Montclair

History:

For thousands of years before the beginning of European settlement, the area we know today as Montclair was part of the homeland of the Lenape Indians, who hunted and trapped there and passed over the mountains on their way to gather shellfish at the shore. Such place names as Watchung (on the hill) and Yantacaw (place of dancing) bear witness to their heritage. The story of Montclair as a settled community, however, begins with the founding of Newark by English people from Connecticut in 1666. The lands of the Newark settlement extended westward to First Mountain, and having acquired acreage at "the foot of the mountain," Azariah Crane, his wife Mary Treat Crane, and their son Nathaniel, built a home in 1694 near the present intersection of Orange Road and Myrtle Avenue. Other pioneers arrived soon after, and the frontier settlement of Cranetown came into being in what is now the southern part of Montclair.

General Information: