Residents say they have largely won the battle to keep the small-town feel.
By: Steve Rauscher
ROCKY HILL Nestled into a picturesque corner of a region that has seen its dairy farms and potato fields give way to ShopRites and Burger Kings, this storied borough has battled for years to retain its small-town feel.
And as Rocky Hill gears up to celebrate its 300th anniversary on Oct. 6, its residents feel it’s a battle they’ve been winning.
"How do you maintain a small community in the middle of the fastest-growing region in New Jersey?" asks long-time Mayor Brian Nolan.
The answer the 662-person borough has given begins with the designation of more than half its land as a historic district. Since the 1980s, Mayor Nolan said, the town has succeeded in entering nearly the entire length of its main thoroughfare Washington Street, better known to a growing number of commuters as Route 518 into the state register as a historic corridor. The street is home to more than a few colonial-era houses as well as a popular public library.
That action, coupled with the town’s purchase of 90 acres of farmland for open-space preservation in 1998, Mayor Nolan said, doesn’t leave much room for more development.
"We’re pretty much built-out at this point," Mayor Nolan said.
And that’s just fine with most borough residents.
"This small town is like a family," said 15-year resident and borough historian Jeanette Muser. "You’ll have to come out (to the tricentennial celebration in October) and see it."
The anniversary celebration commemorates the establishment of the first colonial settlements along the Millstone River in 1701, after founder John Harrison negotiated a land grant from the area’s original inhabitants, the Lenni-Lenape Indians.
The colonial era was most notably marked by a long visit from George Washington while he attended a Continental Congress meeting in 1783, Ms. Muser said. The old farmhouse in which he stayed, called Rockingham, still exists, though it has been uprooted and relocated on higher ground three times this century.
The tricentennial celebration, dubbed Rocky Hill Heritage Day, will begin with a rededication of Rockingham at its new location near the Delaware & Raritan Canal in Franklin Township.
That Rocky Hill has fought to maintain its tight-knit flavor while it is overtaken by surrounding Montgomery and Franklin is ironic, Ms. Muser said, considering that Rocky Hill was a veritable commercial and industrial metropolis compared to its neighbors at the turn of the last century.
"This was a booming business and factory community back then," she said.
With the construction of the Delaware & Raritan Canal in 1834 and the opening of the Trap Rock quarry in 1852, the borough became a regional trade hub, rating the area’s first railroad spur. In 1890, the cosmopolitan residents of Rocky Hill elected to separate from the rest of Montgomery, in part, Ms. Muser said, because they wanted to avoid footing the bill for the electrification of the township’s sprawling farmland.
"Rocky Hill separated from Montgomery because it was too rural," she said.
The commercial and industrial boom that prompted the separation effectively ended with the onslaught of the Great Depression, sending the borough into relative stagnation until the residential boom that began in the 1970s. Since then, the town has concentrated on preserving its history rather than changing it.
"The general concern of all the residents is not to lose that," Ms. Muser said. "This is a town we’re proud of."
Proud residents are expected to turn out in droves for Rocky Hill Heritage Day, said planners of the tricentennial celebration.
"This is an opportunity for the people of a small, independent borough to get together and celebrate their heritage," Borough Council President Richard Batchelder said. "We’re real excited about it."
After the dedication of Rockingham, a parade featuring the Montgomery High School Marching Band, a steam calliope, firefighters and trucks from local fire companies will make their way from the D & R Canal bridge to Borough Hall on Montgomery Avenue. There, festivalgoers will be treated to dancing clowns, balloon art and a variety of carnival games, with a soundtrack provided by a trio of live bands.
"People can expect to have some small-town fun," said organizer Vic Waskevich. "A good time will be had by all."