Morsemere, New Jersey

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Morsemere, New Jersey
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Morsemere, New Jersey
Location of Morsemere in Bergen County Inset: Location of county within the state of New Jersey
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Morsemere, New Jersey
Morsemere, New Jersey (New Jersey)
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Morsemere, New Jersey
Morsemere, New Jersey (the United States)
Coordinates: 40°50′34″N74°00′17″W / 40.84278°N 74.00472°W / 40.84278; -74.00472
Country Flag of the United States.svg  United States
State Flag of New Jersey.svg  New Jersey
County Bergen
Borough Palisades Park and Ridgefield
Elevation
[1]
33 ft (10 m)
Time zone UTC−05:00 (Eastern (EST))
  Summer (DST) UTC−04:00 (EDT)
GNIS feature ID878502 [1]
Morsemere
MorsemereErieNorthernBranchstation.png
General information
Location Ridgefield, New Jersey
Owned by Northern Railroad of New Jersey (18591942)
Erie Railroad (19421960)
Erie Lackawanna Railway (19601976)
Line(s)Erie Railroad Northern Branch
Construction
Platform levels1
Other information
Station code1913 [2]
History
Opened1870s
ClosedSeptember 30, 1966 [3]
Rebuilt1872
Former services
Preceding station Erie Railroad Following station
Palisades Park
toward Nyack
Northern Branch Ridgefield station (Erie Railroad)
toward Jersey City

Morsemere is a neighborhood in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, largely in the northern part of Ridgefield and straddling the border of Palisades Park south of start of U.S. Route 46. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Contents

History

Morsemere is named for Samuel Morse, [5] who had bought property with the intention of building a home there, but died before doing so. His estate was subdivided [10] and laid out from 1899 to 1902. [11] It underwent massive expansion around 1910. [12] [13]

The eponymous Morsemere Church was completed in 1928. [7] [14] The locally founded Morsemere Trust Company was eventually subsumed by MetroCorp Bancshares.

Until the 1950s when dial telephone service arrived, the local exchange was MOrsemere 6.[ citation needed ]

The Erie Railroad Northern Branch had a station in the neighborhood as well as at Ridgefield. [10] [15] The station house, built when the community was developed, burn down in 1928. [16] It was also accessible by trolley form the 130th Ferry Terminal in Edgewater. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Route 93 is a state highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a north–south highway that runs 3.50 miles (5.63 km) from an intersection with U.S. Route 1/9 in Ridgefield on Grand Avenue in Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia, and Englewood before ending at an intersection with Van Nostrand Avenue just north of Route 4. The route originated as Route S5 in 1927, running along the Bergen Turnpike until 1929, when it was moved onto the southern portion of Grand Avenue. It remained the same until 1954, after the alignment of Route 93 had been designated that the route was extended along Grand Avenue.

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Ridgefield Township was a township that existed in Bergen County, New Jersey. The township was created in 1871, when Hackensack Township was trisected to form Palisades Township in the northernmost third, Englewood Township in the central strip and Ridgefield Township encompassing the southernmost portion, stretching from the Hudson River on the east to the Hackensack River, with Hudson County to the south. Much of the area had been during the colonial area known as the English Neighborhood. As described in the 1882 book, History of Bergen and Passaic counties, New Jersey,

Ridgefield is the first township in Bergen County which the traveler enters in passing up the Palisades. His first impressions are much like those of old Hendrick Hudson in speaking of a wider extent of country: "A very good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." The valley of the Hackensack invited early settlers in the seventeenth century, and the valley of the Overpeck Creek, a navigable arm of the Hackensack, also attracted settlers quite as early in this direction. Sloops and schooners can pass up this creek nearly to the northern boundary of the township. Ridgefield is bounded on the north by Englewood, on the east by the Hudson, on the south by Hudson County, and on the west by the Hackensack River. The southern boundary is less than two miles in extent, and the northern less than four, and the length of the township from north to south does not exceed four miles. Bellman's Creek, forming part of the southern boundary, the Hackensack, the Overpeck, the Hudson, with more than a dozen other smaller streams and rivulets, bountifully supply the whole township with water. From the western border of the Palisades the land descends to the Overpeck, forming a most beautiful valley, with the land again rising to a high ridge midway between the Overpeck and the Hackensack. From this long ridge, extending far to the north beyond this township, it took its name of Ridgefield.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Morsemere". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. "List of Station Names and Numbers". Jersey City, New Jersey: Erie Railroad. May 1, 1916. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  3. O'Donnell, Maureen (October 1, 1966). "Erie's 1205 Goes for Last Trip". The Bergen Evening Record. Hackensack, New Jersey. pp. A1–A2 . Retrieved December 29, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  4. Morsemere in Ridgefield, New Jersey (Map). May 25, 1940. doi:10.7282/T3VM4CX7 via rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu. Map of the Morsemere section of Ridgefield, Bergen County, N.J. with insets of Palisades Park, Ridgefield and Teaneck, showing properties for sale at public auction by the State of New York Banking Department.
  5. 1 2 Santis, Mauro De (May 25, 2017). Ridgefield. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   9781467126571.
  6. Beck, George M. Jr. (May 2009). Palisades Park. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   9780738565439.
  7. 1 2 Maehrlein, Lauren (2016). "Morsemere Community Church: A Brief History" (PDF). Morsemere was never an incorporated entity, but is a neighborhood that straddles the northern border of Ridgefield and the southern border of Palisades Park.
  8. Google (March 7, 2015). "Morsemere, New Jersey" (Map). Google Maps . Google. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  9. Federal Writers' Project (October 31, 2013). The WPA Guide to New Jersey: The Garden State. Trinity University Press. ISBN   9781595342287.
  10. 1 2 "History of Ridgefield - Ridgefield, New Jersey". www.ridgefieldnj.gov. Among the noted people who owned property in the new borough was Samuel F. B. Morse. He owned property running from Morse Avenue east to Dallytown Road (Bergen Boulevard). Morse bought the property with the intention of building a home here. A barn was the only structure completed when the inventor died in 1872. The barn was later converted into a house on Morse Avenue. The Morse Estate was subdivided into 66 lots at 25-feet wide, plus about 72 lots of over 50-feet and a strip of smaller lots on the northside of development, running east and west, and sold. This venture proved extremely successful and paved the way for future real estate speculation and development.
  11. "Northern Branch Corridor DEIS" (PDF). NJ Transit. December 2011. Retrieved May 25, 2021. Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor, lived in Ridgefield, and by 1891 a sub-development was planned on the Morse Estate between Edgewater Avenue and Clark Avenue, east of Morse Avenue. Between 1899 and 1902, the streets of Morsemere Park had been built in the northern section of the borough. This development, which had its own railroad depot, was named in honor of Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and the Morse code.
  12. "Rapid Development at Morsemere". timesmachine.nytimes.com.
  13. "Development at Morsemere". timesmachine.nytimes.com.
  14. "To Lay Stone at Morsemere Today".
  15. Catlin, George L. (1872), Suburban Homes for City Business Men: A Description of the Country Adjacent to the Eastern Division and Branches of the Erie Railway and Northern Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Railway
  16. "Morsemere Station Burns". timesmachine.nytimes.com.
  17. "Homes on the Palisades", The New York Times , September 4, 1910. Accessed August 22, 2023. "The section of the Palisades immediately at the other side of the 130th Street ferry is really the gateway of a vast area which in a very short time is bound to develop into a sort of metropolitan annex. with Edgewater at the foot of the cliffs, Grantwood at the summit, and Morsemere on the western slope."