A history of Keyport,
since 1908
Postcards, papers and photographs of Keyport from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Great Fire of September 21, 1877, caused significant damage to Keyport, including extensive sections of the main business district. A total of 31 buildings were destroyed, resulting in losses from the fire of $160,000 (equivalent to $4,800,000 in 2025). Local firefighters only had access to water from a cistern and could not pump water directly from the nearby Raritan Bay. Properties destroyed in the fire included the boyhood home of Garret Hobart, future Vice President of the United States.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Keyport’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewKeyport (Village); Keyport Busine…, 1873: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Keyport, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Keyport (Village); Keyport Business Notices (1873) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3) and the Library of Congress (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.