PINE BROOK, NJ

Pine Brook (sometimes spelled Pinebrook) is an unincorporated community located within Montville Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP Code 07058.

The Pine Brook Speedway, which operated from July 1962 until October 1989, was designed for midget car racing and became one of the earliest sites for microstock racing. Mario Andretti raced at the track and had some of his earliest success as a race car driver at the Speedway.

History

Native American settlement

Over 10,000 years ago, the area known as Pine Brook was first settled by Munsee Lenape tribes as part of the Lenapehoking. The Lenape tribes maintained peace and no significant battles were recorded in the area today known as Montville Township.

Dutch and English settlement

In the 1710s, Dutch farmers from New Amsterdam settled in Pine Brook.

In 1809, the Parsippany and Roadway Turnpike Company constructed the road that begins at Pine Brook that "ran up through the Boudinot Meadows, Troy, Parsippany, Denville, Rockaway, across the mountain to Mount Pleasant, there joining the Union Turnpike." This possibly refers to the western terminus of today's "Bloomfield Avenue" where it becomes U.S. Route 46, connecting the port city of Newark with the farms, foundries & mines of western New Jersey.

A farming community, Pine Brook produced dairy products in addition to fruits and vegetables, and for many years there existed a large business in cider making and distilling of Cider Brandy in nearby Cider Mills.

In 1760, Pine Brook was the site of the first schoolhouse in Montville township. It was built out of logs and was located on "the road leading to Boonton," which could refer to multiple northwest-facing roads including Changebridge Road. Additional schools were constructed in 1785, 1816, and 1852.

With its close proximity to Morristown, during the Revolutionary War both British and American forces traveled through the area.

On April 11, 1867, the New Jersey Legislature formally united and chartered the three sections of White Hall, Montville and Pine Brook into the present day Township of Montville from territory set off from Pequannock Township.

WAY STATION - "From the description of property in old deeds, it appears that between 1800 and 1810 an attempt was made to name the cluster of three or four houses at Pine Brook, where George D. Mead keeps a store, "Union Village", but as a village failed to grow up, the name was dropped and has been forgotten. At this point, a tavern was kept over eighty years and for many years it did a legitimate and profitable business in the accommodations of "Sussex Teams", as they were called, which in large numbers used to pass this way toward Newark with loads of flour, feed, grain, butter, pork, and other produce from Sussex, Warren, and the upper parts of Morris county." (Hon. John Kanouse - 1881)

Geography

Pine Brook is located at the southern end of the Hook Mountain Range and surrounded by the Pine Brook Flats; a fertile flood plain created by the surrounding Rockaway River and Passaic River. It is bounded north by Montville and Towaco (aka White Hall), east by the Passaic River across from Fairfield (Old Horse Neck) and West Caldwell, south by the Rockaway River across from East Hanover Township and west by the Rockaway River across from Parsippany and Lake Hiawatha.

Demographics

As of the 2010 United States Census, the population for ZIP Code Tabulation Area 07058 was 5,372.

Notable residents