Morris Plains is where Teddy Roosevelt, Gustave Stickley, Thomas Edison, Buffalo Bill, Lillian Russell, and the Flora Dora girls came to dine. It is home to the first mighty Arabian horses ever to be spirited out of the Arabian desert, and where the wealthy and powerful built luxurious mansions and caught the Millionaire’s Special to New York.
Watnong Plains is the early name for the flat land on either side of West Hanover Avenue, including part of what later became Morris Township. Morris Plains is the story of that place: the early forges and mills on the Watnong Brook, the small settlement at Five Corners, the expansion north and west with the coming of the railroad, and the building of the New Jersey Asylum for the Insane. You will discover where the first settler built a sawmill in 1685 and
how to find the 1866 schoolhouse, now thriving as an apartment building. The 250-year-old building that once housed Morris Plains’s first general store is still here–you probably pass it dozens of times a
year, if not daily. And if you have never discovered the ancient Stone Steps, here is your chance to verify their existence.