2 of Somerset’s places are on the National Register
Most of Somerset was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1921 on and old-book passages.
Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY 4.0
What stands out about Somerset’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
New Brunswick Marconi Station was located at JFK Boulevard and Easton Avenue just a few minutes from the New Brunswick border. Today it is the site of Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Park. It was an early radio transmitter facility built in 1913 and operated by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America. After the interruption of transatlantic telegraph cables by enemy action, the facility was confiscated by the United States Navy on April 7, 1917, to provide transatlantic communications during World War I. The New Brunswick Naval Radio Station was the principal wartime communication link between the United States and Europe, using the callsign NFF. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech was transmitted from the site in 1918. After the war, ownership of the station, along with Marconi's other US assets, was transferred from the navy to RCA. The antenna masts were demolished…
Passages that mention Somerset, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers1881 · page 578Read the page →
Read the text
In 1762* an act passed the General Assembly " to empower the managers of the Bound Brook bridge, in the county of Somerset, to raise by lottery a sum of money for rebuilding and completing the said bridge." In 1771t an act was passed to empower certain persons therein named to raise a sum ot money by subscription or taxation to rebuild and keep in repair the bridge over Raritan River near
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers1881Read the page →
Read the text
present Franklin remained as a part of Piscataway, Middlesex Co., until 1709. Only about three or four square miles in the northwestern corner of the township were in Somerset, by the law of 1688.t AVhen, in 1709, the southern line of Somerset was fixed on Lawrence's Brook, the domain of Piscataway township, on the south side of the Earitan, passed away.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
HISTORY OF HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY1881 · page 577Read the page →
Read the text
Mill, over the bridge over Millstone River at Christotopher Hoagland’s, and past Wm. Beard’s, Barnet Hageman’s, Samuel Baker’s, and Daniel Spader’s to the main road to the court-house of Somerset, to be opened by the first week in October next.” Oct. 3, 1745, a road was laid out from Peapack to Lamington meeting-house, and Noy. 12, 1747, one from Peter Schenck’s mill to the Middlebush road. In Septem-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
HISTORY OF HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY1881 · page 578Read the page →
Read the text
is not definitely known. In 1772 there was an act passed by the General Assembly “for raising the sum of £450, proclamation money, on the inhabitants of the counties of Somerset and Middlesex, to be applied to the completing the bridge over Raritan River at the landing,” and May 13th of the same year, at a meeting of the justices and freeholders of Somerset County, it was voted “that Hillsborough shall pay
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Somerset, 1745 to 1921
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 (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people 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.
2012
2012
2012
2006
2005