Remember When?

Do you have old photos like this stashed away in your attic or in a shoebox? Share your memories and old photos with your East Orange friends and neighbors. We'll record them digitally and use them here on our Web site, or in our many publications, like the Centennial Book and calendar about to be published in 2009.

Not an automobile in sight! This undated photo must have been taken in the 1890's before automobiles took over from the horse and buggies. This is Park Avenue, when it still had little strips of grass and bushes separating the lanes. Notice the gas lamps lining the road. The men wore straw hats or derbies, but the professional buggy drivers wore silk top hats. Women's skirts were daring if you could see a woman's ankles.

Do you remember when the East Orange Public Library looked like this? This was the Main Library's reading room in 1913 in the building donated by Andrew Carnegie that has since been turned into a municipal court.

This was the East Orange Public Library as it appeared in 1926, with ivy growing on its walls. Most of its patrons walked to it, rode bicycles, or rode the trolley, so there was no need for a parking lot.

Do you remember riding the trolley? The very first trolleys were pulled by horses, but it became electrified in 1892, although the street lights still operated on gas until the early 1900's. This is a view of Main Street, looking west. The cross street is Munn Avenue and the church adjacent to the Carnegie library is the Munn Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Remember when fire wagons were pulled by horses? No one here remembers that either, but thanks to these old photos, like this one of the fire station Chemical No. 2 on on Hollywood Avenue opposite the Grove Street Railroad station, we can share the memories of our grandparents and their grandparents and add them to our own memories.

Contribute your own memories of these times and places or whatever your earliest memories of East Orange are. Write to us at [email protected]. E-mail your photos, or we will arrange to scan and digitize them for you so we can show them on our Web site or include them in our historic books and calendars. Stop back by this page from time to time and see what's new or what's old!

This reprint of the 1963 Centennial Book is available now from our online publisher.

Click here to order.

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