14 March 2021

Duke's Parkway Bridge, Then and Now

As part of James B. Duke's massive construction project at his Hillsborough, New Jersey estate at the beginning of the last century, he had all of the road bridges rebuilt in stone to fit the new motif of Duke's Park. These included the bridges on River and Roycefield Roads as well as Duke's Parkway, as pictured in the postcard below from 1905.


Postcard circa 1905

This scene  - near the current entrance to the Duke Farms orientation center - was popular with postcard publishers and was reprinted a number of times in both color and monochrome.


Postcard circa 1905

The opposite view - standing at the bridge and facing south - was also popular and sometimes captioned with, "In the shade of the old apple tree", the title of a popular song dating from 1905. Today the location is accessible by a small path from the north side of the orientation center parking lot - which is how I stumbled onto the scene and captured the photo below.

2021

1 comment:

  1. Was such a beautiful place to live and raise my children

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