■■■bX'--i Idtekn Twp. Pub-1 34<yPlainiield AvO gdtaon, N. J. O te n NOT. TO BE TAKEN FROM UBBAHT SAM O'AMICO/The News Tribune Andy Hoffman waiting for a ride near the Blueberry Manor Apartments off Plainfield Avenue in Edison’s Stelton section. Stelton a ‘bit of everything’ Edison section has tree-lined streets, strip malls, condos By ANTHONY A. GALLOnO News Tribune Staff Writer EDISON “Mixed nuts” is how William Burnstile describes the town’s Stelton section. “It’s a little bit of everything, but it’s nice to come home to,” says the 58-year- old New York native who moveid to Stelton in 1987. Burnstile quibbles over the word “neighborhood.” “It’s not a neighbor­ hood in the New York sense of the word. Like I said, there’s a bit of every­ thing.” The older Stelton section sits north of Route 27 on a series of tree-line streets that branch off Plainfield Road. The Edison train station, off Central Ave­ nue, divides that community from a JEFFERY COHEOTIw Nww Tribuna are a string of newer town houses, said Jeff Schwartz, the administrator at condominiums, and apartment com­ the 348-patient Edison Estates Re­ plexes bordered by strip malls. habilitation and Convalescent Center on “It’s a strange little area,” Eisenhower Brunswick Avenue. NEIGHBORHOODS Drive resident Betty Ryan said. “The growth has been good for the “There’s a very quick change, visually, economy and property values are up. It’s driving up here from Route 27.” nice---- The area has developed but not distinctly different and more modern “There’s this older, typically quaint, overdeveloped,” Schwartz said. one. residential area, and all of a sudden they Developers began taking an interest South of the train station, one- and disappear from view and you see in the wooded areas and the few homes two-family homes line quiet streets. this ...” Ryan said as she gestured to that dotted the area north of the train North of it, industrial and commercial the two-story Edison Village condomin­ station in the early 1970s. Growth buildings rise up along Plainfield Road iums. brought two unwelcomed side effects: at the Sutton-Kilmer Industrial Cam­ traffic and crime. “This entire area has undergone a “Some mornings, it’s awful driving pus. tremendous metamorphosis from the Off Plainfield and Brunswick avenues woods I saw here 12 or 15 years ago,” See STELTON Page B-2 > \S o n EDISO N JOB CORPS CENTER iMHoroMsun \i& DEPARTMENT OF LA80A SESViCES lit SAM D'AMICO/The News Tribune The Job Corps Center off Plainfield Avenue, a fixture in Edison’s Stelton section. Stelton, in Edison, has a character all its own Continued from Page B-1 soon stuck. people 16 to 24 years of age who Stelton never was a town in its spend between six months and out of here to get to work,” own right, but originally part of two years living at the facility Elizabeth Hanley, a Blueberry Piscataway. Raritan, later Edi­ that was once part of Camp Village resident, said. “The son Township, was formed from Kilmer. * trucks and cars leave this gaso­ parts of Woodbridge and Piscat­ line smell that hangs in the air all away, and Stelton became a Dorothy Copeland, a Job day.” neighborhood in the new town. Corps spokeswoman, said many Plainfield Avenue is a heavily Municipal officials attribute of the 458 students who live in traveled north-south route from recent residential growth in the barracks near Plainfield Road Edison to Piscataway and Som­ area, in part, to the proximity.to are inner-city youths from North erset County. The light indus­ the train station. Jersey who are working to get trial firms at the Kilmer campus “New York is only a train ride their high school equivalency and warehouses off Brunswick diplomas and learn trades. Avenue near Talmadge Road away,” stock analyst Stephen Woodlow said last week as he brought more truck traffic to the Whether it is true or not — busy artery. waited on the station’s platform for his morning train. “For me, and there are no statistics that Hanley praised local officials that’s the appeal. I like to leave prove it is — the perception that for fixing one of the area’s worst the cement jungle behind at area crime can be traced to the traffic problems — the intersec­ night.” Job Corps is one shared by many tion of Plainfield Avenue and neighborhood residents. Route 27. Woodlow lives in Blueberry “It used to be impossible to Village. “It’s a quiet develop­ Edison Police Chief Richard J. turn from one [street] onto the ment for the most part,” he said. Kermes, who lived in Blueberry other down there,” she said. Last “But it’s got its problems.” Village before moving to Hunter­ year, the signal was reset to allow Like more than a dozen other don County last fall, said, “On a vehicles through the intersection development dwellers, home- few occasions, I came home from from one side at a time. owners, and merchants in the work and found teen-agers, who Among the first residential Stelton area, Woodlow said wan­ I presume were from the Job dering groups of teen-agers often complexes built in Stelton, north Corps, on the deck outside my of the train station, was the disturb the peace he likes to come home to at night. condo or milling around outside. Rivendell Apartment Complex, It was cause for some concern — “Summer is the worst,” a Cen­ built in the mid-1970s. for me and my neighbors.” Since then, large condomini­ tral Avenue homeowner said. ums and town houses like Edison “At night, kids roam all over, Statistics kept by the police Village, Edison Manor, and and in the morning there are department show that, since Blueberry Village have cropped broken beer and soda bottles on January 1989, there have been up on Plainfield Avenue. the sidewalks and trash left on 533 larcenies, 254 stolen cars, All are modern developments the lawns.” 225 assaults, and 221 burglaries. to a neighborhood that dates The homeowner, who asked from the 17th century. not to be identified, said the “Some of these crimes are Stelton was settled by problem “is not our neighbor­ connected with youths from Job Europeans in 1666, according to hood kids, but those Job Corps Corps, of course, others are David C. Sheehan, president and kids.” n o t. ” said police Capt. George . founder of the Edison Historical The Edison Job Corps, funded Macechok, who oversees the de- ; Society, and the name of the first through the U.S. Department of partment’s records. “There’s settlers — the Stelle family — Labor, is a training program for nothing definitive to say.” w m office*. The tree, located along the ' Raritan River, was once a military arsenal, but the government sold it Thom- to developers in the 1960s. ffUMQ j, ’* '• >'A " ■ * *•'■» e lit -t o o t , by* lM s* . other Middlesex County town, ejiltrf. lamp replica? miaes (he diversity hidden in the sprawling residential developments. the township Of Central Haw Jersey s suburban e-Pafk series aomsatiiUlaar. t ..« w «t pital), and nearly 40 neighborhood parks and playgrounds. Progress, however, has meant slew of other towns, including flayna lie Jams freydiRi'V ^ ig m W w viiie. East Brunswick, New Bruns­ cinity of Plainfield Avenue and Men* wick, Highland Park, PisoaUway, lo Park Mall Shopping Center. Other South Plainfifeld Scotch Plains major roads running through the Clark, and Woodbridge. < township include Route 267 and the , Once a mutucinaUtv with distinct New Jersey Tarppike. Populationi 7a, 132 ‘ r Govammant: Mayor*. council easeutiat subur- C o u n c il: George Spadoro what other com- president; George Asprooolaa, Henry Cackowskl, Oarp*hy prwal, Sidney Frank#!* John J .j ^ l Hogan, and Angelo Orlando Jr., all Democrats M a y o r: Anthony M. Yelencsics, Democrat per $ 100 of assessed value VV^trorrv^ O ie*er<xl^ , Edison Twp. Pub. Libriiy 3 4 0 PtwnfteM km. Edison. N. J. 0 6 8 1 7 Edison’s rich histo TO BE TAKER With the explosive increase in railroad that currently serves Edi­ tree-llri J^BRARY the housing development, many son. Tracks on the New Jersey In 1875 a combination dwelling- Edison residents are unaware of Railroad were completed between store-post office-depot was built the great historyVef the township, Jersey City and New Brunswick in by the side of the railroad tracks especially that of the Stelton 1835. The first steam train passed and, until the early 1960’s, served Neighborhood, on6 New Jer- through Edison at 15 miles per the community as the Pennsylva­ sey’s oldest and mo attractive hour in January 1836, signaling nia Railroad Station of Stelton. neighborhoods. 4 the beginning of an active railroad In a sense, it is the history of the Edison Township, In^w^ as for our area. A bridge across the Stelton Neighborhood that has Raritan until 1954, was first'set- Raritan River was erected and rallied its residents to oppose the tled in the late 1600s, when it was opened on Jan. 1,1838. plans of the New Jersey Transit to part of Woodbridge and Piscata- And, in 1839, when the New Jer­ further expand the railroad sta­ way. Most of the first families sey and Camden railroads were tion parking lot. We have main­ came from the area of Newburg, connected at New Brunswick, the tained many of the community Mass, and their descendants are first through train service be­ traditions of the past We have de­ still found in our community.