History of Metuchen

A Brief History

     The earliest known residents of the area were members of a subtribe of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. The first Europeans arrived in 1665 under the leadership of Lord Carteret. To populate the region, Carteret traveled to New England where he encouraged others to return south by the promise of generous land grants. One of the earliest records relating to the area is a bill of sale from the Indians to Lord Carteret dated 1677.

     It has become generally accepted that the area became known as Metuchen after the Indian chief, Matouchin, who lived between 1630 and 1700. The Lenape word “Matouchin” or “Metachen” either means “firewood” (there was supposedly abundant dry firewood in the region), or “rolling hills” (foothills of the Watchung range).

     As the area became settled, a small farming village developed at the crossroads, and a meeting house was built in 1717. The first commercial establishments were a general store and taverns. A tavern, known as Harriot’s Inn, was located on the site of the present Borough Hall, and another, Mrs. Catharine Allen’s tavern, was built in 1740 on Durham Avenue next to the present Campbell School. This building, known as the King House, is one of the oldest in town and is now a private residence.

     In the early 19th century, Metuchen grew as a way station for coaches carrying passengers between New York City, Newark, Perth Amboy, New Brunswick and Trenton, as two of the most important of the early turnpikes passed through the town. One was the Middlesex-Essex Turnpike (now Route 27), which ran from Newark to New Brunswick, and the second, the Perth Amboy Turnpike, followed the current Amboy Avenue from Perth Amboy to Piscatawaytown.

     In 1835, Metuchen became a stop on the New Jersey Railroad (later the Pennsylvania Railroad, now Amtrak) and the easy travel it afforded allowed Metuchen to become, in the period after the Civil War, a bedroom community of New York City. Many of Metuchen’s older homes were built during this era, as was Metuchen’s train station (1888), one of the oldest in New Jersey.

     Through the 18th century, an area called “Metuching” was bounded on the south by the Raritan River, on the west by Piscataway, on the north by the Short Hills, and on the east by Rahway. In March 1870, an act of the State Legislature created a new township named Raritan, formed from parts of Woodbridge and Piscataway, that extended north from the Raritan River about three miles, and Metuchen became the natural center of this area. It stayed that way until 1900, when Metuchen broke away from the township to become an independent borough.

     Today, Metuchen and surrounding Edison Township have a combined population of about 120,000 people. Metuchen continues to attract people for the same reasons it has for the past 100 years: good schools, fine homes, good transportation and friendly people.