The Mountain Shadows Property Is Part of Pruddentown by Arthur

The Mountain Shadows Property is Part of Pruddentown ountain Shadows, Thanksgiving and Christmas Jersey was occupied by a branch of situated along Mount holidays. Also occasionally a car the Delaware Indians called the MKemble Avenue in with a “Zamrok” license plate is Lenni Lenape—“original people.” historic Morris Township, is a spotted in the area—perhaps Sam The Indians came from the west colonial styled townhouse complex. Masucci is related to a Zamrok. with the Mengwe or Iroquois Fifteen single family townhouses The land occupied by Mountain tribes and occupied the region on Zamrok Way are at the base of Shadows has historical significance bordered by the great salt water the eastern face of Mount Kemble. being next to Pruddentown, a lake and bounded by four great The complex, two miles south of 1770s colonial manufacturing rivers; the Hudson, Delaware, the Morristown Green, was built in community. At the entrance to Susquehanna and Potomac. 1984, and has blended in with the Zamrok Way is a two hundred year In the 1600s, New Jersey was wooded countryside. Sam Masucci, old hickory tree that can attest to inhabited by Swedish and Dutch of Forest Dale Associates, built the changes to the landscape as settlers who traded for furs with Mountain Shadows, the Shadow Pruddentown expanded along the Native Americans. The settlers Brook Townhouses and the Mount Kemble Avenue from multiplied and in the early 1700s, Applewood homes. For several Skyline Drive to Sand Spring the land was politically subdivided years after the completion of the Road. into counties. Morris County, townhouses, the residents were originally part of Hunterdon amazed when an unknown The First Settlers County, was created in 1738, and benefactor decorated the “Zamrok The story of Mount Kemble named after the Governor of the Way” street sign with straw and Avenue and Pruddentown begins at Province, Lewis Morris. The red and gold ribbons, for the the time of discovery, when New British seized control of the area by Arthur Mierisch Morris County’s 1770 Industrial Complex O Arthur Mierisch O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 5 O September 2009 MORRISTOWN MT. KEMBLE Madison Ave. MOUNTAIN SHADOWS South St. PRUDDENTOWNPRUDDENTOWN Baily Hollow Rd. James St.James ay Zamrock W Old Harter Rd. Sand Spring Rd. MORRIS TWP. Spring Valley Rd. Mt. Kemble Ave. Glen Alpin Rd. HARDING from the Dutch in 1664. The first Southhold, Long Island, and New Township in 1806, Passaic Europeans settled in Morristown Haven, Connecticut, was named Township (now Long Hill in 1715, and four years later, the the Village of New Hanover. The Township) in 1866, and lastly colonists established an iron mine colonists, farmers seeking new Morristown in 1865. in Morris County. fertile land for growing crops, A traveler going north from Iron was an important mineral settled along the Whippany River Mountain Shadows towards in the state—a necessity eagerly in Morristown. Morris Township Morristown along Mount Kemble sought for making tools, was established in 1740 and Avenue (US Rte. 202) will quickly machinery, household items and portions of the township were notice the Pruddentown Historic weapons. Independently operated immediately taken to form the District sign. The sign is at the smelting furnaces soon appeared Roxbury and Mendham southern part of an eighteenth in Morris, Sussex, Warren, Passaic Townships. Morris Township, part century town that was Morris and Hunterdon Counties, and in of Morris County, was County’s first industrial complex. total produced several hundred incorporated as a township by an Even though the Pruddentown thousand tons of iron annually. In Act of the New Jersey Legislature ovens were razed in 1910, the the 1730s, Morristown, settled by in 1798. Portions of the township towns colonial styled homes built English Presbyterians from were then taken to create Chatham in the eighteenth and nineteenth Morris County’s 1770 Industrial Complex O Arthur Mierisch O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 5 O September 2009 centuries were spared and are Kemble Avenue, a path slightly routes needed to transport occupied today. In the woods larger than the width of a wagon, agricultural and mineral products along Mount Kemble Avenue, ran south from Morristown to to the coastal communities. Clay, stone foundations are still found Bernardsville. The road became a used for building and fireplace and give clues about the structure highway in 1776 and given the construction, was also found in of the original town. The sounds name of “The Great Road from substantial amounts. The of the settlers and animals that Morristown to Baskenridge.” In Whippany River provided once walked along dusty Mount the early 1800s, the land south of transportation to northern New Kemble Avenue have long faded Frederick Place to Sand Spring Jersey, and two land routes to the and have been replaced with the Road was considered part of east and south connected to the sound of automobiles rushing to Pruddentown; many of the east coast and the central part of near and far destinations. No Prudden family acquired tracks of the state. To the east, longer are heard the “klippy-klop” land outside of the original Elizabethtown was reached by of horse’s hooves and wagons eighteenth century traveling through Madison, creaking along the Avenue; it was a Pruddentown and grew corn, Chatham, the gap at Short Hills, simpler time that eventually faded wheat, oats, rye and vegetables for and Springfield. Going south there and became known as the “Old their own consumption. Some of was a series of trails that Days.” the farms raised cattle and hogs meandered through Harding, for meat, hides and dairy products. Basking Ridge and Bedminster. The Settlement of Pruddentown The Mountain Settlement of Pruddentown Pruddentown existed from Shadows began in the 1730s when Joseph 1770 through 1910. property was Prudden, the son of a Newark The town once one of Puritan Minister, purchased 637 occupied these farms. acres of property along Mount 637 acres This places Kemble Avenue. He became the that began the complex largest land owner south of at Skyline in the Morristown. Prudden, using the Drive on nineteenth (1800 area’s abundant natural resources the north and to 1899) century of clay and timber, and streams continued south historic district. for water, established the Prudden along Mount Kemble Why not move the Brick Works—the first Avenue to the AT&T Historic District sign manufacturing community in property. The town to the Morris Morris Township. extended from James Township-Harding Johanna, his wife, bore four Street on the east to border? sons; Peter, Joseph, Moses and Mount Washington on the In the early Isaac. When they passed, all of west; in the 1880s the 1700s, Morristown their children received equal shares mountain’s name was attracted settlers in the estate. The Pruddens changed to Mount Kemble. moving inland from prospered and by 1860, the family Pruddentown contained 24 the Atlantic coast. had grown to fourteen lines. They buildings; half of the The land was built homes along Mount Kemble buildings were dwellings and fertile for Ave. Many of the homes exist the remaining structures were farming and today as part of the Pruddentown used for the town’s enterprises, there was a river Historic District. Joseph, active in barns and stables. Mount and land the Morristown Presbyterian Morris County’s 1770 Industrial Complex O Arthur Mierisch O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 5 O September 2009 Church, became a Deacon in quickly the congregation out-grew traveled from Somerset County 1744. The town continued to the meeting house and it was through Basking Ridge to Harding expand and numbered over sixty abandoned in 1766 in favor of a and then along Spring Valley Road people by 1910. new house built near the to South Street and arrived at the Morristown Green. The Baptist Morristown Green. The officers grave yard, thought to be at the occupied whatever base of Bailey Hollow Road, has accommodations were offered by never been found. the town’s residents. The troops 445 Mount Kemble Avenue: Today, an 1810 school house were camped at Jockey Hollow The School House, remains as a vestige of their and other locations around on the west side of the road, taught community—the school house Morristown. Mount Kemble students from 1810 most likely was built with Prudden Avenue was leveled, widened and to 1914. bricks. The school taught reading, straightened. It was used as a grammar, penmanship, arithmetic, military road to reach the Jockey algebra, geometry, history, and Hollow camp by way of Bailey temperance. A few years later, the Hollow Road. Mount Kemble Baptists from West Hanover settlement was considered part of Avenue became known by several arrived in the area during the Pruddentown. names—as the “Mountain Road,” 1750s, and settled near Mount “The Great Road,” or the “Road Kemble Avenue and Sand Spring American Revolution to Basking Ridge.” Several of Road. Two years later the George Washington and the Washington’s officers occupied congregation erected a meeting Continental Army, following their Peter Kemble’s home at Mount house near Springbrook and Bailey victories at Trenton and Princeton Kemble Avenue and Tempe Wyck Hollow Roads. In 1754, John in late 1776, took winter refuge Gano, a Princeton student, became behind the Watchung Mountains the areas first pastor; he later in Morristown and the served as a Chaplain throughout surrounding Township. They the Revolutionary War. Very Morris County’s 1770 Industrial Complex O Arthur Mierisch O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 5 O September 2009 Road. In the 1880s, the road Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Mount Kemble Avenue near Old became locally known as Mount Clinton, the British General, was Harter Road. Kemble Avenue and in the 1920s embarrassed to learn that a large African-Americans lived in the the road was given the national US force never occupied Chatham.

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