A charming postcard reproduction from the turn of the century (the 20th) depicts some of the grand old houses along Fairmount Avenue from the days when vacationers would come to enjoy the "salubrious air." The postcard has the words "Greetings from Chatham NJ" in a banner in the lower left corner. The reproduction is presented in an 8" by 10" white mat, sized to fit into a standard frame, $20. Contact us via this website, in the "Books" category on our "Contact Us" page for information on purchasing.

Let's Celebrate Chatham and its Colorful History is a coloring book aimed at children but also valued by adults for its informative stories and pictures of the Borough of Chatham. A fictional hometown boy takes the reader through the pages as you color simple drawings of many Chatham landmarks and some of its most memorable citizens.

This is the story of a New Jersey town, founded at the place where Lenni Lenape Indians crossed the Passaic river. Indian trail gave way to muddy road, to turnpike, to Main Street with its traffic and rows of refurbished stores. The book shows the simplicity of the 19th century developing into the complexity of the 20th - as it affected Main Street. More than 400 men and women helped compile the data, manuscripts and photographs for this book, as well as conducting research and fact checking.

Chatham and the Passaic River have been inextricably linked for nearly 275 years, since the town’s funding under the informal name of Day’s Bridge. That name honored John Day, builder of the first span across the river, which forms the eastern edge of the town. The nature of early generations of the town’s residents is reflected in the area’s permanent name, selected by villagers in 1773. Chatham is named for Great Britain’s William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, who was a champion of American liberties during the revolutionary era.

The first visitors to Chatham, New Jersey were the Lenni Lenape Indians who stopped in Chatham on their annual migrations from Sussex County to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. They called the Passaic River the Fishawack.  In late August of 1781, while his troops were camped in Morristown, George Washington wrote seventeen letters from a Chatham homestead. After the Revolutionary War, Chatham’s convenient location, just a day’s journey from New York City, made it a popular overnight stop for east-west travelers.

Chatham is the kind of place its residents are proud to call home. The oral histories recounted in Ten on a Toboggan attest to that fact as they bring to life the experiences of a wide range of people in this vibrant community. Beginning with Barbara Berry Erwin Nelson, whose family ties to Chatham date back to the middle of the nineteenth century, and ending with a current Chatham young adult, born and bred in our hometown, this book takes a chronological look into Chatham’s social history.