Street Names

There are street names that are common to almost every town in the United States. Go anywhere and you're almost certain to find a Main Street, Grand Street or a Broad Street, as well all directional names like North, South, Central etc. and numbered streets like first, second and third. But what about Martine, Lamberts Mill, Park, Front and Terrill? How did they get named? For this I sought out Rick Bousquet, president of the historical society of Scotch Plains and Fanwood and also a member of The National Trust For Historic Preservation, The New Jersey Historical Society, The Westfield Historical Society, and The Scotch Plains Historic Preservation Commission.

A walking encyclopedia of the history of Union County, Bousquet serves as a volunteer in his positions but his full time job is complementary to his bobby.
Bousquet has worked in the construction industry for more than 20 years and is a specialist in restoring and preserving historic properties and structures. His firm, CSS, Inc. is a full service General Contractor Remodeler, restoring older structures or remodeling new ones.

Consistent with the more than 300 year history of the area, many of the main roads have kept their names for over 200 years. Terrill Road was named for Ephraim Terrill, a property owner in the late 1700’s.

“Back then a road might get named for the only person living there”, said Bousquet.
“Mr. Terrill was one of the first land owners in that area”.
According to records, Terrill was spelled Tyrrel for many years before getting named back to its original namesake.

Front Street was formerly called the Road to Plainfield. Later on when Plainfield numbered their streets, Front was named as the first street of the group.

Lamberts Mill was named for Simeon Lambert who owned a mill on Old Raritan Road in the late 18th century. “Properties were pretty large back then ", noted Bousquet.

Many of the local roads were Indian trails which explains why so many of the roads are crooked. Martine and its continuation into Park were part of the Minisink Indian Trail which stretched from what is now Perth Amboy to Morristown.

Bousquet had no documentation of how Park was named since there are no parks on the street so it might fall under the category of every town has one. Martine was originally named Darby Road after the Levi Darby family who were big contributors to the Baptist Church but later was renamed in the late 19th century
After CWL Martine of Scotch Plains who was a prominent businessman in that time period.

Another mystery answered was why certain first names were used while others ignored. Simple, according to Bob LaCosta of the Scotch Plains Building Department. Newer Scotch Plains streets like Henry Street, Roberts Lane and Gales Court were all named after someone in the family of the contractor who developed the neighborhood.

“This area has a really rich history of over 300 years. “ , said Bousquet. “I am always finding out something new and interesting”.