![]() It was decided that the site's name should reflect its 18th century owner as well as its 20th century nickname, and today it is called The Metlar-Bodine House. ![]() During the next two and a half decades, as the Route 18 expansion proceeded, archaeological investigations in the River Road area confirmed the historical significance of Raritan Landing and documented Peter Bodine's contributions to the area's 18th century commercial vitality. A hard-fought 1979 preservation effort spearheaded by the Fellowship for Metlar House and Piscataway Township saved the building, and it now serves as the community's Historical and Cultural Museum. In the mid-1970s The New Jersey Department of Transportation purchased the property, intending to use it for a Route 18 interchange. Newton appreciated the home's history and wrote the nomination that placed the site on the State and National Registers. In the 1950s John sold Metlar House to John Newton, a Rutgers University professor. John and his family moved in, his wife re-christening the home "Metlar House" when it became a trolley-stop for the light rail running along the River Road corridor. In 1914, George's son, John, inherited the house and one-third of his father's real estate holdings. In 1890 he purchased Sunnyside allowing his farm manager, John Mason, to reside there. The entrepreneur George Metlar was a Central New Jersey real estate magnate who, by the late 1800s, owned thousands of acres in Piscataway. This Greek Revival addition, with its lovely front porch and circular attic window, and a Victorian style rehabilitation twenty years later, significantly improved the property. ![]() The Bodine House passed through a number of owners before it was expanded in the 1850s and named "Sunnyside" by George Knapp, a New Brunswick businessman. The busy commercial center survived numerous British incursions and several battles during the Revolutionary War, thriving until the early 19th century when it was overshadowed by New Brunswick, a boom town and county seat, boasting an interstate canal and railroad connection on the southwest side of the river. ![]() Peter Bodine was a leading merchant at Raritan Landing, one of the nation's earliest river-ports, located in the large 1666 land grant called "Piscataway." His small one room home, with sleeping loft and root cellar, was built in 1728 on a bluff along "The Great Road Up the Raritan" (today's River Road), about 1/4 mile from his warehouse. The Computer Classes teaches the basics of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and the Internet.The older of only two remaining homes from the Colonial era New Jersey community, Raritan Landing This includes books, videos, cd's, cassettes, and books on tape. allows materials to be delivered weekly to those who cannot come to the library. Montclair Public Library offers distinguished programs such a computer classes and H.A.S.(home assisted service). The library is a member of and active participant in ReBL, the Reciprocal Borrowing Libraries of Essex County, INFOLINK, and the Library Cooperative of the Council of Higher Education in Newark (CHEN). The three libraries include services such as access to all books and periodicals via open stacks, photocopying, audiovisual hardware for individual use, and CDROM periodicals databases. The West Essex Campus library has more than 11,000 volumes and a comparable collection of non-print media programs. It maintains a collection of more than 90,000 volumes, over 400 periodicals, thousands of microfilms, as well as hundreds of videocassettes, filmstrips, slide/cassettes, and 16mm film programs. Library is a two-level facility located in the center of the megastructure of the main campus. Library, Police Academy Library, and West Essex Campus Library. Essex County Libraries consist of four main libraries with three of the libraries pertaining to Essex County College Montclair Public Library, Martin Luther King, Jr.
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