Port Murray Train Station

From Livingplaces.com

The Port Murray Historic District is significant for its association with settlement patterns, industry, transportation, commerce, and architecture. Unlike most rural New Jersey villages, Port Murray did not originate as a small commercial center serving an agricultural hinterland. Rather it developed as a service node along transportation corridors created by 19th century technological developments: the opening of the Morris Canal in 1831 and the construction, in 1850, of the Morris and Essex Railroad through the village. Nevertheless, Port Murray shares a linear development pattern with most other rural New Jersey villages Interestingly, this does not follow the important transportation corridors of canal and railroad, but rather the vehicular roadways.

The locations of some key buildings and features do, however, relate to the canal and railroad. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Port Murray flourished as the site of small industries, attracted by the excellent rail service and the opportunity to exploit the region’s natural and agricultural resources. Although the canal ceased to operate in 1924 and the railroad no longer stops in the village, Port Murray, as the location of Mansfield Township’s town hall and two churches, continues to serve as a center for the surrounding area. The majority of buildings in the village predate 1910; these are primarily residential, but also include the former hotel, two stores (one still in use as a commercial building) the former school, and two churches. Collectively these are significant as illustrations of the vernacular architecture of the region from the early 19th through the early 20th century, as well as of some of the more formal styles predominant in the second half of the 19th century.

Contributor: Scott Roth Photography

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