The Deserted Village of Feltville is part of the The Watchung Reservation History Trail geocache.
In 1845, David Felt built a 3½ story mill, powered by water from the Blue Brook, to serve as a factory for his printing business, Stationers Hall Press. Felt built an entire town, Feltville, on the bluff overlooking the mill to house his workers. A 3-bay garage next to the mill housed ox-drawn wagons that carried Felt’s stationary products to his store in New York City. The mill was torn down in 1930.
Old Map of Feltville
Six hundred acres of open land along the Second Watchung Mountain were farmed to provide food for the residents of the mill town of Feltville. Later, the land was used by Warren Ackerman for cattle grazing and by the guests of the summer resort of Glenside Park for their recreational pursuits, including golf. Even after this land was incorporated into the Watchung Reservation in the 1920’s, a portion of this land was farmed by the Drake family up until the 1940’s. The stone foundations of the Drake Farm house and barn are still visible.
History trail Plaque
The Watchung Reservation History Trail is a 6-mile trail that visits and identifies sites of historic interest in Union County’s Watchung Reservation, a 2,000+acre preserve located in the northern portion of the County. The Reservation is an integral part of the Union County Parks system, designed by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Mass., the celebrated landscape architects who designed New York’s Central Park and scores of other notable public lands.
The Northern New Jersey Cachers, NNJC is about promoting a quality caching experience in Northern New Jersey. For information on The Northern New Jersey Cachers group you can visit: www.nnjc.org.
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