Matawan’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Matawan. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Lenape Native Americans called the area "Mechananienk", which gave rise to the area being called "Matovancons" by Dutch settlers, from which derives the name "Matawan". The name may derive from a Lenape language word meaning "where two rivers come together" or it may originate from the Southern Unami Matawonge, "bad riverbank" or "bad hill", a possible reference to bluffs along Raritan Bay which were subject to erosion and collapse prior to the construction of a seawall in the 1970s. Another possible source is Matawan, Northern Unami for "bad fog", which may have referred to fog generated on Raritan Bay. Other possible meanings are "magician", "charmed skin" or "it arrives in a lake".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Matawan’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Matawan’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewGlenwood Institute, 1918: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Matawan
See all 6 →
Matawan, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Glenwood Institute (1918) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (5) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.