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Community Corner

How Did Downtown Streets Get Named?

The history behind Sloan Street, Church Street and others.

Many downtown streets are named for Village officials, while others are named for large property owners.
 
The intersection of Sloan Street and South Orange Avenue is the Times Square of South Orange. The secret to Sloan Street’s name can be found at No. 19: South Orange Station. Before New Jersey Transit, the Lackawanna Railroad company maintained South Orange Station as a stop for their railroad. Railroad titan Samuel Sloan was president of the Lackawanna Railroad in 1867 until 1899. In 1868, he was responsible for turning the Morris & Essex Railroad—the previous owner of South Orange Station—into the Lackawanna Railroad.
 
Going from West South Orange Avenue to West Third Street and terminating in a dead end is Church Street, which could be named for Saint Andrew & Holy Communion Church at the end of the block, or for former Village President Edward F. Church. Church was a trustee at First Presbyterian Church and director of the Saxony Woolen Mills Company in Trenton. He was also president of the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education. However, in 1893, he mysteriously disappeared after his wife drove him to Penn Station in Newark for a train to Trenton.
 
Taylor Place is located near the South Orange Library and named for the Taylor family. Nathaniel Taylor was a member of the South Orange Board of Trustees, while his son, Edgar, was in the state Assembly as well as on the Board of Trustees. According to the New York Times, Edgar’s sister Alice mysteriously died in Orange in 1892. It was thought that she committed suicide but never confirmed. She had been very active in the South Orange Presbyterian Church.
 
Did you know that the little street leading into the SOPAC/NJ Transit parking lot has a name? Although now known to many as SOPAC Way, Trenchard Place is named for Henry Trenchard, who was the first policeman in South Orange. His payment was a bike and $50 per month. Trenchard was buried at the South Orange Cemetery—which no longer exists—when he died in 1906.
 
Conway Court connects West South Orange Avenue with South Ridgewood Road. It's named for Thomas Conway, a resident of South Orange. Not much seems to be known about Conway. However, what is known is that the Conways had lots of property and that Mrs. Conway constantly threw tea parties! A show to benefit the South Orange Library took place on the Conways' lawn.
 
In the back of Congregation Beth El is Kilburn Place, named for the Kilburn family. Thomas Kilburn was born in 1796 in Orange. He started a family farm off South Orange Avenue, where the Tuxedo Park neighborhood is today. He oversaw road construction in South Orange. His daughters founded the Kilburn Memorial Presbyterian Church in memory of him, but it no longer exists.

Jared Kofsky is an 11-year-old student in the SO-M school district who is a local history buff and train historian. At age 9, he was an award recipient in the Celebrate South Orange poetry contest. He has given speeches about trains and local history at SOPL and before the South Orange Historical Preservation Society. This is the third installment of a weekly series on South Orange street names. 

Sources for this series:
 
South Orange Public Library
Images of America: South Orange Revisited, Naoma Welk, 2006
Images of America: South Orange, Naoma Welk, 2002
Archived articles from The New York Times
Montrose Park Historic District Association Web site
South Orange Historical & Preservation Society Web site
Bible Versions Discussion Board
www.Ancestry.com
www.Archives.org
South Orange Cemetery Web site
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