News Release - 1976 Yesterday's New Providence

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Robert K. Berry 464-5097

YESTERDAY'S NEW PROVIDENCE HERE TODAY

AT HISTORIC MURRAY HILL SQUARE

It's pretty hard to talk about New Providence history these days without including what's happening at Historic Murray Hill Square.

Located on Floral Avenue in New Providence, across from the Murray Hill train station, Historic Murray Hill Square is a Colonial shopping community offering a distinctive collection of merchandise and a shopping atmosphere that reflects the quality and leisure of the elegant past.

But more than that, it is a piece of historic New Providence. Most of the buildings there are reproductions of homes and structures that once existed in and around New Providence. Owner Nat Conti explains that of the 17 buildings at the Square, 14 of them once existed right here in New Providence.

Examples include the Boy's Academy which was later the Borough Hall, the Thompson-Gallo House, the Elkwood Avenue train station, the Attridge House, the Becker House, the Totten House, Burnett's cider and grist mill and the Crane Brothers feed and grain mill.

"We have a staff to thoroughly research every structure. here," Mr. Conti says. "Every detail on and in these buildings is authenticated."

Working closely with the New Providence Historical Society, researchers for Historic Murray Hill Square are developing a history of the area and of each building. plan to have a plaque on each building explaining its history," Mr. Conti adds, "so visitors can actually experience on their own what it might have been like to walk the streets of New Providence years ago."

The designs for the buildings are drawn from photographs, news clippings, and other information available at the Historical Society and independant research.

"We've conducted personal interviews with many members of local families who have lived in the area for several generations," Mr. Conti notes. "We never know when someone will remember a letter or memento left behind by their ancestors, that will give us a clue to a detail of our heritage."

The details and the quality of workmanship at Historic Murray Hill Square is rapidly becoming a model for builders and architects throughout the Eastern seaboard According to: Alexander Bol, the Square's architect, "we constantly get phone calls, letters, and visits from builders, investors, architects and students who are interested in just how we're doing it all."

When asked about other Colonial type shopping villages within a few hours drive, the Murray Hill Square staff is reluctant to comment, but the impression is left that the quality of everything that goes on at Historic Murray Hill ...

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