Let's begin by lamenting that the one singular iconic structure that identified historic Hillsborough Township, New Jersey was lost in a fire 89 years ago. Variously renamed by owners-of-the-moment as the Union House Tavern, or Hall's Hotel, it was best known by its first and last moniker, Woods Tavern.| Gillette On Hillsborough
Hear the phrase "asbestos hotel" in 2021 and you might be inclined to shout, "Yikes!" But to Hillsborough Township, New Jersey residents of the 1920s, those words provoked an entirely different reaction. | Gillette On Hillsborough
Foothill Acres Nursing Home - early 1960s| Gillette On Hillsborough
Two hundred years ago, at the base of the Sourland Mountain on the border of Hillsborough and Montgomery Townships where the East Mountain Road met the road to Blawenburg, there was a tiny hamlet by the name of Post Town - so named because this was a place to send and receive mail. By the 1850s the name of the little village had been changed to Plainville and soon boasted a store, two blacksmith's shops, schoolhouse, hotel, and several residences. Today they are all gone.| Gillette On Hillsborough
A year after their marriage in 1937, Thurman and Mary Lawson moved to a 4-acre homestead on North Willow Road in Hillsborough. It was there that they raised a family that eventually grew to include three daughters, several cats, and 65 dairy goats.| Gillette On Hillsborough
The reason for the question mark in the title of this piece is that much like the Ship of Theseus, DeCanto's is a paradox. With but one plank remaining from its earliest days (the barbershop) we can hardly still assert that Hillsborough's first shopping center is the same one that residents knew and loved in the 1960s. Or can we?| Gillette On Hillsborough
Gillette On Hillsborough is a blog about current events and local history of Hillsborough Township, Somerset County, and central New Jersey.| cnhillsborough.blogspot.com