Most of Mount Hope was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and old-book passages.
Mount Hope was formerly an unincorporated iron mining village associated with the American Revolutionary War. Mining operations were said to have begun around 1710 and operated continuously through the 1970s. John Jacob Faesch was the first to develop Mount Hope into an iron plantation with the erection of a stone furnace in 1772 and operated the facility until his death in 1799. Various owners and lessees ran the furnace until 1831 when the Mount Hope Mining Company was incorporated in response to the opening of the Morris Canal and its transportation opportunities. Operations ceased from 1893 to 1899 due to financial panics, the opening of the Mesabi Range in Minnesota and cheaper imported iron ore from South America. Empire Steel & Iron Company bought the mine and reopened it in 1900. Additional companies and partnerships continued until its final closure in 1979.
Passages that mention Mount Hope, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Morris County, New Jersey1882 · page 358Read the page →
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In March 1866 the Mount Hope Mineral Railroad Company was incorporated, with a capital stock of $200,000, and power to build a road from the Mount Hope mines to the Morris and Essex Railroad and Morris Canal, and to construct spurs to other mines. This road was built, connecting with the Morris and Essex at Port Oram in Randolph township, and running to the Mount Hope mines in Rockaway township, taking in the Richards,
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A history of Morris County, New Jersey1914 · page 162Read the page →
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The Mount Hope Mineral Railroad Company was incorporated in March, 1866, with a capital of $200,000, and authorized to build a road from the Mount Hope mines to the M. and E. railroad and Morris canal; also to construct spurs to other mines. This road was built to Port Oram (Wharton) on the M. and E., running to the Mount Hope mines, taking in the Richards, Allen and Teabo, with a spur to the Mount Pleasant and Baker mines, all in Rockaway.
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History of Morris County, New Jersey1882 · page 70Read the page →
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The Mount Hope Railroad, from Port Oram via the Richards, Allen and Teabo mines to Mount Hope, was built just after the war, to carry the immense ore freights of these mines along its route. It supplanted in use a tram railway from Mount Hope to the canal at Rockaway.
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A history of Morris County, New Jersey1914 · page 164Read the page →
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Mount Hope Baptist church was the second church erected in the township, it being built of logs, standing a short distance north of Mount Hope. The oldest Methodist church organization in the county is the Rockaway Valley Methodist Episcopal church, now the Denville church, which dates its existence from 1799. About a year later the society had erected a building and had a regular minister. This building stood about a mile from Denville, on the left side of the road leading past the Catholic Protectory to Boonton, at a place known as “Cook’s Corner.” It was a small building and
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Mount Hope, 1888 to 1905
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1905
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