WALNUT STREET: 10 FAST FACTS

WALNUT STREET: 10 FAST FACTS

A quick tour through one of Montclair’s most historic hubs

Montclair Becomes Montclair (1868)

Once part of Newark, then West Bloomfield…Montclair officially became an independent township in 1868.

Walnut Street Depot Arrives (1873)

This was the first stop on Montclair’s second rail line and once featured a grand station. Additional stops: Watchung Avenue, Upper Montclair, Mountain Avenue, Montclair Heights. (Lackawanna Terminal, on Bloomfield Avenue, was served by Montclair’s first rail line, starting in 1856.) Rail service helped Montclair’s population surge from 5,100 in 1880 to 42,000 in 1930.

Industry Hub (late 1800s)

Mills, factories, coal pockets, lumber yards, and rail sidings made this area a gritty, bustling industrial zone in the late 1800s.

Hose Company No. 5 (95 Walnut St., 1906)

Built for Montclair Hose Company No. 5, but home to the Montclair Ambulance Unit since 2004.

Christopher Street’s Queen Anne Homes (circa 1900)

Developer Christopher Hinck built a cluster of homes within walking distance of the station, distinguished by Queen Anne architectural details such as varied shingle styles and patterns and turned spindle railings. Number 55 is a nice example.

Grove Street: One of Montclair’s Oldest Business Districts

By 1920, the Walnut & Grove corner bustled with three groceries, a taxi service, shoemaker, tailor, druggist, real estate office, dry goods store, hardware store, a public school, and more.

Deron School (Former Grove Street School, 130 Grove St., 1914)

Built as a public school in 1914, the building has been owned and occupied by the privately-operated Deron School since the 1980s.

Toney’s Brook Helped Shape the Neighborhood

The brook, which courses through town, powered mills in the 1800s and influenced the industrial layout around Walnut Street.

Egan’s & the Odd Fellows Legacy

The Egan & Sons building, 118 Walnut Street, features an outsized cornice salvaged from the Odd Fellows Lodge across the street prior to its demolition. The Lodge, constructed 1905, had housed the Grand Union Order of Odd Fellows, a historic Black fraternal organization. An apartment building stands there now.

Why It’s Called Label Street

The Crump Label Factory moved here from Brooklyn in 1875, producing canning labels and other products until 1928—and giving the street its name.