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INDIVIDUAL STRUCTURE SURVEY <
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> HISTORIC
NAME: Office
Building for Acme Harrow Factory COMMON
NAME: . LOCATION: 109 River Road BLOCK/LOT: 11/32.05 VILLAGE: Millington USGS
QUAD: Bernardsville OWNER: UTM
REFS:
CONSTRUCTION
DATE: ca. 1879 SOURCE OF
DATE: Eleanor Turbett "Short
History of Passaic Township" (1964) ARCHITECT: . BUILDER: built by / for Frederick Nishwitz STYLE: FORM / PLAN
TYPE: Irregular NUMBER OF
STORIES: 2 FOUNDATION: Stone/tile EXTERIOR WALL
FABRIC: Original "novelty siding";
now cedar shingles FENESTRATION: 6/6 sash; old glass windows
replaced in 1992 with wooden replacement windows,
one old glass window remains. ROOF: Low pitch with internal
gutters CHIMNEY(S): Added mid 1900s, brick
end ADDITIONAL
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Upstairs: tongue and groove
partition walls, tongue and groove "bead board"
ceilings, wide plank floors.
SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT
SIGNIFICANCE & HISTORICAL INFORMATION This is the original site of the Acme Harrow Factory which was the largest and most successful of Millington's early enterprises. The office of the harrow factory, built in the late 1800s still remains and was converted into a house at 109 River Road. Frederick Nishwitz* who invented the Acme Harrow in 1879, came to Millington in 1970. He built a beautiful summer home on the hill (101 Oaks Road, survey #1430-81) overlooking the site of the factory and the Boyle Mill on the Passaic River in the westernmost part of Millington. Mr. Nishwitz was an inventor of farm machinery before retiring to Millington and in 1853 had invented a harvester and taken out many patents on improvements for reapers and mowers. He came out of retirement to invent the famous Acme Harrow which was a cultivating implement set with spikes, spring teeth, or discs, and used primarily for pulverizing and smoothing the soil and later sold this patent for $100,000. The Acme Harrow was known throughout the world at that time. Mr. Nishwitz had done extensive farming on his large tract of land and many of the 125 men employed in the Acme Harrow Factory on River Road in Millington worked on his farm in the summer months. About 1910 a new factory was built on Division Avenue, Millington later occupied by Tifa Ltd. (the former National Gypsum Company). An original Acme Harrow can be seen in use on the working farm at Fosterfields, Morristown Historical Park on Kahdena Road, Morristown, NJ. note: Frederic Nishwitz bought the original Solomon Boyle Tract of 600 acres of land which was in the westernmost part of Millington. The land ran from the Passaic River on the south across Long Hill to the river again in the north and had originally belonged to Solomon Boyle, an Irish immigrant who settled in Millington about 1730. This presumably included the land on which the original factory at 109 River Road was built (see Township History book). *reference-Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County by James Agustus Webb, 1899 (in Township Library) information from: M. Eleanor Turbett (Mrs. Robert J.) President, Passaic Township Historical Society, March 23, 1987
PHYSICAL
CONDITION OF STRUCTURES: EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR POOR REGISTER
ELIGIBILITY: YES POSSIBLE NO PART OF DISTRICT THREATS TO
SITE: ROADS DEVELOPMENT ZONING DETERIORATION X NO THREAT OTHER .. .. COMMENTS: REFERENCES: RECORDED
BY: H.L & C.A
Scott DATE: 1999 ORGANIZATION: . . UPDATED ENTRY
BY: L. Fast DATE: April 2002 ORGANIZATION: Long Hill Township Historic
Preservation Advisory Committee . .
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