Our upcoming walking tour on Sunday, October 14 will include many of the 26 houses built in the late nineteenth century by local developer, Asabel Darwin. In 1887 Darwin purchased forty acres of farmland from the Gallagher estate on Clark Street. Over the next six years he built homes on Ridgewood, Hillside and Woodland Avenue, Snowden and Appleton Place, and Clark Street, predominantly in the Queen Anne style.

Darwin was instrumental in the establishment of the original Glen Ridge civic center. He successfully lobbied the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western to provide regular train service with the promise of financial assistance for the building of a train station. His office building at Glen Ridge Hall (now Boiling Springs Savings Bank) temporarily housed the public library and municipal offices on its second floor.

The tour will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Ridgewood Avenue railroad station and conclude at the corner of Hillside Avenue and Washington Street. Along with the tour, there will be a children’s scavenger hunt for architectural details. Refreshments will be served on the porch at 34 Hillside Avenue at the end of the tour.