About Maplewood
With a direct train to Manhattan and a welcoming environment, Maplewood attracts a number of people from the boroughs of New York (Brooklyn, Queens, ect.) In fact, residents compare the likeness of Maplewood to the hip, cultured, community-involved lifestyle they’d grown accustomed to in New York.
Top 3 reasons home buyers choose Maplewood Homes
- Direct train to the city.
- Diversity in people and communities.
- Lifestyle.
Bonus: Most weekends in the spring and fall, numerous block parties are happening around town.
Maplewood features biannual art walks, community art centers and artists’ studios throughout town, the towns artistic nature is reflected in an underground passage leading to the train station, which has been painted with murals and mosaics by local artists and organizations. The Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts on Durand Road is home to performances and children’s classes by the Theater Project, among other programs.
Residents love Maplewood’s downtown area, packed with shops, restaurants, and a movie theater. Memorial Park consists of 25 acres of ball fields, picnic areas, tennis courts and a playground. The town’s annual Maplewoodstock, a two-day music and art festival, is hosted here every year in July.
The South Mountain Reservation (2,047-acre) is a county park partly located in Maplewood. It features a zoo, ice skating rink, dog park, 20 miles of footpaths, and 27 miles of carriage roads. The town has a weekly farmer’s market which runs from June through October.
The Maplewood Community Pool is open to residents through a paid membership.
The Commute Maplewood is around 20 miles west of lower Manhattan, a drive of 35 to 45 minutes, traffic permitting, via Interstate 78 and the Holland Tunnel. New Jersey Transit trains go directly to New York’s Penn Station in about 35 to 40 minutes, or switch in Newark, taking about 45 minutes or more.
Other Facts
Maplewood is a Township in Essex County, NJ. The first European settlers arrived around 1675, primarily English, Dutch and French Puritans who had earlier settled Hempstead, Long Island, and Stamford, Connecticut, via Newark and Elizabeth.
They had acquired most of today’s Essex County from the Native Americans and followed three trails that roughly correspond to South Orange Avenue, Springfield Avenue and Ridgewood Road. These three routes resulted in the development of three separate communities that coalesced to become Maplewood and South Orange. Six families built up today’s Ridgewood Road and established scattered farms around a center that became Jefferson Village, named after Thomas Jefferson.
Those who came from Newark on the trail that now corresponds to South Orange Avenue settled the area that became South Orange village. This settlement, which roughly corresponds to downtown Maplewood today, developed several mills and orchards.
Over time, this community became known as the Hilton section. It became a stagecoach stop between Newark, Jersey City, and Morristown and thereby a center for trade and light manufacturing. The village changed its name from North Farms to Middleville in 1830, and then to Hilton in 1880 when it was granted a post office. The area became known for its orchards and related industries, including cider mills and rum distilleries, as well as honey and livestock.
When the Morris and Essex Railroad from Newark was extended to the area in 1838, a land speculator by the name of John Shedden built a railroad station in Jefferson Village and named it Maplewood. In 1868, farms were subdivided into parcels for residential housing and the area became a commuter suburb. Edward C. Balch (The New York Times, “Father of Maplewood.”) was a homebuilder who built 176 homes in the township, helping to shape the landscape.
Let me (Jeffrey) help you with all your questions about Maplewood homes. Feel free to contact me directly via email or phone (call/text).