The area we now know as Montclair was for thousands of years part of the lands traversed by the Lenni-Lenape Indians. These Native Americans were a branch of the Algonquin, hunting and trapping on the land, and crossing and re-crossing the mountains to gather shellfish at the shore.
Area names such as Watchung (on the hill), and Yantacaw (place of dancing) commemorate this heritage. The Lenni-Lenape weren't interested in settling down, however, and the first permanent settlers were the English from Connecticut in 1666, followed by the Dutch in the 1670s, who established farms and orchards.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, slavery was practiced in Montclair and surrounding towns. A 200-year-old house still standing at 369 Claremont Avenue in Montclair is believed to have once been the slave quarters for the Crane family. Records show that General Nathaniel Crane gave the house to one of his former slaves, James Howe , in 1831. Montclair also maintains the country's smallest national park on the original site of the Israel Crane family home, where George Washington stayed during his retreat from Trenton during the Revolutionary War. A later Israel Crane home also survives , the 1796 Federal style house now owned and maintained by the Montclair Historical Society.
Montclair, and all of surrounding Essex County, was mostly agrarian until the coming of the Newark and Bloomfield Railroads in 1856. By the time Montclair became a separate township in 1868, it was well on its way to becoming a New York City commuter suburb . By the early 20th century, Montclair was a richly diverse "country town," an attractive housing alternative to the crowded, crime-ridden metropolitan areas nearer the Big Apple. African-Americans from the South and Irish, Germans, Italians and Scandinavians newly arrived from Europe joined an influx of New Englanders there.
The Montclair Inn
One relic of Montclair's past, the Montclair Inn, was built in 1855 as a resort hotel. Four years later it became the Hillside Seminary for Young Ladies, but over the next century it slid considerably lower on the respectability scale. By the early 1990s it had degenerated to a boarding house of shady repute.
As sometimes happens, however, not only did the once-stately old home need a helping hand-- the community also needed affordable housing for senior citizens. Largely due to the efforts members of the city's Unitarian Church, the Montclair Shared Housing Association was formed and raised a half-million dollars to purchase the building.
Over the past seven years restoration efforts have turned the inn from little more than a decaying shell to a gracious, inviting residence for the elderly. Somehow it seems fitting that a grand old lady who once fell on hard times has been reborn as a haven for other worthy treasures of a caring community.
Resources Montclair Shared Housing Association
Montclair Shared Housing Association
Phone: 973-746-8917
Guests Herbert Githens
Historic Architect
Phone: 973-746-4911
Peter Guggenheimer
Principal Architect, Helfand, Myerberg, Guggenheimer Architects
Phone: 212-925-2900
Also in this Episode
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