Middletown’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Middletown. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Small communities of the Lenape Navesink tribe were common throughout the area when the first known European landing in what would become Middletown Township occurred in 1609. Sea captain and explorer Henry Hudson, in search of the mythical Northwest Passage in the service of the Dutch West India Company, anchored along the shores of Sandy Hook Bay in 1609, describing the area "a very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see." While a patroonship was granted by the company in 1651 the land wasn't officially settled. Today's Shoal Harbor Museum and Old Spy House includes portions of a house constructed by Thomas Whitlock, one of the area's first European settlers (and a Reformed Baptist at Middletown) who arrived here as early as 1664, around the time of the English takeover of New Netherland as a prelude of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Long-standing tradition had Penelope Sto…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Middletown’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Middletown’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewMiddletown Folk Festival, 1973: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Middletown
See all 18 →
Middletown, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Middletown Folk Festival (1973) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (2) and the National Register (4). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.