised his 1845 option to purchase the mill complex including the house about 1850. At that time, he removed the brass door-knocker from the house and returned it to the Allen family. Cafferty built the southern clapboard addition to the house, since torn down, to house mill employees and extensively renovated both the interior and exterior of the brick house as well as its earlier rear portion.) 
 
Due to its location somewhat equidistant between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, Allen's Town was settled by an extremely diverse group of immigrants. Many of the earliest settlers following Nathan Allen were Quakers, but by the mid-1700s two other faiths were firmly established. Presbyterians, mainly Scots and Scots-Irish, arrived in 1720 and by 1730, English Episcopalians.  Both shared the early Meeting House and cemetery site located behind S. Main Street along Lakeview Drive. Generally, the English, Scots, and Quakers arrived by way of Philadelphia and Burlington, while the French and Dutch arrived via New York and Perth Amboy ports. In 1744, the Presbyterians purchased property on Saw Mill Road (now named High Street) and built a church in 1756. (Replaced in 1837, today the Presbyterian Church proudly stands on a bluff overlooking Conine’s Mill Pond. The Old Feversham Bell, cast 1783 in England, is on display there.)
 
From around 1730 to the approach of the American Revolution, Allen's Town saw slow but steady growth, most likely spurred by Samuel Rogers, Sr.’s 1734 advertisement of a carriage service between New York and Philadelphia. Rogers from Allen's Town, in conjunction with New York’s Arthur Brown, transported passengers from Brown’s sloop at South River to Philadelphia. The route by way of Burlington across the Delaware River, followed the Lower York Road. Allen's Town soon became a crossroads that functioned both as a market village for the surrounding agricultural area and as a traveler's rest stop. As farms in the area grew, so did the need for blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, tailors, and other craftsmen. Since the stage-coach route usually took two or three days, taverns also known as ordinaries were established to serve long-distance travelers. Farmers frequented these establishments when patronizing the mills and small craftsmen-style shops.
 
Due to these well-traveled roads, George Washington visited Allen's Town. Near the beginning of the French and Indian War in February of 1756, Virginia Colonel Washington, age twenty-four, with his aide Captain George Mercer, Captain Robert Stewart, and two servants – John Alton and Thomas Bishop left Alexandria, Virginia for Boston on horseback. Washington needed Massachusetts Governor Shirley, then commander of British forces in North America, to resolve a troublesome problem of command protocol. Washington's authority was challenged by Captain John Dagworthy of Delaware who claimed command of the troops at Fort Cumberland in Virginia. Washington held a provincial commission, but Dagworthy claimed a superseding royal commission.
 
*The official historic names of sites in Allentown's Historic District are shown in italics.
 
After enjoying the various shops and tailors in Philadelphia, on February 13th Washington and his party left Philadelphia, taking the ferry at Burlington across the Delaware River. They traveled expeditiously across New Jersey on the Lower York Road, by way of Allen's Town and Cranbury to Perth Amboy and New York City. There was considerable speculation in both Philadelphia and New York City as to Washington's purpose. French spies had wrongly concluded that he was plotting an attack on Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh. Others thought he wanted Shirley's advice in regard to using Southern Native Americans in the war against the French. In Boston, Shirley vindicated Washington and placed him in command at Fort Cumberland over Captain Dagworthy. 
Ironically, Washington's choice of the older Allentown route may have been to bypass Dagworthy's hometown – Trenton. Washington was named Commander and Chief of all Continental forces on June 15, 1775.
 
Allen's Town taverns variously functioned as inns, restaurants, courtrooms, pubs, and community gathering places for town meetings. Like the mill area, they were places where business or politics was discussed. The earliest colonial tavern was the house of Isaac Stelle at 118 S. Main Street, licensed in 1730. This tavern, the site of early town meetings, was also known as the Flag Tavern and later, simply as Holloway's. When the structure was torn down, stones from this tavern were incorporated into the foundation of the subsequently built 1872 Presbyterian Manse. The Brick Tavern, also known as the Queen Tavern, originally stood on a N. Main Street twenty-eight acre tract, (now behind Allentown's Borough Hall), which was tended by Adonijah Francis. The Lower Tavern downtown at 27-31 S. Main Street (now Woody's Towne Cafe) is believed to be the oldest tavern still surviving. This tavern was variously referred to as Gilbert Barton’s house, Randle's Tavern, or the Crown Tavern. These three colonial-era taverns – Queen, Crown and Flag – were illustrated on a 1778 John Hills map drawn for British General Sir Henry Clinton.
 
During the American Revolution, another tavern at 1 N. Main Street (now Di Mattia's Restaurant),  was known as the Cunningham Hotel. Soon after the war, it bore the sign of “The Mason’s Crossed Arms,” and was tended by Masonic leader Thomas Leland. Prior to the Civil War, this tavern became known as the Union Hotel. (In the nineteenth century, a fifth tavern, the Upper Tavern, operated for several years. After the death of Congressman George Holcombe, his residence located at 32 N. Main Street was converted into the tavern, where William Butcher was innkeeper in 1830.)
 
Admiralty Courts sat at Allen's Town taverns from 1777 to 1783. The courts adjudicated, with juries, the claims of parties for the disposition of prizes from the sale of vessels and cargoes that were captured or taken from the British by American privateers. More privateering cases were heard in Allen's Town than in any other place in New Jersey. The courts met primarily at the home of Gilbert Barton, innholder at Allen's Town. Barton was the brother-in-law of Charles Pettit, the Deputy Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. On occasion, Adonijah Francis' inn – the Brick Tavern – also served as a court site.
 
Gilbert Barton's became known primarily as Randle's Tavern, named after its operator, Daniel Randolph. (Randle was an alternate spelling of Randolph.) Randolph had been captured with Captain Joshua Huddy in 1782 at the Battle of the Blockhouse in Toms River, site of an important naval base and saltworks. As a result of being tortured at Sugar House Prison in New York City, Daniel Randolph lost both his legs. (Huddy was infamously hanged on Monmouth’s coastal highlands.) Sadly, Daniel’s older brother James, who operated the naval base at Tom's River, had earlier been abducted by Loyalists and taken to New York where he died in prison. Daniel’s younger brother, Benjamin, operated a sawmill and forge in the Pine Barrens known as Speedwell. Benjamin is known for his fine Chippendale-style furniture, which he produced in Philadelphia. General and Mrs. Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founders were frequent guests at Benjamin's inn – “The Sign of the Golden Eagle.” It is believed that the brothers were raised in Allen’s Town, since their father, Isaac, was engaged in the Rogers' network of stagecoach depots, along the Lower York Road.
 
Adjudicating the proceedings of the Admiralty Court were Judges Joseph Lawrence, Joseph Bloomfield, and Bowes Reed. (Joseph Bloomfield would later be elected Governor of New Jersey.) In 1780, John Burrows Jr. was named Marshall of the Admiralty Court at Allen's Town. Judge Joseph Lawrence also adjudicated proceedings of the Vice-Admiralty Court in Allen's Town, a non-juried court for local crimes, such as horse stealing. Justice David Brearley served primarily as a Circuit Court Judge while in Allen's Town, and, as a Judge Advocate for the Continental Army at Valley Forge.
 
In addition to its role as an Admiralty Court location, Allen's Town also served as a regional New Jersey militia center. Many local men who served in the militia also held responsible positions in the Continental Line. Allen's Town became the primary Quartermaster Depot of Monmouth County and forage, produce, and supplies sent to the armies from Monmouth County were shipped through Allen's Town. Colonel David Rhea of Allen's Town was the Quartermaster for Monmouth County, and Joseph Clayton of Upper Freehold Township served as Foragemaster. The Deputy Quartermaster at Allen's Town was Elisha Lawrence (a future acting Governor). By order of General Washington, a grain and hay magazine was established “at or near Allen's Town” to supply the troops. Working closely with Monmouth County and Continental Quartermasters, almost every business in Allen's Town contributed to the war effort, by providing goods and services to the Continental Army and the militias. Local businesses supplied pork, corn meal, rye flour, as well as the wooden barrels that stored these items. Leather, necessary to secure supplies in transport, was produced at the early tannery .
 
A fort, which probably existed before the Revolution, is depicted by a flag on a 1781 map drawn by General Clinton's aide-de-camp, John Hills. In addition, according to the Charles R. Hutchinson Papers, a colonial blockhouse was located near today's Mill Pond Park before the war. The blockhouse, which stored arms and ammunition, was tended by a member of the Lawrence family, who lived nearby.  
 
With the approach of the Revolution, Monmouth County residents split along political lines.  While much of the populace were considered Tories, who supported King George III, those in Allen's Town were primarily revolutionaries, known as Whigs. As a result of the Boston Tea Party on December 16th1773, England barricaded Boston Harbor. Paul Revere traveled to New York City and Philadelphia asking for assistance. In Allen's Town, the request for aid was enthusias- tically received. On July 27th 1774, notices appeared asking residents to deliver donations of either grain or money to Robert Rhea at Allen's Town or Abraham Hendricks in Imlay's Town. Shortly thereafter, on August 12, 1774, Robert Rhea takes ownership of the Allen's Town mill from his deceased brother's estate. A recently found Deed of this conveyance includes the signatures of  five members of Paul Revere's Philadelphia Committee. John Burrows of Middletown Point (now Matawan) offered the use of his sloop to transport the contributions to Massachusetts. In one shipment, the record shows that Bostonians received fourteen bushels of rye and fifty barrels of rye meal from Monmouth County along with the promise to provide “a considerable addition,” if needed, to “stem the torrent of Ministerial and parliamentary vengence [sic].”
 
David Brearley, Jr. was a signer of the United States Constitution and destined to be a revolu- tionary.  His father, David Sr. of Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville), had twice been jailed for leading New Jersey's anti-proprietary land riots in the 1740s. The younger Brearley practiced law at his Allen's Town home, which was close to his patron Samuel Rogers, Jr.'s house. In 1771, Brearley's house burned down under suspicious circumstances. His house was located at 7 S. Main Street (now the Allentown Chiropractor's office). Brearley served as a Colonel in the Monmouth County militia, and later as a Lt. Colonel in the Continental Line until 1779, when he resigned his commission to become New Jersey's Chief Justice. [More on Brearley's legal career forthcoming.]
 
New Jersey was the scene of more battles and skirmishes than any other state during the American Revolution. It was the narrow waist of New Jersey that the British hoped to hold and thus divide New York and New England from the Southern colonies. Three major battles – Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth were fought within 15 miles of Allen's Town. The Lower York Road was a flanking route used by both armies in the Trenton and Princeton campaigns. Due to its position at the head of the road through the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Allen’s Town was a strategic location with access to multiple coastal areas where privateers operated. This most likely accounted for the distinction that most New Jersey Courts of Admiralty cases were heard in Allen's Town.
 
During a 1776 Tory insurrection in Monmouth County, the Continental Congress dispatched the 7th Pennsylvania rifle battalion to assist the Monmouth and Burlington militias. They encamped in Allen's Town on July 7th before they quelled uprisings in Freehold and Upper Freehold Township.
 
After Washington defeated Colonel Johann Rahl's Hessian garrison in Trenton (1st Battle of Trenton) on December 26th, 1776, Hessian Colonel Carl Von Donop evacuated his forces at Mount Holly for Princeton and encamped at Allen's Town. Count Von Donop commanded several Hessian battalions comprised of 1,500 troops, the 42nd Highland Regiment, and Jaegers (horsemen). Captain Ewald of the Field Jaeger Corps wrote in his journal that the march from Crosswicks continued “to Allentown, where the troops set up quarters in devastated and abandoned houses which numbered about eighty.”
 
Philadelphia’s militia commander, General John Cadwalader's advance troops, who crossed the Delaware River after Washington due to inclement weather, pursued Von Donop’s retreat towards Cranbury, then pulled back to Allen's Town. Cadwalader, whose force grew to 2,100 men and five cannon, remained at Crosswicks. Captain Thomas Rodney of Delaware, his field officers, and others encamped in Allen's Town from December 29th through January 1st. On the 30th, Rodney writing in a letter from Allen's Town to his brother Caesar – President of Delaware and signer of the Declaration of Independence – referred to the suffering wrought by the Hessians, “Jersey will be the most Whiggest Colony on the Continent: the very Quakers declare for taking up arms. You cannot imagine the distress of this country. They have stripped every body almost without distinction – even of all their clothes, and have beat and abused men, women, and children in the most cruel manner ever heard of.…” Captain Rodney and his men marched to Trenton and supported Washington’s defense of the Assunpink Creek, known as the 2nd Battle of Trenton, on January 2nd, 1777. Through the night they marched towards Princeton, where they engaged British reinforcements, leaving Lord Cornwallis' main army behind at Trenton.
 
According to John O. Raum in his 1877 “History of New Jersey,” a young Irish immigrant by the name of Jinnie Jackson, whose family owned a prosperous farm on the road to Waln's Mill (Walnford), attended the Presbyterian Church in Allen's Town. By tradition, Jinnie was married and lived in Trenton when General George Washington attacked the Hessians. As the British gathered reinforcements and prepared to attack Washington's camp in Trenton on January 2nd,  Jinnie dressed as a soldier and led the Continental troops through the woods by cover of night to the Battle of Princeton on January 3rd, 1777.
 
In 1777, Tory sympathizers who were known as Pine Robbers, since they hid in the Pine Barrens, robbed and abused Isaac Rogers. Rogers, a member of the Committee at Allen's Town formed by   Pennsylvania's Council of Safety, was tortured so severely it caused his death. He had a contract with the Council of Safety to provide barrels of cured pork for American forces, which the Pine Robbers confiscated. The Pine Robbers also robbed William Imlay's home of guns and powder and later plotted to kidnap Colonel David Brearley.
 
By June 1778 Sir Henry Clinton, now British commander in North America, fearful of being blocked in Philadelphia by the French fleet, led a British evacuation to New York City through New Jersey. Prior to Clinton's arrival in Allen’s Town, Major John Andre – Benedict Arnold's accomplice, who would later be hanged as a notorious spy – spent the night in Allen's Town. He stayed with Dr. James Newell, who had been recommended by Burlington Tories to care for Andre's sick brother. Newell's home was located at 14 S. Main Street (now the Allentown Library site). Dr. Newell was himself a Patriot spy, who provided intelligence to the Continental Congress by way of Princeton Congressman, John Witherspoon. In his haste to evacuate Allen’s Town ahead of pursuing troops, Major Andre left his campkit spoon engraved with his family crest on Dr. Newell's mantel – a treasured momento of this visit. (Major Andre's sketched map of British troop deployment in and around Allen’s Town resides at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.)
 
On June 24th 1778, George Washington wrote to Major General Heath, “...On the morning of the 18 Inst. The rear of the enemy's army evacuated Philadelphia upon which I immediately moved towards the Delaware. They have penetrated as far as Allen's Town, but whether they mean for Amboy, or Sandy Hook is not evident. Every obstruction is thrown in their way which our circumstances will admit....” Adj. General Baumeister (Hessian), wrote in his journal around the  same time, “Between Allentown and Cranbury and as far as Brunswick, Governor Livingston had a thousand-yard strip of the finest wood cut down in order to barricade all the roads passing through.”
 
During the British evacuation from Philadelphia, between Crosswicks and Allen's Town, American forces harassed British troop movements, which resulted in chases and skirmishes. The Stone Bridge skirmish (for which the Middle School was named in 2007) took place on Stone Bridge Run at Old York Road (southwest corner of the soccer fields in Upper Freehold Township). According to William Stryker in “The Battle of Monmouth,” “in this...skirmish, a musket ball struck... a very gallant and at this time a conspicuous officer who was reconnoitering the bridge and position of the Americans, and inflicted a bad wound in his left breast which was thought at the time to be mortal.”
 
On June 24th 1778 the British 1st Division, composed of over 11,000 soldiers, encamped in and around Allen's Town – the largest group along Indian Run Creek. The next day, the British march was rearranged so that the Light Horse and Jaegers could defend the rear of the column. This maneuver was observed by General Von Steuben and four horsemen who had reconnoitered the  British positions. Possibly due to this intelligence, it became clear to General Washington that the British would be heading east toward Freehold, with the most likely evacuation point being Sandy Hook.
 
 At least three additional skirmishes took place in and around Allen’s Town on June 24th and 25th. These skirmishes are cumulatively labeled a minor battle – The Battle of Allentown. During the fighting a cannon was fired by the British at the militia on the Lower York Road. The cannonball landed in the Market House, which was located at the main intersection in the Village. (This cannonball sat in the John Imlay House for at least fifty years.) By tradition, British soldiers are buried in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Other cannonballs were found in and around Allen's Town as well. Along the Lower York Road in Upper Freehold, Robert Montgomery's home called “Eglinton” (since destroyed by arson) was the site of a skirmish which left a cannonball embedded in the building's front facade. Robert's cousin, Major William Montgomery of the Monmouth militia, was the son of William and Margaret Price Montgomery. He married Mary Rhea, the sister of Robert and David Rhea.
 
Near Freehold, an advanced Continental detachment under General Charles Lee intercepted the British march and the Battle of Monmouth commenced on June 28th, 1778. Burlington Militia Colonel Joseph Haight, owner of the Allen's Town gristmill, and Captain Peter Wikoff, who lived in the house located at 37 S. Main Street, acted as guides for Continental forces prior to the battle. The battle was primarily fought on the Rhea family farm which is now a part of Monmouth Battlefield State Park at Manalapan and Freehold Townships in New Jersey. David Rhea, former owner of the Allen's Town mill complex, was raised on the Rhea family farm. He had settled in Allen's Town and served variously in the Monmouth County militia and the U.S. Continental Line. Lt. Colonel David Rhea is credited with siting the flanking cannons on Combs Hill, which turned the tide of the battle at Monmouth.
 
It was at the Battle of Monmouth that a famed young woman called Molly Pitcher replaced her fallen husband at his cannon. According to local tradition, Molly Pitcher was from Allen's Town. In his 1876 Centennial Address, Presbyterian Rev. George Swain stated, “Moreover, from among us it is said was the famous Molly Pitcher, she who, at the battle of Monmouth, acted the role of cannoneer in place of her husband, or some other brave who had fallen beside his gun. She is reputed to have been the daughter of one Jno. (John) Hanna, of Allentown, was of North Ireland extraction, and had been for a time a servant in the family of the father of Captain James Bruere. She was perhaps the wife of a soldier named Jno. (John) Maban.” The west wing of the S. Potter House, located at 19 High Street and built in 1760, was the small farmhouse owned by weaver John Hanna in Allentown during the Revolutionary War era.
 
Arthur Donaldson, a noted Philadelphia master machinist and millwright, moved to the Allen's Town area during the war. He purchased the Allen's Town mill complex from Colonel Joseph Haight in 1779. Donaldson had previously launched the Cheveaux de Frise in the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. The Cheveaux de Frise were a system of underwater log obstructions tipped with iron spikes. These were chained to stone-filled caissons and secured in rivers to float just below the water's surface to damage British ships. After being deployed, a knowledgeable pilot was required to navigate around them safely. According to historian Samuel Stelle Smith, Donaldson continued his work on the Cheveaux de Frise while in Allen's Town. He was also employed by the Monmouth County Quartermaster at Allen's Town to purchase forage to supply the troops and had served as an Admiralty Court juror.
 
In 1779, David Brearley resigned his military commission to become Chief Justice of New Jersey, where he served for ten years. In his role as a justice, Brearley was the first to declare a law uncon- stitutional, which established the principle of judicial review long before the Marbury vs. Madison decision. He is still cited in case-law for his Holmes vs. Walton decision guaranteeing a jury of twelve peers. While serving as Chief Justice, he was a member of the U.S. Constitutional Conven- tion representing New Jersey. In August 1787, Brearley chaired a committee of the Convention, which created a powerful President and established the position of the Vice-Presidency as well as establishing the basis for the Electoral College. After signing the U.S. Constitution, he chaired the New Jersey committee that ratified the Constitution. In 1789, George Washington nominated him to be a District Court Judge for New Jersey, where he briefly served until his untimely death the same year.
 
In January 1781, eighty officers of the Pennsylvania Continental Line encamped at Allen's Town after their subordinate Continental soldiers mutinied at Morristown and marched to Princeton. Following negotiations between Pennsylvania Executive Joseph Reed, General Anthony Wayne, and representatives of the rank and file, the mutiny ended peacefully. That the officers felt relatively safe in Allen's Town is evidence of the military advantage the town afforded them.
 
The only known colonial school in Allen's Town was run by the Presbyterians. One instructor at the school was James Bayard Stafford. (Stafford served as a Lieutenant in the navy during the Revolutionary War and, as a spy, delivered a letter to Congress' President Henry Laurens, a prisoner in the Tower of London. This daring feat was aided by Commodore Barry, who commanded the ship Stafford sailed in.) In 1783, the Allentown Academy was formally established; its list of subscribers featured many notable citizens, including Governor William Livingston and future Governors, William Patterson and Joseph Bloomfield. It continued to operate as a church-sponsored school until about 1820, when, by a complicated arrangement between the school and church trustees, the Academy operated as a “public school” for more than 50 years. (A new Academy building, a fine example of Roman Classicism architecture, replaced the original building in 1856. In 1934, this new facility was expanded by replicating it exactly in the adjoining addition.)
 
John Imlay grew up in New Sharon five miles north of Allen's Town along the Lower York Road. Later in Philadelphia, he became a wealthy shipping merchant engaged in trade with the West Indies. After a very successful career as an investor in privateering during the Revolutionary War, he returned to build a magnificent mansion at the center of Allen's Town. The John Imlay House at 28 S. Main Street, was completed in 1790. According to a 20th century architectural monograph, this structure still exhibits a high state of preservation, and stands proudly in the center of the Village. It further stated that this home had scarcely a rival and would rank highly among old houses outside New Jersey. The stately fifteen-room Country Georgian mansion contains eleven fireplaces. Its French Louis XVI hand-blocked wallpaper, which covered the parlor walls, was later sold and installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One complete room, including wall- paper, was installed in the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. The portraits of John Imlay and his second wife, Ann, reside in the Brooklyn Museum.
 
In 1793, another notable house built around the same time as the John Imlay House, was the home built at the northeast corner of S. Main Street and High Street known as the Governor Newell House. This fine old house was built by Dr. Thomas West Montgomery, an Allentown physician who was born at “Eglinton” in 1764, and educated in Paris. In 1788, he married Mary Berrien, a daughter of New Jersey Supreme Court Justice, John Berrien. Mary Berrien, grew up at his “Rockingham” estate near Princeton. (General Washington wrote his farewell address to the Continental Army at “Rockingham.”) Dr. and Mrs. Montgomery's son, Nathaniel, was born in Allentown. Nathaniel enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of ten, probably as a cabin boy. When he was sixteen years of age, Nathaniel was commissioned a Lieutenant, believed to be the youngest officer ever commissioned in the U.S. Navy. Rear-admiral John Berrien Montgomery, another son born in Allentown, served in the Civil War and at one time was in command of the Pacific squadron.
 
In 1790, the first Methodist sermon was preached by David W. Bartine in Fredrick Miller's home  (referred to as the Dr. Wittenborn property or historically now known as the Imlay-Busby farm,  contiguous to Allentown in Robbinsville Township, Mercer County). Services continued there for five years, until 1795, when the Methodists used the Episcopal Church on Paine Street (now Church Street).
 
Mrs. Anna Hammell, who owned this house and operated the Brookside Tea Room there for several years is the authority for the following statement, based on information given her by her grandmother Busby; “...the Vahlsing House [Imlay-Busby farm] the Perrine Dey House, and “Eglinton” were all under construction at the same time – these houses, all standing and in a straight line, about a mile apart are all on the original Burnett tract.” The Perrine Dey House, which formerly stood on the Lower York Road (today's Matrix warehouses), was built by John Henry who operated a brickyard there. Bricks from this brickyard were used in the Presbyterian Church, Nassau Hall in Princeton and throughout most of Allentown.
 
Paine Street in Allentown had been named after famed Revolutionary Thomas Paine, who in 1793 moved to France from Bordentown, New Jersey. While in France, Paine wrote a series of pamphlets entitled The Age of Reason, in which he notoriously argued against organized religion. In one pamphlet, for example, he said, “all national institutions of churches...appear to me...set up to terrify and enslave mankind and monopolize profit and power.”  After this publication, during a time of religious revival, Paine became so unpopular in America that Paine Street (hosting four churches in 1807) was renamed to Church Street. (At various earlier periods it was known as Drift Road, Trenton Road, and Gum Boot Street.)
 
The Nineteenth Century
 
Trends affecting the entire United States had their impacts on Allentown in the 1800s.
 
As the primary drink in America shifted from beer to grain alcohol, due to its longer shelf-life and reasonable price; from 1790-1830, per capita alcohol consumption peaked with attendant social problems, such as public drunkenness. After Maria Freylinghuysen married Presbyterian minister John Cornell in 1798 and moved to Allentown, she founded the Allentown Sober Society (1805). In a time when total abstinence was unheard of, this was the first regularly organized Temperance Society in New Jersey. Soon after the Sunday School Movement began in England in 1809, Maria organized an early formal Sunday School in the Presbyterian Church. The Cornell House on High Street is named after Maria Freylinghuysen Cornell. Prior to her days in Allentown, she and her widowed father raised her younger brother, Theodore, a Vice-Presidential candidate running with Henry Clay in the 1844 campaign.
 
The American Industrial Revolution, from 1820-1870, was of great economic importance as improvements permeated most industries and citizens' daily lives throughout the rest of the century. William Longstreet, a well-documented American inventor, was born in Allen's Town in 1759. He was the son of Stoffell Longstreet who owned the Allen's Town gristmill. William married Hannah Randolph, the daughter of James Randolph and Deliverance Coward. After moving to Augusta, Georgia, by 1796, William had received a patent for critical changes to the cotton gin. Although Eli Whitney is often thought the inventor of the cotton gin, he was actually only one of five people that collectively made revolutionary improvements to it. Improvements to the cotton gin led to the growth of the plantation economy in the southern United States, dramatically expanding slavery. Longstreet, the grandfather of Confederate General James Longstreet, also designed a steamboat, which he launched on the Savannah River in 1807, a few days after Robert Fulton launched his similarly successful experiment on the Hudson River.
 
Textile manufacturing was an important aspect of the Industrial Revolution – the first industry to use modern production methods. In 1814, three prominent Allentown men founded a cotton manufacturing factory known as the Monmouth Manufacturing Company – an early date for such a modern factory in New Jersey. Investors Richard L. Beatty, Dr. George Holcombe, and Samuel C. Newell, purchased twenty-six acres of land in Upper Freehold Township (near the Stone Bridge Middle School). The factory was built under the supervision of James Burlingame, a New England native. It operated until 1836, when it was sold to manufacture wood type, and later became a woolen mill. (Harry Kirby of Upper Freehold Township then purchased and operated a gristmill there until 1926. Kirby's Mill was destroyed by fire in 1951.)
 
Off-season farming occupations spurred a significant woodworking industry in Allentown in the early 1800s. Later, a rising standard of living and a major home-building period created demand. The earliest known pioneer was George Sinclair. Sinclair was an undertaker who also operated a furniture-making business at 9 N. Main Street, where the Farmers National Bank was later erected. In those days, undertakers made and delivered their own coffins to the homes of the deceased. Later, Sinclair's business moved across Main Street and operated there until the proprietor retired in 1862. Although local woods were commonly used to construct furniture for wholesale buyers elsewhere, mahogany was imported from Central America through Philadelphia, and then brought up Crosswicks Creek. This mahogany was used to construct furniture, which supplied the high-end furniture market in Philadelphia. Also at Sinclair's shop, tall wooden cases for clocks were constructed by watchmaker Peter Jacques, who also assembled the clocks' movements.
 
Furniture-maker George Sinclair was one of the original fifty members of the Perseverance Fire Company formed in 1818. He remained active in this capacity and served as President from 1841 to 1845 and again from 1858 to 1863, joining a list of other prominent Allentown men. The Perseverance Fire Company was renamed Hope Fire Company in 1856.
 
In 1848, Sinclair took Samuel W. Fidler into his undertaking business. George V. Leming acquired the business from Fidler in 1887. Mrs. Leming's nephew, Norman Peppler apprenticed with  
George Leming to learn the funeral business. (Norman Peppler purchased the business in 1927 and Peppler's Funeral Home has been run consecutively since by four generations of the family.)
 
A decade before the beginning of the American Civil War, chair-making continued its ascent to prominence as an Allentown industry, lasting until the end of the nineteenth century. After an apprenticeship with a Philadelphia chair-maker, Zebulon Clayton Byard moved to Allentown in 1848 and set up a chair-making shop, and was followed by his son, Charles. The shop was located on Church Street near the Sawmill Pond. Zebulon was described as a good dresser and a capable man with a tendency toward being lazy, even though he loved boxing. His wood-seat and rush-seat chairs were made from local maple and hickory, with decorative hand-painted stencils. Chairs made in this shop were sold locally as well as in Trenton, Freehold, and throughout Burlington County. Byard's chairs were the only known Allentown-made chairs that had wooden seats.
 
Anthony Kennedy, who had worked at the shop of Zebulon Byard, was also operating a chair-making business on Church Street in 1855, making quality, decorated, slat-back and rush-seat chairs. Several of Kennedy's chairs now reside at the New Britain Museum of American Art in  Connecticut. In 1865, William Emmons purchased the property at 50 Church Street (H. Imlay House), where he made rush-seat chairs for five years, before James Buckalew, who had worked previously for Anthony Kennedy, began operating his own shop there.
 
John A. Clayton, who had previously apprenticed at Anthony Kennedy's, James Bucklew’s and Zebulon Byard’s shops, established his own shop.  It was located above the blacksmith shop of
Isaac Rogers, near the Farmers National Bank corner. As his shop expanded, he moved into a home and shop at 9 Pearl Street. Chairs made there, constructed of walnut, oak and maple, were sold in New York City and Trenton. Wood was supplied by local sawmills – one was located near the present-day Allentown water plant on Church Street. The business was later owned and managed by Clayton's son, James, who inherited the business. Six early chairs, constructed by John A. Clayton and his son, James H. Clayton, are currently in the possession of Norman Peppler's three sons, Edgar, Robert, and Richard – each owning two chairs.
 
As John Clayton had apprenticed with several chair-makers, several novice chair-makers, in turn, apprenticed with John Clayton, and later opened their own shops in Allentown. William Killey  entered into a formal apprenticeship at the Clayton shop for three years and later opened another shop on Church Street. As a house painter, he painted the backs of his chairs and many of his stencils are identifiable today. Brothers William and Horatio Gulick entered into a chair-making partnership, joining the other shops on Church Street in 1866. William had previously worked at the Clayton chair shop with James Buckalew, whose shop they operated out of when vacated by Buckalew. By the end of the Civil War, Allentown Village had as many chair-making establishments as the city of Trenton.
 
By 1840, what is now considered Allentown proper contained the gristmill, the sawmill, six stores,  the Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, 100 dwellings, and 600 inhabitants. In 1870, the population was 802, and by 1880, it had increased to 1,002. The Catholic Church, organized in 1869, was followed by the Baptist Church in 1873.
 
A second major Allentown building period occurred in the years between 1830 and 1860. Thirty-four percent of Allentown's current historic architectural resources originated during this era. The Early Commercial style spans this period as well as former building periods. The Veranda Traditional styles were utilized from the early 1800s far into the Victorian Era.
 
The Classical Revival styles comprise three percent of the historic architecture in Allentown. The Greek Revival style might best be illustrated by the Presbyterian Church on High Street with its pedimented entrance portico. Roman Classicism influenced the design of the Presbyterian Academy, a school operated by the Presbyterians. The Methodist Church on Church Street, which was built in 1859, is a fine example of this style.
                                                                                                                                                               The Carpenter Gothic style took many forms, but represents only six percent of existing building stock in Allentown. Examples of this style are the M. Rogers House at 35 N. Main Street, the Hulse House at 43 S. Main Street, the Methodist Parsonage at 23 Church Street, and the Joel Yates House at 21 High Street. 
 
Second Empire style buildings in Allentown are rare – comprising two percent of existing building stock. The Presbyterian Manse at 118 S. Main Street and the Beekman House at 15 High Street are good examples of this style.
 
The Italianate style is represented by three percent of existing buildings. The best examples of this style include the A. Robbins House at 114 S. Main Street and the C. Meirs House (“Tree Haven”) at 123 S. Main Street. Other excellent examples include the J.C.Vanderbeek House at 36 S. Main Street and the E. B. Rogers House at 7 High Street, a rare, three-story example of the Italianate style.
 
Elias B. and Benjamin Rogers were brothers and partners in a construction business renowned for moving buildings. They were joined (and later succeeded) by Benjamin's son, Benjamin Franklin Rogers. After moving from Forksville, PA, Benjamin and his wife Lillian purchased 13 High Street (Mrs. Lillian Rogers House) in 1852. Adjacent to that house, Elias built the house at 7 High Street (E. B. Rogers House) in 1870. In 1896, B. F. Rogers remodeled a 1840 Greek Revival house at 5 High Street (J. Clayton House) with Victorian detail and then he purchased it. Their business primarily operated out of three barns and a carriage-house located behind their High Street homes, but had other locations in Trenton and Asbury Park. From 1860 to 1885, the Rogers brothers built most of the large farmhouses, outbuildings, and churches in the area, including the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church (now the Allentown Library). They frequently engaged in large jobs at the Jersey shore, other states and Washington D.C.
 
Significant contributions in a political context and the struggle for social justice were made by others who lived in Allentown – people like Congressman George Middleton, Dr. William A. Newell, and Octavius Catto.
 
Due to the activities of George Middleton, Allentown is a recognized “station”on the Underground Railroad. Fugitive slaves coming from the southern part of the United States stopped at the Crosswicks’ farm of Enoch Middleton, a Quaker, which is well documented. In 1839, a cousin of Enoch’s, George Middleton, re-established James Middleton’s former tannery (leather-making)             in Allentown. The tannery was located behind the businesses on the east side of S. Main Street to the edge of Conine's Mill Pond. George Middleton used this tannery to disguise his Underground Railroad activity. Significant amounts of oak bark, required for tanning, were transported in large wagons with high sides. It is believed that Middleton transported fugitive slaves hidden in these bark wagons. Assisting him in hiding these fugitive slaves was the Robbins family, whose house, now gone, was located at 26 S. Main Street (now the location of Bloomers and Things). (By local tradition, fugitive slaves were transported along a service road alongside the gristmill and behind  buildings on the west side of S. Main Street downtown to temporarily stay in the Robbins home and other buildings in the vicinity.) From Allentown, they headed north to the next station at Cranbury, and beyond, on a chain that stretched to Canada.
 
George Middleton had an abiding interest in public service. He became a Judge of the Chancery Court and the Monmouth County Orphans Court. In 1858 and 1859, he was a member of the New Jersey State General Assembly. A Democrat, but known abolitionist, Middleton was elected to the U.S. Congress during the Civil War, serving from 1863-1864. He was defeated by Dr. William A. Newell, his fellow Allentonian, when he was a candidate for the 39th Congress. After his defeat, Middleton returned to Allentown to resume the tanning business. The business, which had operated in that location for 142 years, was abandoned in 1885 due to the scarcity of oak bark and animal hides from the Pine Barrens. In 1888, George Middleton died in Allentown.
 
Octavius Valentine Catto was an important civil rights leader during the Civil War period and has been affectionately called, “the Martin Luther King of the 19th century.” Catto's father, William, was a former slave from South Carolina who had relocated to Philadelphia. He was a prominent minister on the African Methodist Episcopal Church circuit, which included Allentown. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister, he befriended future U.S. Congressman and Governor, Dr. Newell, who lived near the Allentown Presbyterian Church. In 1853, through this friendship, Dr. Newell brought William's fourteen year-old son, Octavius, to live at his home (81 S. Main Street) while he attended the all-white Allentown Academy. Octavius Catto later became an educator and activist in Philadelphia, who spent the rest of his life advocating for emancipation; racial integration of streetcars and sports; equality in voting rights; and the education of freed slaves. He was assas- sinated for his advocacy in Philadelphia in 1871 and was buried with full military honors at one of the largest funerals ever held in Philadelphia at that time.
 
As a U.S. Congressman, Dr. William A. Newell, is best known for championing legislation that funded the establishment of the U.S. Life Saving Service, now part of the U.S. Coast Guard. Due to his humanitarian concern for the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers, Newell is known as the “Father of the United States Coast Guard.” A creative physician, he was the first to successfully complete an eyelid skin graft in 1843. After serving three terms in a Congress, which included former President John Quincy Adams and his roommate, future President Abraham Lincoln, Newell was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1857 and served one term. Later, he would be appointed Governor of the Northwest Territory of Washington. When Lincoln became President, he appointed Newell as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was known as an advocate for Native American as well as women's rights. Newell also had an important role in the establishment of the Department of Agriculture. He was Lincoln's attending physician at the White House and was a pallbearer at his funeral. Governor Newell died in Allentown on August 8th, 1901 and was interred in his family burial plot at the Presbyterian Cemetery.
 
In addition to Dr. William A.Newell (1847-51) (1865-67), three other U.S. Congressmen served from Allentown. They were John H. Imlay (1797-1801), Dr. George Holcombe (1821-1828), and George Middleton (1863-1865). George R. Robbins who was born in Allentown, and later practiced medicine in Hamilton, Mercer County near his home, represented New Jersey's 2nd Congressional District (1855-1859). (In the twentieth century, Robert Smith, who spent his childhood in Allentown, represented New Hampshire in Congress (1985-1990) and served (1990-2003) in the U.S. Senate.)
 
Sixty-three men and boys from Allentown served in different regiments during the Civil War. Most of them served in the 11th and 14th Infantry. Of the sixty-three, ten were African-Americans. The so-called “Colored Men” of the 22nd Regiment saw the hardest service during the war. At the Siege of Petersburg, Sergeant James Woby was wounded and recognized for his valor. Regrettably, all three Saunders brothers were killed at this same event. Allentown’s Sergeant George Ashby, also of African descent, was the last surviving New Jersey veteran of the Civil War until his death in 1946 at the age of 102.
 
Allentown was the home of a fine, high-end carriage-making business established by Anthony Maps in 1870. His shop was located on the same site as a carriage-making business operated previously by William I. Cafferty, whose specialty was wheelwrighting. Maps Carriage Co. was located at 13 Church St. (La Piazza Restaurant parking lot). The building consisted of shops for woodworking, wheelwrighting, carriage trimming and painting, blacksmithing, and general repair work. The company also completed several large, elaborately painted stage-coaches with marine motifs to be used on the stage-line to Ocean Grove. One of Map's apprentices, George V. Leming, followed his teacher into the high-end carriage trade in 1887, expanding his undertaking business (making coffins).
 
Allentown established its first system of street lighting illuminated by oil-filled lanterns in 1871. Private donations kept them in oil, after Richard Hendrickson, an Allentonian of African descent, established the volunteer effort and donated much of what he earned as a sextant at the Presbyterian Church. (Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in1879, but it wasn't until 1911 that electric lights replaced the oil lanterns in town.)
 
In 1882, the New Jersey Historical Publishing Company described Allentown as “a village of about 1,100 population...in the midst of an unsurpassed agricultural productive section of the county renowned for its rich grapes, fat hogs, and poultry, corn, grain, sweet potatoes, etc. All of which are shipped to New York City and Trenton markets…one of the oldest towns in the state and for want of facilities [e.g., railroads] has not been progressing in trade...citizens are mostly
composed of wealthy retired farmers....”
 
In 1883, a few citizens, as a joke, decided to run “Abner Robbins” against Samuel Davis, the incumbent Justice of the Peace in Allentown. (At that time, Allentown did not have a Mayor.) Unbeknownst to most villagers since Robbins was a prominent family-name locally, “Abner Robbins” was the name of a wooden Indian – the kind that was seen in front of cigar stores. When Judge Davis lost the election, he resigned in indignation.
 
The Borough of Allentown incorporated on January 29th 1889 by an act of the New Jersey legislature based on a referendum held that day and separated from Upper Freehold Township but remained a part of Monmouth County. Like many other clustered settlements in New Jersey at that time, the cause was economic – Allentown residents believed the cost of electrifying the forty-seven square mile area of rural Upper Freehold Township was unaffordable, which may have led to the breakaway. 
 
In 1899, Farmers Telephone Company ran telephone lines into Allentown and installed a tele- phone in Gulick's general store which delivered messages to the entire village. Several years later, a telephone exchange was installed in the local hardware store staffed by young local operators. By 1904, more phones were gradually added to the homes and businesses in Allentown.
 
The Twentieth Century
 
The seminal events of the 20th century – technological innovation, two world wars, and a stock-market collapse – affected Allentown as they did the world at large. The old colloquial saying, “Allentown was four miles from everything and next to nothing,” began to change as development in central New Jersey crept ever closer. A greater appreciation for Allentown's abundant natural and historic resources emerged later in the century, as they became more difficult to preserve without active community involvement.
 
In 1904, Hillis Jones, a local Allentown mechanical inventor, patented improvements to the cider press, invented a timer to make a workable gasoline tractor, and built a two-seated automobile by hand. Soon after, residents bought their own horseless carriages, and cobblestone roads worthy of these new treasures were built. (Due to the invention of the automobile, Gary Byrd, the last blacksmith in Allentown, closed his shop in 1952.) There were other Allentown agricultural and industrial innovators during the early twentieth century. Joshua Robbins, built a mechanical potato planter; and John Trach, patented a linked fence. Deforest Ely, blinded in a hunting accident, invented a level to be used by the blind; and William Levenworth developed a router tool for the mass production of wood type.
 
On April 6th, 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany, and World War I, “the war to end all wars,” began, thirty-five young men and boys from Allentown initially registered for service in the armed forces. A parade down Main Street followed, which included the Red Cross, cars decorated in red, white and blue with American flags flying everywhere. As across the rest of the United States, local citizens raised money for Liberty Bonds to finance the War and the Red Cross. Women at Allentown's churches also provided assistance by sewing, rolling bandages, and by knitting gloves, scarves, and robes. The War ended on November 11th, 1918 when an armistice was signed near the front lines in France.
 
An Honor Roll monument, located on the Upper Freehold Regional High School grounds, lists all who served in World War I from the area. There are one hundred fifty-seven names on the roll – sixty-one from Allentown Borough, seventy-five from Upper Freehold Township, and twenty-one others nearby who claimed either the Township or the Borough as their home.
 
During a serious flu epidemic, many local citizens died. A note appeared in the Allentown Messenger on December 12th, 1918, written by an anonymous citizen, stating: “The people of Allentown and the surrounding country owe a debt of gratitude to H. P. Johnson for his faithful and untiring efforts to relieve the sick and suffering during the late epidemic. At times almost too ill to sit up the Doctor ministered to his patients with the heroism of a soldier at the front....at great risk [to himself].” (A monument in front of the Allentown Public Library recognizes Dr. Johnson's service.)
 
Dr. Walter Farmer, described as having a colorful personality, came to Allentown in 1927 and began his medical practice from his home at 43 Church Street (J. James House). In 1933, he bought an eight-room house across the street at 47 Church Street (E. Cafferty House) which he converted into a hospital. Dr. Farmer and two of his nurses assisted in the Hindenberg disaster at Lakehurst when the German airship exploded on May 6th, 1937, killing thirty-five of ninety-seven passengers. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Farmer moved his hospital to the newly-purchased John Imlay House. Next, Dr. Farmer expanded his business and local employment when he opened a mater-nity hospital building at 30 S. Main Street ( J. Fisk House), next door to the John Imlay House. As his fortunes increased, Dr. Farmer purchased “Tree Haven” at the top of “The Hill” at 123 S. Main Street (C. Miers House), as his new home. It was said that Dr. Farmer would falsely claim with a straight face that he owned the Farmers National Bank which was owned by local farmer shareholders. Mary Clark, was the last maternity client at Dr. Farmers Hospital when she gave birth to a daughter, Melinda Clark Brown.
 
The Farmers National Bank was built in 1906, at 9 N. Main Street, in the flat-iron building (a style rare in New Jersey). Several years after the stock market crash of 1929, Morgan Buckalew, a Farmers National Bank employee who lived at 133 S. Main Street (Morgan Buckalew House), stole $60,000 from the bank on a Friday night, and absconded – causing quite a stir in Allentown.  Later, an Allentown couple visiting California, spotted Buckalew and a friend about to board a cruise ship, reported him, and soon he was apprehended.
 
Many Allentown traditions and clubs began in the twentieth century. Before 1912, a small group of boys formed a club, which would later become a chartered troop of the Boy Scouts of America. The Halloween Parade was organized by Hope Fire Company, and on Christmas Eve, the Fire Chief was already visiting homes playing Santa Claus. The Garden Club was established in 1928.  The Allentown Lions Club formed in 1939 and their annual Easter Egg Hunt began in 1946. In 1951, the Lions Club 4th of July Parade changed to the Memorial Day Parade. The Allentown First Aid Squad was organized in 1943. The Villagers of Allentown, a women's social club and service organization, was established in 1968. In 1988, the Allentown Business and Community Asso- ciation was organized.
 
The United States was thrust into World War II after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, when war was declared on Japan, Italy and Germany. Due to war mobilization, rationing of sugar, meat, butter, shoes, and tires was accompanied by price controls to prevent supply shortages and rampant inflation. With the rich agricultural area of Upper Freehold Township nearby, foodstuffs were plentiful in Allentown, but gasoline, tires, shoes and soap powder were in shorter supply.
 
Since many men were serving in both war theaters, Allentown women substituted for men in the workforce. Volunteers – both men and women – were also needed to take a direct role in defense. An Air Raid Warden armed with a billy club and a specialized flashlight, patrolled Allentown whenever the siren sounded, to ensure that all lights were out and every window was covered with blackout curtains. After the Army Air Corps left, a local volunteer Civil Air Patrol was activated to act as so-called “Air Spotters.” Allentown’s group operated under the leadership of  D. Everett Storms. They watched everything flying overhead, identified it, determined direction and speed, and subsequently called in their observations to the command center in Philadelphia. Volunteers worked in four-hour shifts at a small building constructed for this purpose in Upper Freehold Township. The Allentown Garden Club volunteered at Fort Dix in Burlington County, providing flower arrangements for their Chapel.
 
In 1944, Stanley Switlik, a parachute pioneer who had emigrated from Poland when he was sixteen years old, founded what became the Switlik Parachute Company. His company was the largest manufacturer of parachutes in the United States in the late 1940s. The company, located in Trenton at that time, was run by Stanley and by his son, Dick. The younger Switlik lived with his wife Irene, and children, in Allentown at 130 S. Main Street, later moving to 88 S. Main Street (J. W. Naylor House). At the request of the U.S. government, the company quickly mobilized for World War II and supplied all subsequent twentieth-century wars. As Stanley was friends with many aviation pioneers, the company had also outfitted the expeditions and record attempts of Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post, and Admiral Richard Byrd.
 
After World War II ended on September 2, 1945 shortly after the Japanese surrender, the first post-war development in Allentown was the Lakeview development built adjacent to Conine's Mill Pond on the Hendrickson Farm located in Upper Freehold Township. This development was soon annexed to join the Borough of Allentown. The project's developers; Dr. Walter Farmer, Dr. John J. Quinn, Dr. Thomas Waldron, lawyer Henry C. P. Coate, and Joseph Nolan, donated access land to preserved land at the edge of the millpond which created a park.
 
With the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, security concerns and the need for defense after two World Wars, the U.S. Interstate System was designed to better provide for the transport of arms, food, and other goods across the vast area of the United States. With the com-
pletion of the New Jersey Turnpike in the 1950s, and later, Interstate I-195 in the 1970s, residential development pressure rose in nearby Allentown, which precipitated a third major building period. In 1959, the second post-war housing development, Greenfield Park, began along Church Street. Next, the Probasco Farm would be developed between N. Main Street and Indian Run Creek in the same year. In 1973, the Timber Glen area homes were built. Pond View development, off  N. Main Street, came next. Lastly, the small Greenway development was created at the end of N. Main Street.
 
In 1961 the Cafferty Grist Mill, the longest continuing business in Allentown and last water-powered mill in Monmouth County, ceased operation. This gristmill and its predecessor operated on the mill site for 241 years. Its mechanical equipment was removed at that time and the building's use changed to retail shops and a restaurant. In 1971 Corky Danch, an artist and craftsman, acquired the mill where, following a long tradition in Allentown, he created one-of-a-kind furniture. Consequently, other artists followed, attracted to the shops at the mill complex.
 
Although the land behind the Mill was still being farmed, the Mill House (Steward-Cafferty House) had deteriorated and both the land and the house were vulnerable. In 1975, a housing developer came before the Borough Planning and Zoning Board and proposed constructing elderly housing in today's Heritage Park, adding a road into the development adjacent to the Cafferty Grist Mill, and tearing down the Mill House. Without final approval, they proceeded to demolish the deteriorated Mill House. One spring morning, around 6:00 AM, a bulldozer appeared at the Mill House. Alice Wikoff, (another gifted artist) in robe and hair curlers, ran across the street from her home and stood in front of the bulldozer. Hope Fire Company rang their siren. Police and residents filled the area until the bulldozer backed off.
 
Betsy Ross Poinsett, a red-headed member of the Allentown Planning and Zoning Board, was personally, and unsuccessfully sued for a million dollars for her efforts to save the Mill House and the land behind the gristmill. Fortunately, the Mill House was beautifully rehabilitated (including the earliest section in the rear), although the clapboard southern addition was lost. Afterward, Emily Hulit, a direct descendant of David Brearley, operated an antiques business at that location for many years. In 1995, the thirty-eight acres behind the gristmill became Heritage Park. Another red-head, Ann Marie Horner, a member of the Allentown Borough Council and Council liaison to the Recreation Commission, spearheaded this somewhat controversial land preservation project.
 
The downtown Baptist Church was heavily damaged by fire in 1972 and the congregation moved to the outskirts of Allentown. That same year, the Allentown Library Association purchased the burned-out shell of the former church and began the arduous task of rebuilding the space for use as the Allentown Library with the help of donations, grants and loans. Joan Ruddiman, a gifted local educator, assumed the Presidency of the Library Association in 1983. She insisted that the library be renovated in accordance with historic preservation standards. The Library Association received a New Jersey State Historic Preservation Award in 2005 for saving the building from demolition and preserving the building for adaptive reuse – a cutting-edge preservation technique at the time. Finally, after so many years of relocations, the Allentown Library had a permanent home at 16 S. Main Street. Unfortunately, the Union African Methodist Episcopal Church on Church Street had earlier been so severely damaged by fire that it could not be saved. Thankfully, donations and volunteer fund-raising efforts allowed for the construction of a new house of worship in 1986.
 
Throughout the 20th century, creative people made their contribution working in the arts while  living in Allentown. Andrew Rudin, a noted acoustic composer was reviewed by Daniel Webster of the Philadelphia Inquirer on February 27th, 1976, who wrote “The jewel of the evening was Andrew Rudin's “Museum Pieces. [The] pieces are descendants of the 19th century suite ... in the manner of 1975.” Kenneth Zammit Tabona, reviewed his work in The Sunday Times, Malta, December 12th, 2010, stating – “I love what I heard of Andrew Rudin, a true blue contemporary, born in 1939, the Sonata for Violin and Piano, I am convinced, sooner rather than later, will be included in the top repertoires in the genre, along with Cesar Franck and the Brahms third.”
 
Vicki Esposito, Associate Professor of Costume Design at the Mason Gross School of the Arts Theater Department at Rutgers, designed costumes for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater for twenty years. Louis J. Stalsworth shares a dedication to the theater as a playwright and director, with his wife, Kate Pinner, a set and costume designer. Kate and Lou have worked together for thirty years, now working under the name of PinnWorth Productions. Rudin, Esposito, Pinner and Stalsworth, are all currently living on Main Street. These four join countless other accomplished examples – painters, photographers, ceramic artists, metal workers – even an opera singer.
 
The invention and mass marketing of the personal computer and the internet is sometimes referred to as the third Industrial Revolution. Personal computers and improved communication by cell phones, allowed businesses to locate anywhere and expand their reach. Small family manufac- turing businesses returned to Allentown homes again when Terry Horner, in 1974, moved his start-up, home-based business to Allentown from a farmhouse in Upper Freehold Township. He devel- oped disposable plastic mixers for mixing paint and began manufacturing and sales from 143 S. Main Street (Wm. T. Pierce House). The business, TAH Industries, grew both nationally and internationally, moving into Northeast Business Park in Robbinsville Township. It was sold in August 2007. At 88 S. Main Street (J. W. Naylor House), another inventor, Ronald Dunster, described as a big-hearted gregarious man, assembled and shipped his patented grounding device to prevent fires in grain silos, worldwide.
                                                                                                                                                      
In 1979, the Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society proceeded with grants from the State of New Jersey and the Allentown Environmental Commission to inventory all historic structures and cemeteries in Allentown. Cynthia Goldsmith, an Architectural Historian, was engaged to work with the Historical Society's core committee. Gail Hunton, Architectural Historian and James McCabe, also assisted to complete this extensive project. Cynthia Goldsmith wrote in her assessment that the Allentown streetscape “presented a picture-book history of American archi- tectural development” that “spanned both the length and breadth of the Borough's boundaries.” In 1982, the project was completed and the district was accepted for inclusion in both the State and National Registers of Historic Sites. The Allentown Historic District became one of the largest contiguous historic districts in New Jersey with 226 approved individual sites.
 
The Allentown Historic Sites Survey found at least twenty-one styles of architecture in the district, including; Greek Revival, Roman Classicism,Vernacular Traditional, Victorian Commercial, Vernacular Victorian, Victorian Eclectic, Victorian Double House, Italianate, Carpenter Gothic, Second Empire, Queen Ann, Beaux Arts, Classicism, Twentieth Century Commercial, Colonial Revival, Bungalow, Executive Tudor,  Federal, Georgian, Country Georgian, and Bungaloid.
 
In 1983, Conine's Mill Pond was dredged using a suction method, after the lake had become unsightly with lily-pads on the surface – the water was barely visible. Although the pond was a designated Federal Wildlife Preserve, runoff from upstream farms had polluted the water. The Chairwoman of the Allentown Borough Environmental Commission, Betsy Poinsett, led the tedious effort to acquire grant funding and over a ten-year period, she accumulated a four feet tall stack of paperwork. Included in that project was the acquisition and dedication of the land for Mill Pond Park. As a result of the dredging, the pond was too deep to properly freeze in the winter to safely accommodate general ice skating as well as ice hockey, an inter-generational Allentown tradition from at least the beginning of the 20th century.
 
When Mercer County considered locating a toxic waste incinerator adjacent to Allentown in the
mid-1980s, Stuart Fierstein organized the opposition. With townspeople in both Allentown and Washington Township (now Robbinsville) opposed, Residents of Allentown Guarding the Environment (RAGE), as Fierstein's group was called, ignited citizens to action. The result was a public hearing on the issue at Mercer County Community College, when the site was dropped from consideration. Due to a volunteer's efforts, the Federal Aviation Administration informed Mercer County that the location was unacceptable since it might attract birds near the Robbinsville Airport. This activism propelled Mr. Fierstein into Allentown's mayoralship in 1992.
 
Allentown was not the only community in New Jersey adjacent to other towns or counties, whose neighbors were not considering them in their planning. Regional planning in New Jersey was generally weak due to the municipal “home rule” prerogative in zoning. In response, the State, supported by the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association, launched “The State Plan and Redevelopment Plan,” intended as a master planning tutorial. Each municipality first studied their own jurisdictions, and then met with adjacent communities, under State and County auspices, to work out differences, getting all levels of government on the same page. The result was expected to improve the quality of life, provide for a more efficient use of resources, combat urban sprawl, and protect natural and historic resources in the State. This ambitious process took almost a decade to complete and fortunately alerted Allentown officials to future problems. 
 
The Twenty-first Century
 
The early years of the century were a time of trial for Allentown's citizens due to several over- arching trends such as poor regional planning, threats of terrorism, increased internet sales, and The Great Recession. Allentown's Mayor and Council were overwhelmed dealing with problems outside their direct control, which resulted in more citizen participation.
 
In the spring of 2001, Allentown was included in Preservation New Jersey's annual list of Threatened and Endangered Historic Sites, as the featured example of a “vanishing, rural Village.” The designation was due to the potential for commercial development in the setting of Allentown's Historic District and excessive truck traffic on its historically narrow roads. The associated publicity was helpful to Allentown in acquiring a long-sought after official “Village” designation on the “State Plan and Redevelopment Plan.”
 
Following the terrorist attacks which destroyed New York City's World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, the Allentown First Aid Squad mobilized to provide transport and triage services to assist the wounded. One First Aid group went to Liberty State Park in Jersey City and another went to Alaire State Park in Monmouth County but no survivors arrived at these two staging areas. An Allentown resident and former Borough Councilman was directly involved in securing the region. Jerry Rovner, Captain of the Naval Militia, and Navy deep sea diver, helped locate medical teams to Ground Zero and provided waterborne security underneath the George Washington Bridge as well as around area nuclear power plants.
 
Soon thereafter, an anthrax mail attack occurred when anthrax-laced letters were mailed at the U.S. Post Office processing center located nearby in Hamilton Township, Mercer County. The Allentown Post Office became contaminated since the Hamilton facility also handled Allentown's mail. Residents received irradiated mail in clear, zip-lock plastic bags until both facilities were thoroughly decontaminated.
 
At the direction of the United States Congress, the National Park Service studied the historic resources in New Jersey associated with the American Revolution. In 2002, the Department of the  Interior recommended a “Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area,” which included Allentown, be officially designated. The Heritage Area is managed by local organizations and partnerships, but is guided by the National Park Service to promote tourism and preserve unique New Jersey resources. As a result of this designation, research of Allentown's role in the Revolution uncovered a vast treasure trove of unexplored American history.
 
In order to encourage historic tourism, in 2006, a twenty-four mile regional loop of roadwork in Upper Freehold and Allentown, was designated a federal and state scenic byway called the “Upper Freehold Historic Farmland Byway.” The Monmouth County byway begins at the Allentown Presbyterian Church and ends at Walnford Mill in Upper Freehold Township. There are seventeen Allentown historic sites designated as points of interest along the program route which meanders through protected agricultural areas of Upper Freehold Township. (By 2016, Upper Freehold had over 13,473 acres in protected farmland and open space.) The New Jersey Scenic Byways program is part of the National Scenic Byways program, established in 1993, and managed by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
 
In 2006, The Rockefeller Group International came before the Upper Freehold Township Planning Board seeking approval to build a complex of four-story warehouses across Breza Road, behind St. John's Catholic Church and adjacent to Allentown's Heritage Park. In response, Keith Becker, a former Allentonian and current resident of Upper Freehold Township, Micah Rasmussen, and Mike Renzuli, formed Communities United, comprised of more than 2,000 citizens from both communities. After a contentious debate over the fate of the warehouses, the project was fortunately defeated. The Greenbelt Group, a coalition led by Ann Garrison and Greg Westfall (current Mayor), brought in Kathy Haake from The Trust for Public Land, a Washington D.C.-based land trust to assemble funds to preserve most of the land as parks. As a result of the preservation of the Breza Road area parks, Robbinsville Township preserved the former Kulp property along Rt. 526, adjacent to Heritage Park. Mayor Stuart Fierstein, an environmentalist and the longest serving Mayor of Allentown, showed particular courage and leadership during the fight against the warehouses. The Mayors of both Upper Freehold Township and Allentown Borough participated in the creation of the Breza Road area parks.
 
Another portion of the Breza Road property was purchased by the Upper Freehold Regional School District as the site of the Stone Bridge Middle School in 2008. After the previous site selected was stalled by New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection due to multiple environmental issues, William Borkowski, of the Upper Freehold Regional School Board, led the  difficult effort to relocate the school site. Its final location in a historic farmland setting surround- ed by permanent open space in both Upper Freehold and Allentown benefited the children of both communities.
 
By 2010, retail businesses on Main Street and Church Street were struggling, with one-third of the storefronts standing empty. Online sales pressured the remaining local retail businesses. The ten-year period preceding the reconstruction of the Main Street dam, and The Great Recession which began in 2007, had taken their toll. Monmouth County took temporary possession of the mill by eminent domain for the dam construction forcing anchor businesses to relocate at that time. Allentown businesses faced competition from newly developed restaurants and retail along U.S. Route 130 in Hamilton and Robbinsville Townships, Mercer County.
 
The construction of a new Main Street bridge and dam by Monmouth County, to replace the 1921 steel and concrete bridge, was problematic from the beginning. The New Jersey State Historic Sites Council required that the design be 1930s Art Deco Period, executed in concrete. After Borough Historian Alice Wikoff, raised the alarm, she and several residents, aided by Mayor Fierstein and Monmouth County, were successful in altering the design to an earlier, more appro- priate historic period.
 
With the bridge and dam construction not yet complete, Hurricane Irene visited Allentown with a vengeance on August 27th and 28th of 2011, dropping eight inches of rain. Not since 1936, when a hurricane felled over 100 trees in Allentown, had the town faced such serious damage. Excess water could not reach the dam to go downstream due to construction machinery, debris, and gravel from a temporary road, which blocked the spillway. Water then began flooding nearby properties, causing extensive damage to several homes and businesses located near the mill site, and washing out the roadway. When Monmouth County failed to open the dam gates after the gravel from the temporary road was removed, someone went out under cover of night and opened them with a pipe-wrench – a slow process which protected the downtown from further flooding.
 
The Allentown streetscape had fallen into a serious state of disrepair with heaving sidewalks and damaged curbs – particularly downtown. Banks foreclosed on many homes and eleven historic homes, some vacant for over thirty years, were left to deteriorate by neglect. Revitalization of the downtown area became an urgent concern by all. The Allentown Village Initiative (TAVI), an organization dedicated to Village revitalization, held their first board meeting in August, 2014. In November 2014, TAVI became an Associate Tier Main Street™ New Jersey program, the State coordinating program of the National Main Street Center, Inc.™, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In December 2015, the Borough of Allentown approved a vacant property ordinance to address neglected properties and enforcement began in 2016.
 
The Borough of Allentown formed the Historic Streetscape Committee in 2015 to work with Carmela Roberts, P.E. and Cameron Corini of Roberts Engineering, the Allentown Borough Engineers, to recommend design elements for a new streetscape. Borough Councilwoman Madeline Gavin chaired the Streetscape Committee. By 2016, the first phase of the award-winning Allentown Downtown Historic Streetscape Project resulted in an improved downtown business environment with new sidewalks, decorative streetlights, and street furniture.
 
By 2011, rumblings of another Industrial Revolution were audible. This segment of industrial progress anticipates the integration of computer electronics and artificial intelligence into every- day appliances and equipment called the “Internet of Things.” Examples include drone delivery, driverless cars, and the development of robots. Anxieties were expressed around the world that these changes would displace large numbers of workers, and that Artificial Intelligence posed a grave danger to mankind. Climate change, sustainability, and renewable energy continue to drive planning. How will this affect Allentown?
 
Challenges posed by over-zoning in the region; continuing unresolved traffic problems; conflicts
overseas; a shrinking middle-class; online retailing; poor regional planning; and declining United States economic power, remain. Whether or not these problems are successfully addressed will determine the Village's future. If history is any guide, Allentown's people will rise to the occasion, and prevail.
 
 

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Since the historical documentation and research of the general history of the Allentown area is among the most thorough in New Jersey, the authors would like to acknowledge all the historians that dedicated their lives to documenting Allentown history, Charles R. Hutchinson (1838-1927), Charles H. Fidler (1842-1922), John W. Naylor (1870-1952), F. Dean Storms (1885-1982), Ellis F. Hull (1907-2002), Joe Truncer (1907-2000), Malcolm Knowles (1919-2010), Mary Clark (1925-2015), Alice Wikoff (1927-), and John Fabiano (1952-). The authors would also like to thank all the other people who have graciously contributed to this effort.
 
Based on text originally prepared by Ann Garrison and Betsy Poinsett, 1989.
Revised by John Fabiano, Ann Garrison, Alice Wikoff, Elizabeth Poinsett and Martha Ploshay, October 26, 2005.
Revised by John Fabiano, Ann Garrison, Martha Ploshay, and Alice Wikoff (Allentown Borough Historian). December 5, 2016.
 
First adopted by the Allentown Historic Preservation Review Commission, September 6, 1989; Memorialized October 4, 1989.
2005 revision adopted by the Allentown Historic Preservation Review Commission, Elizabeth Poinsett, Chair, May 6, 2006.
 
 
Bibliography available upon request.                                         FEEL FREE TO DUPLICATE THIS DOCUMENT
 
 
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