Maplewood Then & Now archived

Sometimes I search for maplewood nj on Ebay, and I'll find postings of old postcards. Here's one from about 1912. It shows a view from Ridgewood Road, looking up Maple Terrace towards the reservation. And below that, the same view taken yesterday. Check out how all the houses are dwarfed by the trees now.

bpod said:

Sometimes I search for maplewood nj on Ebay, and I'll find postings of old postcards. Here's one from about 1912. It shows a view from Ridgewood Road, looking up Maple Terrace towards the reservation. And below that, the same view taken yesterday. Check out how all the houses are dwarfed by the trees now.

That's great! Thanks for posting.

Very cool.

Do you also search on South Orange?

kthnry said:

Do you also search on South Orange?

I haven't, but that's just because I don't live there! I'm sure there's photos there of SO as well.

Great overlay. Thanks for sharing that.

Awesome!

Cool!

Great pic, but I'm confused though. If Maplewood did not become Maplewood Township until 1922, why does it say Maplewood Township? Do you think it was added later? The dating of the picture has to be pretty correct, though...

It says Maplewood. I think the area around the village, and this isn't far, was known as Maplewood before it incorporated. I could be wrong.

I thought it was known as the Maplewood section of S.O.?

Yeah, that's why I wondered about SO. I believe Maplewood used to be part of SO.

Yes, that too.

When the Village of South Orange separated from the rest of the Township of South Orange, the Township changed its name after a few years to Maplewood, which was the name of the train stop and the area around it. That's probably why, for example, the Maplewood Country Club was founded with the "Maplewood" name even before the Township changed to Maplewood Township.

From Wikipedia:

The three communities operated independently, each establishing their own school associations: South Orange established the Columbian School in 1814, which would form the basis of Columbia High School; North Farms established the North Farms Association in 1817; and Jefferson Village the Jefferson Association in 1818. In 1867, when the State of New Jersey established public education through the School Law, the newly appointed County Superintendent merged the three associations into one school district, which was formalized in 1894 as the South Orange-Maplewood School District. James Ricalton, a teacher born in Waddington, New York of Scottish parents, set the high standard of education that persists in the school district to this day.

Maplewood was originally formed as South Orange Township, which was created on April 1, 1861, from portions of Clinton Township and what was then the Town of Orange. Portions of the township were taken to form South Orange village (established May 4, 1869, within the township and became fully independent on March 4, 1904) and Vailsburg borough (formed March 28, 1904, and annexed by Newark on January 1, 1905) The name of the township was changed to Maplewood on November 7, 1922.[23]

My lovely wife @debpod searched and found another old picture of Maplewood Village. Based on the cars, I'd say it's early 1920s? And then below, taken this morning on the way to the train. The concrete building on the left says 1932 on it, so the old picture is at least before then.

If you want to see more oldtime views and postcards just type Maplewood, NJ on EBay and you will get about three pages. Same thing for SO and WO, although the latter is dominated by Lewelyn Park and Thomas Edison.

Things were better back then.

zombie_zoinks said:

Things were better back then.

this is great! love it! Reminds of a thread from a long time ago about having roots in the area. I need to search for that thread again - it was a fun read!

zombie_zoinks said:

Things were better back then.

Looks like the trees were taller back then, at least.

No line in front of Arturo's in 1920!

I wonder what happened to the second story on the building that houses Words and the Ice Cream place?

stateguy said:

No line in front of Arturo's in 1920!

Looks like a nice big sidewalk though. I say get rid of parking on Maplewood Avenue, and get some big sidewalks back in.

bpod said:

My lovely wife @debpod searched and found another old picture of Maplewood Village. Based on the cars, I'd say it's early 1920s? And then below, taken this morning on the way to the train. The concrete building on the left says 1932 on it, so the old picture is at least before then.

It's grainy, but if you look closely, you can see someone making a left into a parking spot...

noo2wood said:

I wonder what happened to the second story on the building that houses Words and the Ice Cream place?

Looks like they knocked it down, and built the current one-story structure in 1932.

grahamb said:

bpod said:

My lovely wife @debpod searched and found another old picture of Maplewood Village. Based on the cars, I'd say it's early 1920s? And then below, taken this morning on the way to the train. The concrete building on the left says 1932 on it, so the old picture is at least before then.

It's grainy, but if you look closely, you can see someone making a left into a parking spot...

Those bastards!