The Oak Tree Neighborhood

The Oak Tree neighborhood took its name from a large oak tree that stood at Oak Tree Corner, where a market operated during the Colonial era. During the Revolutionary War, Generals Howe and Cornwallis led the British Army through this crossroads on June 26, 1777, during the Battle of the Short Hills. By 1876, the corner included a schoolhouse and the Reuben Ayers house, then owned by Mrs. Kelly, and the intersection differed from its later form. Oak Tree Road was improved in 1930, when the road was moved between the farmhouse and schoolhouse. In 1897, the Lehigh Valley Railroad reached Oak Tree, and a station was built on Oak Tree Road on the southwest side of the railroad bridge. The Oak Tree Volunteer Fire Company began in 1926, with a firehouse built on Oak Tree Road at the head of Harding Avenue, and a new firehouse was built on Beverly Street in 1971. The one-room Oak Tree School No. 6 stood in 1903 at what is now the corner of Plainfield Road and Marion Street, just south of the park. From 1819 to 1964, Bethune Duncan was the school teacher at Oak Tree School. A new Oak Tree School was built in 1909 and expanded in 1923 and 1949, and it is now the JFK/Hartwick facility east of the park.

New Jersey · United States