Below are stories about the history of Matawan Township and Aberdeen Township, including the neighborhoods of Cliffwood, Cliffwood Beach, River Gardens, Santa Fe, Oak Shades, Freneau, and Strathmore.
The Cliffwood School
by Edward Fitzgerald Image above: Cliffwood School (with 1922 addition) photographed in 1936. At over 170 years the Cliffwood School campus is the oldest site in the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional [...]
Henninger’s Mill
Heinrich Henninger was born 27 October 1844 in Baden, son of Joseph and Cecelia (Mueller) Henninger. He arrived aboard the City of Cork from Antwerp in November 1867 and took [...]
Dobson Brothers / Wallace Sisters
(Dobson Banjo Ad Source: New York Clipper, 14 Oct 1882) For a time in the late 19th century, what is now known as Cliffwood Beach was the home of a [...]
Clinton S Bassett
Clinton Sewall Bassett (1896-1991) managed the swimming pool at Cliffwood Beach for several summers starting in 1929 or 1930. He served as both head of the lifeguard team and swimming [...]
The Shady Side of Early Oak Shades
Below are summaries of an assortment of newspaper articles mentioning crime in Oak Shades between 1868 and 1929. The influx of migrants seeking jobs in the brickyards, tile and pottery [...]
Strathmore: Early History (1961-62)
The nationally prominent developer Levitt and Sons approached the Matawan Township Planning Board in April 1961 seeking to build a large housing development in the southeast corner of the township. [...]
Township Hall
In the early days of what is now Aberdeen Township, New Jersey, Matawan Township business was conducted wherever space to meet could be found. No town hall was built for [...]
Cliffwood House
The Cliffwood House was a resort hotel built in the 1850’s in Matavan Township by New York City lawyer and land baron Henry L Clarke. He bought many acres of [...]
The Pirate Ship
Land developer Morrisey & Walker established the Treasure Lake section of Cliffwood Beach in Matawan Township (present day Aberdeen) in 1924. As part of their ad campaign, they decided to [...]
Bell Laboratories Experimental Station at Cliffwood
While there has been much focus on the Bell Laboratories facility in Holmdel, NJ as the site of Karl Jansky’s discovery of radio waves from the center of our Milky [...]