Cedar Knolls
A Subdivision of Monroe
established 1913
Cedar Knolls was established in 1913, two centuries after Whippany, Monroe, and Malapardis were settled. Cedar Knolls was created when land within the districts of Monroe was subdivided and offered for sale. It originated when Menko H. Wolfe purchased and subdivided a 114-acre tract of land known as the Charles W. Ford Estate. A subdivision map was filed with the Morris County Clerk on December 16, 1913. The subdivision was laid out on the north side of Ridgedale Avenue which was then called Morristown Road. It ran from Fairview Avenue to Mountain Avenue and from Morristown Road to North Belair. The Cedar Knolls subdivision consists of three roads, six avenues, and 374 housing lots.
In 1914 the subdivision was sold to Bertha Wolfe who established the W-B Camp and Bungalow Company and opened a Cedar Knolls sales office at the Baldwin Real Estate Agency in Morristown to market the land. The company offered summer homes, camps, and bungalow plots of quarter-, half-, and one-acre lots starting at $100. By 1916 the bungalow company had built and sold over 50 bungalows; 300 people were staying in Cedar Knolls during the summer, and 100 remained as permanent residents.
At that time the railroad was the most popular and efficient access to Cedar Knolls. Between 1914 and 1916 the W-B Camp and Bungalow Company urged the Morristown and Erie Railroad Company to change the name of the Monroe train stop to Cedar Knolls. In 1915 a passenger train station was built in Monroe. In 1918 the name of the Monroe Station was changed to Monroe-Cedar Knolls. In 1919 the Cedar Knolls Fire Department, Inc. was established and in 1923 the Cedar Knolls post office was established.
Prior to becoming Cedar Knolls, the Charles W. Ford homestead was informally known as “The Knolls.” In an effort to glamorize the subdivision, Menko H. Wolfe named it “Cedar Knolls,” presumably in observance of the abundance of cedar trees that had grown up on the fallow fields of the Ford farm. The W-B Camp and Bungalow Company advertised the area as “Cedar Knolls in the Mountains.”
Cedar Knolls is the highest and quietest community in Hanover Township. It is convenient to its own shopping center, post office, firehouse, first aid squad, beautiful churches, and highway access. It is primarily residential with attractive housing on small fertile lots.
This description of Cedar Knolls is a condensed narrative from— A Place Called Whippany, 2nd Edition—
Chapter 4— Villages of Hanover Township.
Copyright 2006
All rights reserved
Limited excerpts of this text may be copied or reproduced
with acknowledgment as copy from A Place Called Whippany, by Leonardo Fariello.
Contact Information: Len Sunchild Publishing Co., Len@whippany.net, 973-539-5355