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Community Corner

Local History: Matchbook Millburn-Short Hills

The matchbooks show off businesses throughout the community.

The five new acquisitions in the collection of the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society gives residents a matchless look at the community's history. Of those businesses reflected in the donation, only the Chanticler is still operating, but it is scheduled for demolition and luxury condominiums are planned for the site.

The Pete and Charlies matchcover notes the restaurant was at the Mall at Short Hills, at "Morris Turnpike at River Road." The telephone number area code was still 201, so the matchcover predates ca. 1996. A 1973 newspaper article mentions an event at Pete and Charlies at the mall.

The Arch restaurant was at the site of the present Benihana restaurant on Morris Turnpike and was in operation from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s.

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The very popular Little House, from the bottom left matchcover, was at 545 Millburn Avenue at the intersection with Baltusrol Way. The building was demolished to make way for Burgdorff Realtor's parking lot.

In the early 1930s, Wellington Campbell's stately Victorian home, at the corner of Millburn Avenue and Short Hills Avenue, was remodeled into a supper club. The Chanticler gradually enveloped the home and the site will soon return to its original function as a grand setting for gracious living.

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The Holly House matchcover advertised that it was at 14 Essex Street in Millburn, "opposite Lackawanna R.R. Station" and that it had the "largest soda fountain in the State." The address seems to have been approximately to the rear of the former Marsh Jeweler site near the Annie Sez end of Essex Street.

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