Morristown, New Jersey

• 1. Introduction

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  Morristown, New Jersey carries a nickname that sounds almost too dramatic to be true: "the military capital of the American Revolution." Yet the claim is grounded in a remarkable series of winters when the fate of the Continental Army hung on the decisions made in a single small town. George Washington came here not once but twice, sheltering his exhausted troops behind the natural barrier of the Watchung Mountains while British forces waited in New York City. The town that hosted these critical encampments was no accident of history. Its central location between Philadelphia and New York, its road connections, its local trades, and its stores of natural resources all made it a calculated choice. What follows is the story of how a settlement of 250 people, two churches, and a pair of taverns became the place where American independence was either saved or lost, and how that legacy shaped everything that came after.

• 2. A Town Built for Strategy

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  The Lenni Lenape had lived in the region for up to 6,000 years before the first European traders arrived, establishing temporary fur-trading posts with the native population in the early 17th century. The Dutch claimed it as part of New Netherland, but English forces seized control in 1664, granting the territory to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton.

  By 1715, English Presbyterians from Southold, New York, and New Haven, Connecticut had founded the village of New Hanover, which would grow into Morristown. The town and its county took their name from Lewis Morris, the first royal governor of a united New Jersey colony, who had championed land ownership rights for colonists.

  By the middle of the 18th century, the settlement had grown to 250 residents, with two churches, a courthouse, two taverns, two schools, and numerous mills and farms nearby. That combination of infrastructure and geography would prove decisive when war came. The Watchung Mountains formed a natural shield against British troops camped in New York City, while the roads connecting Morristown to Philadelphia, New York, and New England made it a hub rather than a backwater.

• 3. Washington's Two Winters

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  In January 1777, General Washington led the Continental Army into Morristown fresh from victories at Trenton and Princeton. His first headquarters was Jacob Arnold's Tavern, situated at the Morristown Green at the center of town. The army stayed through May, and the town's churches were converted into inoculation stations for smallpox.

  Washington had actually visited Morristown before the war. In May 1773, he passed through while traveling from there to New York City with his stepson John Parke Custis and Lord Stirling, two years before the Revolution began.

  The second encampment, from December 1779 to June 1780, was more consequential and far more desperate. The army made camp at Jockey Hollow while Washington set up headquarters at the Ford Mansion, a large residence near the edge of town. Ford's widow and children shared the house with Martha Washington and the army's officers. Martha Washington traveled from Virginia each winter throughout the war to remain with her husband.

  The winter of 1780 stands as the worst of the entire Revolutionary War. Starvation combined with extreme inflation and unpaid soldiers pushed the army to the edge of collapse. The entire Pennsylvania contingent mutinied successfully. Two hundred New Jersey soldiers attempted their own mutiny and failed. Many soldiers died from weakness and illness.

  In March 1780, Washington declared St. Patrick's Day a holiday to honor his Irish troops. During that same stay, the Marquis de Lafayette arrived to inform Washington that France would be sending ships and soldiers. And Benedict Arnold, not yet a traitor, was court-martialed at Dickerson's Tavern on Spring Street for profiteering from military supplies in Philadelphia. Washington admonished him publicly but quietly promised to make it up to him.

• 4. Love, Law, and a First Invention

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  Alexander Hamilton courted and married Elizabeth Schuyler at a residence in Morristown where Washington's personal physician lived. The house, known locally as the Schuyler-Hamilton House, is listed on both the New Jersey and National Register of Historic Places.

  Morristown also produced one of the 19th century's most consequential inventions. On the 6th of January, 1838, Samuel F. B. Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrated the telegraph for the first time at the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown. The first message transmitted was: "A patient waiter is no loser." Five days later, the first public demonstration followed. Vail, who was born in Morristown in 1807, is credited as the inventor of Morse code.

  A darker chapter unfolded on the 6th of September, 1833, when Antoine le Blanc, a French immigrant laborer, became the last person hanged on the Morristown Green. He had been convicted of murdering the Sayre family and their servant Phoebe. The house where the murders occurred stood until 2007, when it was torn down for a bank, known locally as "Jimmy's Haunt" because residents believed it was haunted by Phoebe's ghost.

• 5. The Millionaire City

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  Starting in the mid-1800s, some of New York City's wealthiest residents began building summer estates along Morristown's rural thoroughfares. Madison Avenue, which runs through both Morristown and the neighboring town of Madison, acquired the nickname "the street of the 100 millionaires" for the scale of the houses along it.

  By 1896, an estimated 54 millionaires lived in the area, holding a combined wealth of approximately $289,000,000. Six years later, that number had grown to at least 91. In 1902, the New York Herald called Morristown "the Millionaire City of the Nation" and described it as home to "the richest and least known colony of wealthy people in the world." The paper reported that 45 millionaires, 15 of whom were worth over $10 million, had chosen Morristown precisely to avoid the social pressures of New York, seeking freedom from display and notoriety.

  Among those named were lawyer George Griswold Frelinghuysen, carpet-making heir Eugene Higgins, and banker Otto Hermann Kahn. Even the smaller estates required multiple staff: butlers, housekeepers, governesses, nannies, cooks, coachmen, gardeners, and watchmen.

  In 1889, the Market Street Mission was established at 9 Market Street beside the Morristown Green, created in direct response to the large number of saloons on Market Street. Beginning on the 18th of March, 1889, it hosted nightly meetings to help people struggling with alcoholism, opioid use, and homelessness. The organization still operates today.

  The Gilded Age ended abruptly in 1929. The high cost of maintaining the estates, rising income taxes, and the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression forced closures and sales. Many of the mansions burned.

• 6. Firsts and Landmarks

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  The first National Historical Park established in the United States is in Morristown. Ford Mansion, Jockey Hollow, and Fort Nonsense together form Morristown National Historical Park, managed by the National Park Service.

  The Seeing Eye, founded by Dorothy Harrison Eustis, holds the distinction of being the first school in North America to train guide dogs and pair them with blind and visually impaired students. Since 1929, more than 16,000 guide dogs for the blind have been trained on Morristown's streets. A statue of Morris Frank, co-founder of The Seeing Eye, and his dog Buddy stands at the Morristown Green.

  Morristown is also home to one of only two heroic statues of Thomas Paine in the United States. The bronze work by sculptor Georg J. Lober depicts Paine in 1776 using a drum as a desk while writing Crisis 1 during the army's withdrawal across New Jersey. It was dedicated on the 4th of July, 1950. Paine's words from that document, "These are the times that try men's souls," appear on the statue.

  The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was incorporated on the 18th of December, 1843, as the first congregation established by Black residents in Morris County. Its first site at 13 Spring Street served as the only school for Black children in Morristown until 1870. The church remains active today at 59 Spring Street.

  Morristown's library traces its origins to informal book trading in 1792. After a 1914 fire destroyed the lyceum and much of its collection, textile merchant Grinnell Willis paid for a new fireproof building in 1916.

• 7. A Town Still Growing

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  The 2020 census recorded Morristown's population at 20,180, the highest count in the town's history. That figure represented an increase of 1,769 residents, or 9.6 percent, from the 2010 count of 18,411. The median age was 34.0 years, and 36.5 percent of residents identified as Hispanic or Latino.

  Morristown occupies just 3.01 square miles and is completely surrounded by Morris Township, making it one of 21 so-called "doughnut towns" in New Jersey, where one municipality entirely encircles another.

  Morristown Medical Center, with 5,500 employees, is the town's largest employer. In June 2015, a Tax Court judge ruled that the hospital would be required to pay property taxes on nearly all of its campus.

  In January 2009, five red lights appeared in the night sky above Morristown, generating emergency calls and national press coverage. On the 1st of April, 2009, the perpetrators revealed the hoax: the lights had been helium balloons fitted with flares. The event became known as the Morristown UFO hoax and entered the town's long roster of notable incidents stretching back three centuries.

  The Rabbinical College of America, described as one of the largest Chabad Lubavitch yeshivas in the world, is also located in Morristown, housing both a traditional program and a program for students from diverse Jewish backgrounds. The New Jersey Regional Headquarters for the worldwide Chabad Lubavitch movement sits on the same campus.