Mountain Lakes History

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Mountain Lakes History

This page is sponsored by the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee. Photograph portfolio protected by copyright. (c) Borough of Mountain Lakes.

Information concerning reprints is available at http://www.mtnlakes.org/HousePix/copies.htm

05/24/2026

While the Memorial Day Parade has been cancelled, the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee's Open House, in the Archive Room on the second floor of the Community Church (Scribble's entrance), is still on, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM!

05/05/2026

ML Traditions: Memorial Day Parade and Historic Preservation Committee Open House!
The Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee will welcome the public to our new Archive Room at the Community Church following the Parade!

03/04/2026

Sports History: Mountain Lakes Curling Champions 1939
As reported by the New York Times in their sports pages of January 30th, 1939, the Mountain Lakes Curling Club defeated Lake Mohawk (Sparta) to win what was called the 1939 New Jersey State Curling Championship. The centuries-old Scottish sport (first cited in 1541) involves positioning 44 lbs. granite stones along a 150 x 15 foot track. First played on frozen Scottish rivers during the winter months, the sport was brought to North America by Scottish immigrants (predominantly settling in Canada, where the Montreal Curling Club, the oldest continuously operating sports club in North America, was established in 1807). The first US curling competition was held in 1830. "Skip" Baillie, a Scottish immigrant who moved to Mountain Lakes, introduced the game here, and established the Mountain Lakes Curling Club. Curling has been an Olympic sport since 1998 (though it was given a trial run at the 1924 Winter Olympics). The photograph below is for reference, and is not from the Mountain Lakes Curling Club, the history of which remains to be researched...

02/02/2026

A map from 1853 (fouteen years before the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railway line came through Boonton on its way to Denville). For reference, the Parsippany Rockaway Turnpike is now Route 46, and right under where its "Parsippany" you can see an intersection once known as Cobb's Corner, which is the current intersection of Route 46 and Route 202 (by the Morris Hills Shopping Center). The next road to the west is now Intervale Road. The area in which Mountain Lakes was established was known as the "Parsippany Woods".

01/27/2026

Morris County Map from 1872; "X" marks the spot.
Many place names on this map are remembered only by road names; the number of iron mines depicted is also interesting. What was to become Mountain Lakes is marked by the blue circle, with the railroad tracks marking the original planned border.

01/11/2026

Train Station Renovation/Restoration Project Underway

Built in 1912 by the Delaware, Lackawana and Western Railroad, the Train Station in Mountain Lakes provided direct service for Mountain Lakes residents commuting the 31.2 miles into Hoboken, (and then into New York City via ferry or what is now known as the Port Authority Trans-Hudson or "PATH" train under the Hudson River). Prior to the opening of the Mountain Lakes Station, passenger service was available only through Boonton, a trolley ride away. The original rail line had two tracks: one for eastbound, and one for westbound traffic, which linked with the primary line in Denville; (rail service was so heavy that two more tracks were added to the Boonton Line in 1925-26, giving two eastbound, and two westbound lines. During the Second World War, one of the four tracks was removed so that the iron could be used in the war effort).

The original structure had Italian clay tiles on the roof, which were destroyed by a major fire at the Station in 1920, and were subsequently replaced with more standard roofing material. Owned by the Borough, but leased to a restaurant operator, an extensive renovation of the building is now underway, funded by a $430,000 grant by the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust, and a $270,000 grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust, both approved in 2024. Tiles of the original Italian Clay style will be used for the project, which will be completed in a few months.

Note: The restaurant remains open during the renovations.

11/12/2025

More on the Romaine Road Commercial Buildings:
The small commercial strip across from Mountain Lakes Motors and the current Corner Creamery/Mountain Lakes Liquors building, was built in 1925. Here are some reminiscences of longtime Laker (and former Mayor) Doug McWilliams, from a 2010 interview for the ML Historic Preservation Committee Oral Histories project (available online):

"One of my favorite memories was that after school we would go to The Market, go to the counter and you'd give the lady 50 cents and you'd pick out a hard roll then go back to the butcher shop and he would make you a cold cut sandwich of some kind, and that was always a nice afternoon snack after school. There was a sweet shop down there at the time, too. The whole Market area was quite different. The building where the Lionel Train place is (now) downstairs, I don't know if there was anything down there but a basement down back in those days, but the building up top used to house -- and I can't remember the exact order of it -- there was Richie's Drug Store. There was the Sweet Shop. I'm not sure if that was in the drug store or not, but it was basically a little dinette with a diner counter. There was the barbershop and there was Patsy the tailor. Now Patsy the Tailor, Richie and The Sweet Shop got together and pooled their resources and built the red brick building you see there today that's across the parking lot. As you face that building from the parking lot, on the right hand side was the Sweet Shop. It remained there for probably 30 years. On the left hand side, the set back there was Patsy the Tailor, and the whole center section was Richie's Drug Store...
And then after that, Mountain Lakes Realty moved into one of the slots. There was an eyeglasses doctor. I believe the office is still there. I'm not sure what other changes took place after that. Of course, they rented out the upstairs of the new building for extra income to offset what they were doing. Richie's Drug store was really a precursor to a modern drug store. He sold everything. He had model airplanes. He had gifts and knick-knacks and odds and ends, and cards. All the stuff you expect to get at a drug store today."

11/09/2025

Romaine Road Stores
An ice cream shop, "The Corner Creamery" is the newest business to open on Romaine Road, in the building built in 1964 to replace one of the original Midvale Road commercial buildings lost to a fire in 1939. When my family first arrived in town in 1966, these storefronts included the "Sweet Shoppe", the Mountain Lakes Pharmacy, and a tailor shop. The Sweet Shoppe was still in operation in the early 1970s, when it was replaced by a pizzeria. The Pharmacy was replaced by a medical products provider, and is now a recently opened wine and liquor store; (it is rumored that a pizzeria may be returning to the storefront closest to Midvale, which until recently was a science instruction center for home-schooled students).
Any recollections of these businesses from Lakers of a certain age?

10/24/2025

Fall Fest 2025.

06/16/2025

The May Edition of the MLHS student newspaper, the Mountaineer (now an on-line publication) includes an article on Mountain Lakes World War II hero and Medal of Honor winner General Frederick Castle (who's Medal is on display at the Mountain Lakes Library).
[https://www.mlmountaineer.org/a-forgotten-heros-legacy.../]

Address

400 Boulevard
Mountain Lakes, NJ
07046

Telephone

+19733343131

Website

http://mtnlakes.org/committees-and-commissions/historic-preservation-committee/

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