Historical Society of Bloomfield | Photo Gallery | Town Improvement Association (TIA) Lantern Slides |
View from RR Depot

Although they may look "colonial," these cheaply built houses were built by a Mr. Van Wagoner on an undesirable scrap of land bounded by the Newark and Bloomfield RR at ground level, Washington Street in the foreground, Farrand Street on the right, and the complex of factory buildings in the distance, (which belonged to the Consolidated Safety Pin Company) the Jenkins Foundry, and other manufacturing operations. At one time the safety Pin Company boasted that they produced one million safety pins per day.

The last of these houses to be demolished was the double one slightly to the right behind the David Hill Real Estate office. Hill was the owner of a number of cold-water flats. Nine of them in East Orange. The last building to be demolished was the large one - torn down in 1937.

Frederick Branch, July 2010