Free Lecture in Lawrence: Annette Gordon-Reed Nov 8

Last Updated on Friday, 29 October 2010 08:52 Written by Dennis Waters Friday, 29 October 2010 08:52 0 Comments

The Lawrenceville School is bringing the author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family to town for a free lecture that is open to the public. No ticket or reservation needed. Details here.

Lawrence History Month Speakers Win Book Awards

Last Updated on Thursday, 14 October 2010 08:23 Written by Dennis Waters Thursday, 14 October 2010 08:23 0 Comments

A quick note of congratulations to Maxine Lurie, Michael Siegel, Richard Veit, and Mark Nonestied. All four spoke at Lawrence History Month events sponsored by the Lawrence Historical Society, and all four have just received book awards from the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance:

• Lurie and Siegel presented the annual Mary Tanner Lecture, “400 Years of Mapping New Jersey,” at Rider University on October 10th. Their book Mapping New Jersey: An Evolving Landscape won the 2010 NJSAA Author’s Award in the Reference Category.
• Veit and Nonestied gave the talk “New Jersey Tombstone Carvings” at the Lawrence Headquarters Branch of the Mercer County Library System on October 13th. Their book New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones: History in the Landscape won a 2010 NJSAA Author’s Award in the Non-fiction Scholarly Category.

Congratulations again to our speakers. Thank you for joining us for Lawrence History Month.

What is the ‘Province Line’ Anyway?

Last Updated on Sunday, 3 October 2010 06:37 Written by Dennis Waters Sunday, 3 October 2010 06:37 0 Comments

Almost everyone knows Province Line Road in northeast Lawrence. For travelers on Route 206 or Princeton Pike, it is the often-congested gateway to the Quakerbridge Mall, Mercer Mall, and Nassau Park. Along some stretches, it actually runs along the border separating Lawrence from Princeton Township.

But how did it get its name? What exactly is the “Province Line?” To answer that question you have to travel back more than 300 years, to a time in the late 1600s, even before Lawrence Township itself (then Maidenhead) was created.

As you may know, in early Colonial times New Jersey was divided into two separate provinces, called East Jersey and West Jersey. (Not North Jersey and South Jersey? No, not back then.) The owners (called “proprietors”) of East Jersey and West Jersey agreed on paper where the boundary line between the two provinces should be, but no one had ever gone out into that wilderness to actually survey the line.

That job fell to a man called George Keith, who was the surveyor-general of East Jersey. In the spring of 1687 he and a crew started on the shore at Little Egg Harbor and worked their way north and west, marking out a straight line as they went. They were supposed to go all the way to the Delaware River, but they stopped when they got to the South Branch of the Raritan River, in what is now Readington Township in Burlington County. The proprietors on both sides were already arguing about the line even before it was finished, and so it never was.

This 1784 map of New Jersey shows the Keith Line as the leftmost of the three boundary lines. Map courtesy of the Rutgers Cartography Lab.

In later years more lines were drawn, but the “Keith Line” was the one that stuck. Today it forms the boundary between Burlington and Ocean Counties and between parts of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties. It forms the straight eastern boundary separating Lawrence from Princeton and West Windsor Townships. In all, 20 municipalities in the state include George Keith’s Province Line as part of their boundaries, but Lawrence’s is among the longest.

Today Province Line Road actually runs along Keith’s Line on both sides of its intersection with Rosedale Road, but the line is more commonly encountered further south. Quaker Bridge Road runs along the line from the Quakerbridge Mall all the way south to the boundary with Hamilton Township. So next time you are driving there, take a moment to remember that the route was laid out by a band of courageous surveyors over 320 years ago.

To learn more about the history of maps and boundaries in New Jersey, join us this Sunday, October 10th, for the annual Mary Tanner Lecture, “400 Years of Mapping New Jersey,” presented by Maxine N. Lurie and Michael Siegel, editors of Mapping New Jersey: An Evolving Landscape, published in 2009 by Rutgers University Press. Click here for more information.