This Week in Chester History…
In 1962, the Observer-Tribune reported that Chester Township and Borough Police Chiefs Edward Strait and and Joseph Feltmann, respectively, teamed to arrest six vandals who caused $3000 worth of damage in the area. The vandals smashed four outdoor telephone booths, two cars’ windows, a solar installation on a utility pole, and a plate glass window in a warehouse. Four 15-year-old boys from Chester, 18-year-old Gary J. McGuire (also of Chester), and 21-year-old Lewis E. Ader of Long Valley were apprehended and arrested on charges of malicious mischief.
Local History Department
The Local History Department of the Chester Library in Chester, New Jersey is a resource for reference and original materials that document Chester, Morris County, and New Jersey history. The Department also serves as a repository for records of the Library. The purpose of the Local History Department is to collect, preserve, describe, and make accessible these materials to the local community, as well as to visiting and online researchers.
The Local History Librarian will serve patrons during the following hours:
- Mondays: 9 am until 4 pm
- Thursdays: 12:30 pm until 7:30 pm
- Fridays: 9 am until 4 pm
Due to the abbreviated schedule, the Local History Librarian requests that patrons make an appointment in advance for research purposes.
The Local History Librarian can be contacted by email at LocalHistory@Chesterlib.org or by phone at 908-879-7612, ext. 33.
Local History News
Chester Library Unveils Nearly 400 Images of Historic Chester
Chester, N.J. – February 26, 2018 – Chester Library has added 392 digital images to the Wyckoff Family Collection Finding Aid, making it easy for researchers to locate online visual resources of historic Chester. The topics covered by the new images...
Chester Library Releases Extensive Index for History Researchers
Chester Library announces its newest Local History resource, an exhaustive online index of Chester, New Jersey, A Scrapbook of History by Frances F. Greenidge. With more than 3,000 subject terms, the index lists all of the businesses,...
Chester Library Delivers All Elected Officials at One Site
Chester Library now offers the only location for the complete list of Chester Borough and Township elected officials. Previously, information seekers paged through old record books at the Borough and Township offices or individual PDFs of council minutes...
Chester Library Breaks New Ground with Multimedia Oral History Online Exhibit
Using postcards to focus on specific local sites, a novel online exhibit by Chester Library turns oral history on its head. The exhibit features videos starring lifelong Chester resident and retired plumber Herman Rademacher using his own postcard...
Chester Library Adds Postcard Exhibit to Online Offerings
Thanks to a loan by Jack Rademacher, Chester Library now offers another way to experience historical Chester — via postcards. The online exhibit, Chester...
Call for Yearbooks
Chester Library seeks Roxbury and West Morris Central/West Morris Mendham High School yearbooks for its Local History reference collection. Specifically, the Library is collecting the following years: 1917-1971 for Roxbury, from 1979-1985 for West...
Join the Local History Clippers
The Local History Department seeks volunteers to clip Chester-related articles from local newspapers collected by the Library. The Local History Clippers will each spend 1 to 3 hours clipping on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (between 10:00 a.m. – 2:00...
Chester Library Digitizes Cave Maps
Chester Library’s Maps Collection is available online at the New Jersey Digital Highway. The collection includes seven cave maps as well as the Chester Quadrangle topographic map. The maps can be viewed...
