Here you will find comprehensive
information regarding real estate in South Orange. Being
that I have been a South Orange Realtor for many years
I can offer some of my sound advice regarding buying
or selling a home in South Orange. You may also find
mls listings in South Orange as well as any local information
in South Orange. Over the years South Orange Real Estate
has grown in high demand, and my expertise in the area
will help you become more familiar with the surroundings
of this beautiful town. I am familiar with listings in
South Orange as well as negotiated deals for those looking
to buy homes in South Orange. So whether you are looking
to buy a house in South Orange, sell a house in South
Orange, or just research local information about South
Orange you will find everything you need with Elizabeth Keyloun your
expert South Orange Realtor.
If you are looking for a home for sale in the
South Orange area, I can help. I have years of
experience in this area of New Jersey. If you
just want some information about South Orange
you came to the right place. The following is
a small featurette of South Orange taken from
the Burgdorff ERA Realtors® Short Hills Office
Brochure "Extraordinary PROFESSIONALS Exceeding
Expectations", as well as the South
Orange Official Website.
 South
Orange is a 2.8 square-mile community spread
out east of New Jersey’s South Mountain.
Thought fully developed, South Orange retains
some vestiges of village life, including gas
street lighting. Utility lines are in the back
yards, rather than cluttering streets. The town
of 16,390 people has an active downtown business
section and several popular restaurants.
The Montrose Section of town provides the setting for mostly large, vintage
homes, replete with interesting and varied split-levels, sitting atop South Orange is an elegant
setting. S9outh Mountain offers diversity in housing, with most homes dating back to the turn
of century, set along the side of the mountain. These three areas offer homes from $300,000 to
the upper ranges. There are also homes available from the low $100’s in pleasant neighborhoods
around town.
South Orange shares a quality school system with Maplewood. There are
six elementary schools two middle schools and one high school and a reputation for academic excellence.
Columbia high School offers advanced placement, college prep and vocational courses, as well
as classes in filmmaking and journalism. Columbia offers 25 clubs, from astronomy to chess and
23 varsity sports.
Sixty-two acres of parkland, two thirds of which consist of Meadowland
Park and adjacent Cameron Field, Provide five baseball diamonds, 15 lighted tennis courts, a
soccer field, duck pond, playgrounds, Baird Community Center and a fine outdoor pool complex
and favorite sledding hill.
Every four years in a non-partisan election a village president and six
trustees are elected.
South Orange is thirty-five minutes from Manhattan via NJ Transit train
or bus.
South Orange is a quaint residential community
boasting authentic Tudor, Colonial, and Victorian
homes, streets dotted with gaslights, beautiful
parks, and a bustling Village center. The history
of our town dates back to May 21, 1666, when
Connecticut settlers landed on the shores of
the Passaic River. Guided by Captain Robert Treat
and Lieutenant Samuel Swaine, the group purchased
land, now known as Newark, from the Lenni Lenape
Indians on July 11, 1666. Those families wishing
to farm moved westward into South Orange and
surrounding areas. In 1678, the Lenapes sold
the settlers a second parcel of land running
from the East Branch of the Rahway River to the
mountain top.
South Orange Avenue, an Indian trail, served
as the main thoroughfare. But in 1705, road statutes
required landowners to maintain the first primitive
highways. These included Main Street and Valley
and Ridgewood roads. Washington and his troops
often traversed the latter during the American
Revolution.
The mode of transportation graduated from horseback,
to ox-cart, to stage coach. Then in 1836, the
Morris and Essex Railroad developed a single
track between the Village and Orange and operated
a horse-drawn cart. A year later the line was
extended and two cars were pulled by a wood-burning
steam locomotive. The advent of the railroad
established South Orange as a suburb of Newark
and a summer resort. Just after the railroad
was continued through to Hoboken in 1868, the
Village began its rapid transformation from a
rude settlement of farms and mills to a polished
residential railroad suburb of New York and Newark.
Swamps were drained, roads were constructed
and gas lines were laid in the 1890s. Sewers
and running water were later added. Street lamps
in the town's center burned sperm oil until 1860
when gas service became available. Electric power
was brought into the Village about 1888, although
most of the streets are still lit by gas lamps.
The first telephone exchange was opened in Orange
on December 6, 1879. In 1899, a Village central
office was established.
The transition of South Orange from vast farm
lands to a prestigious residential community
is due in large part to the vision of one man,
New York attorney John Gorham Vose. Taken with
the rich mountain scenery, he purchased a home
on Scotland Road in 1858. In 1862, he began to
buy large plots of land to begin his conversion.
As building got underway, Villagers took great
interest in the development of each magnificent
home. In just a few years, 175 acres between
Scotland Road and Center Street were complete.
Vose christened the area Montrose. Other successful
businessmen, Turrell, Kingman, Connett, Mead,
Speir, and Mayhew, also bought farms, carved
out streets, and helped change the face of the
community.
The Village Hall, built in 1894, housed the
fire department until 1930 when it was moved
to Sloan and First Streets. The police department
then moved from its 1872 building just west of
the railroad into the newly vacated space in
Village Hall. In March, 1972, a separate police
station and Municipal Court building on South
Orange Avenue was completed.
The first U.S. Post Office was opened in 1841 in Freeman's Store at 71
South Orange Avenue but the Postmaster reported "receipts so dreadfully small" that
business was suspended. In 1843, another office was opened to serve the thirty families nearby.
In all, six different sites were used until 1937 when our present first class Post Office was
opened on Vose Avenue in a new building of its own. Free mail delivery started in 1899.
Built about 1680, the Stone House is the oldest
in the Village and is still standing on South
Orange Avenue near Grove Road. The colonial house
at 167 North Ridgewood Road was built by Henry
Squier in 1774 and acquired by William Redmond
when he bought the Squier farm in 1850. Later
the house was leased to a dairyman named Flood
who pastured his cows in what is now Meadowland
Park. Flood's Hill in the park, used for winter
coasting, was named for this family. William
Redmond built the brownstone mansion for his
home which is used today by the Orange Lawn Tennis
Club. Another landmark, said to have been built
around 1830 and standing until after 1881 when
it was destroyed by fire, was The Mountain House,
a fashionable water-cure supervised by two physicians,
where spring water piped down the mountain to
it, was thought beneficial. A large wooden structure
with two wings, set in spacious grounds on Ridgewood
Road, at the foot of the present Glenside Road,
the hotel accommodated 150 guests. Mr. Lord of
Lord & Taylor owned it in 1850 and leased
it to G. Baird. The Eclipse Stage Line operated
in 1830 between the hotel and Newark. Today the
sole reminders of the resort are Mountain Station
and Mountain House Road, both established to
accommodate hordes of visitors who once flocked
here.
 South
Orange was part of Newark until 1806, when what
is now the Oranges and Maplewood were set off
as "Orange Township." The name Orange
came into use in the second half of the 18th
century, and was officially adopted by a meeting
of the inhabitants in 1780. The name South Orange
first appeared in print in a newspaper ad in
1793 in "Wood's Gazette." It replaced
such old names as Chestnut Hill and the Mountain
Plantation.
Village government has changed dramatically
from theocracy to democracy since the 1600's.
In 1776, there were only a cluster of houses,
a grist mill, a black-smith shop, a store or
two and a tavern but South Orange inhabitants
were united in defense of home and country. In
1872, civic indifference reached a peak when
only 235 votes were cast in a presidential election.
Population has steadily increased: 7,200 in 1920,
13,000 in 1928 and over 16,300 in 1995. The creation
of the South Orange Township by an act of the
New Jersey Legislature in 1861, led to the granting
of the Village Charter in 1869, but not until
1872 was it given authorization to levy taxes
and borrow money. In 1904, complete separation
of Village and Township was effected by action
of the State Legislature, after South Orange
had agreed to remain in the school district.
A copy of the 1869 Charter and its amendments,
variances and supplements was printed in 1906.
In November, 1977, South Orange voters passed
a new Charter for South Orange and changed its
name to The Township of South Orange Village.
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