Fair Haven

Two stores opened for selling goods and provisions in the 1820’s; one along the river east of Still’s land and the other west on a part that predated River Road. Still donated land for both an A.M.E. Zion Church and an “African School” in 1842 and 1850, respectively. His son-in-law, Jacob Brown, is remembered today with Browns Lane, the “oldest street” in Fair Haven.

Until the mid-1800’s, travelers used the riverfront trail that was called “The Old Shell Road.” It was the principal road between the Black Point (Rumson) and Red Bank areas. In 1816, one Jeremiah Chandler, recorded that he built his home near the present-day dock on Fair Haven Road. A tavern soon was built near the dock, and by 1840, a good-sized village surrounded the original home.

Steamboats stopped at Fair haven dock from 1850 to 1926. They traveled to and from New York carry-ing people, animals, freight, and produce. Oysters, clams and other seafood caught at Fair Haven was shipped to the Fulton Street fish market.

By 1860 names like Bennett, Chandler, Doughty, Minton, and Parker were abundant in the village. The residents were rivermen, boat builders, carpenters, painters, and other types of trades. Outside the village farms, orchards, and woodlands were worked. West of the village, large estates graced the riverfront. One of them, “The Grange,” was the summer home of Harry C. Miner, “The Father of Modern Vaudeville.”

General Clinton B. Fisk, a distinguished Union Army Officer bought property west of the village in the 1800s. He donated land and built a new black schoolhouse and a new A.M.E. Church on a street that later was called Fisk Street in his honor. In 1881, the New Jersey Legislature enacted “The Fair Have Rule,” which mandated the public education of children between six and sixteen years of age. This was a result of “school troubles” that occurred in Fair Haven.

In the late 1890s, a neighborhood between the village and Browns Lane became known as the “actors’ colony.” Summering vaudevillians frequented the place. Among the noted famous were Al Jolson, Jim Corbett and Lillian Russell. Over 200 entertainers are recorded as visiting. Many settled down here as permanent residents or for retirement. The Players Boat Club (now the Shrewsbury Yacht Club) was formed by them in 1910.

Growing pains and a yearning for self-government caused a movement for separating from Shrewsbury Township as early as 1893. This effort did not succeed and almost twenty years later, in March 1912, Fair Haven became a borough; Red Bank and Rumson had already become boroughs. Shrewsbury Township, including Fair Haven village on the east and a small development called “East Side Park” on the west, together with the riverfront estates and several farms then became united.

From the 1,000 residents in 1900 to about 6,000 today Fair Haven’s historic village combines homes and shops; a modern shopping center developed in 1950. Fair Haven’s late Twentieth Century neighborhood, a development called the “The Gentry,” came about in the 1980s-1990.