Summit is the northernmost city of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located within the New York metropolitan area. Situated on a ridge in northern–central New Jersey, the city is located within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions, and also borders both Essex and Morris counties in the Passaic Valley region. Summit is a commercial hub and commuter town for New York City.Caldwell, Dave. "Living In: Summit, N.J., a Place to Grow Into and Stay" , The New York Times, October 28, 2015. Accessed July 17, 2023. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 22,719, an increase of 1,262 (+5.9%) from the 2010 census count of 21,457, which in turn reflected an increase of 326 (+1.5%) from the 21,131 counted in the 2000 census.Table 7. Population for the Counties and Municipalities in New Jersey: 1990, 2000 and 2010 , New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, February 2011. Accessed May 1, 2023.
Originally incorporated as Summit Township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 23, 1869, from portions of New Providence Township (now Berkeley Heights) and Springfield Township, Summit was reincorporated as a city on March 8, 1899.Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968 , Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 241. Accessed May 30, 2024.Honeyman, Abraham Van Doren. Index-analysis of the Statutes of New Jersey, 1896-1909: Together with References to All Acts, and Parts of Acts, in the 'General Statutes' and Pamphlet Laws Expressly Repealed: and the Statutory Crimes of New Jersey During the Same Period, p. 273. New Jersey Law Journal Publishing Company, 1910. Accessed October 11, 2015.
Possible derivations of Summit's name include its location atop the Second Watchung Mountain; the Summit Lodge, the house to which jurist James Kent moved in 1837 and which stands today at 50 Kent Place Boulevard; and to a local sawmill owner who granted passage to the Morris and Essex Railroad for a route to "the summit of the Short Hills".Cheslow, Jerry. "A Transit Hub With a Thriving Downtown" , The New York Times, July 13, 1997. Accessed April 27, 2012. "The name 'Summit' may have been coined by James Kent, retired Chancellor of the Court of Chancery, New York State's highest judicial office, who bought a house on the hill in 1837 and named it Summit Lodge is today located at 50 Kent Place Boulevard. Another version of the way Summit got its name is that, around the same time, a sawmill owner named James Bonnell gave the Morris & Essex Railroad free right-of-way across his property, on condition that its track would pass near his sawmill. The company bought a special locomotive to pull the railroad cars up to what it called the summit of the Short Hills."Hutchinson, Viola L. The Origin of New Jersey Place Names , New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed October 11, 2015.Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, p. 293. United States Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed October 11, 2015.
History 18th century Prior to European contact the area that would become Summit was home to the Lenape Indians mainly along the Passaic River and along the shores of Surprise Lake with New Jersey Route 24 forming part of the "Great Minisink Trail." The region in which Summit is located was purchased from Native Americans on October 28, 1664. Summit's earliest European settlers came to the area around the year 1710.About Summit , City of Summit. Accessed February 5, 2025. "The region passed from Indian to Colonial possession by purchase on October 28, 1664, for 'twenty fathoms of trading cloth, two made coats, two guns, two kettles, ten bars of lead and twenty handfuls of powder.' Summit's earliest settlers came here around 1710." The original name of Summit was "Turkey Hill" to distinguish it from the area then known as "Turkey" (New Providence's original name until 1759). During the American Revolutionary War, Summit was known as "Beacon Hill", because "Beacon #10" was lit on an eastern ridge in Summit as part of a network to warn the New Jersey militiamen of approaching British troops.History of Springfield , Accessed November 25, 2006.
Summit was called the "Heights over Springfield" during the late 18th century and most of the 19th century, and was considered a part of New Providence. During this period, Summit was part of Springfield Township, which eventually broke up into separate municipalities. Eventually, only Summit and New Providence remained joined.
19th century Lord Chancellor James Kent, a Chancellor of New York State and author of Commentaries on American Law, retired to this area in 1837 in a house he called Summit Lodge (perhaps a namesake of the town) on what is now called Kent Place Boulevard. He lived there until 1847. Today, the lodge is part of a large mansion, at 50 Kent Place Boulevard, opposite Kent Place School.
In 1837 Jonathan Crane Bonnell, a local saw-mill owner, donated some of his land for free to the Morris and Essex Railroad, which became the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad and is now NJ Transit's Morris and Essex Lines, was built over what was then called "The Summit" hill, a name later shortened to Summit. For this Bonnell is remembered as "the father of Summit" as the new railroad spurred growth. Namely, the railroad allowed Summit to outgrow neighboring New Providence, which didn't have a train station. In 1868, a hotel named "The Summit House" burned beside the railroad. In 1869, Summit and New Providence separated and the Summit area was incorporated as the "Township of Summit". In the late 19th century, the area began shifting from farmland to wealthy estates; in 1892, renowned architect C. Abbott French cleared away a crest of a "summit ridge", removing "an impenetrable tangle of wild vines ... and myriads of rattlesnakes", to build a house with a view of New York City, The Times Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The present-day incarnation of Summit, known formally as the City of Summit, was incorporated on April 11, 1899.
During this time, Summit was the home of America's "antivice crusader", Anthony Comstock, who moved there about 1880 and built a house in 1892 at 35 Beekman Road, where he died in 1915.Morgan, Garner. History of Central Presbyterian Church (1870 - Present) . Accessed February 18, 2011. "Interestingly, Summit from about 1880 to 1915 was the home of Anthony Comstock, world-famous crusader against immorality, real and imagined."Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes/35 Beekman Road, Summit, N.J.; 1892 House Built by a Famous Crusader Against Vice" , The New York Times, May 27, 2001. Accessed July 31, 2018. "For much of his life Comstock lived in Summit, N.J., in Union County about 25 miles from Midtown Manhattan. The house he built there in 1892 still survives, but it lies vacant and in disrepair, its future uncertain."
In 1889 the Wisner family built a house at 165 Hobart Avenue which later became the Reeves-Reed Arboretum. In 1891 the first library was built although it was eventually outgrown. Today it is the Summit Playhouse operated by the Paper Mill Playhouse. A post office was also built in 1893 but that too was outgrown and is today the Roots Steakhouse while a Police headquarters was built in 1896.
In the 19th century, Summit served as a nearby getaway spot for wealthy residents of New York City in search of fresh air. Weekenders or summer vacationers would reach Summit by train and relax at large hotels and smaller inns and guest houses. Calvary Episcopal Church was built in 1894–1895; the New York Times called it a "handsome new house of worship". During its peak as an escape for the wealth of New York four large resort hotels would be built in Summit, the largest, Beechwood Hotel, had over 200 rooms and one of the first elevators in the state.
20th century
In 1906 the Overlook Medical Center opened in the city while in 1912 a YMCA opened. Silk weaving, which had thrived as an industry in the late 19th century, declined in the early decades of the 20th. In 1915, there was a strike at the Summit Silk Company on Weaver Street. In the early 20th century, there was much building; in 1909, one report suggested at least 40 residences were being built (some with stables) with costs varying from $4,500 to $45,000, making it "one of the greatest periods of building activity this place, the Hill City, has known."
A new railway was constructed from what was then-called New Orange. The Rahway Valley Railroad connected Summit with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). In the early 20th century, both freight and passenger service were offered by this line. (Although in 2009, Union County was exploring the possibility of reactivating the long-dormant line for freight traffic.Boright, Walter E. "Rahway Valley Railroad: The little railroad that helped build Kenilworth, Part II" , Cranford Chronicle, May 12, 2011. Accessed May 23, 2013. "In 1976 the offices moved into a railroad club car placed on a Kenilworth siding. That year the section from Springfield to Summit was closed.") A trolley line called the Morris County Traction Company, once ran a passenger trolley through Summit to/from Newark and Morris County, in the early part of the 20th century.Rae, John W. Morristown: A Military Headquarters of the American Revolution, p. 118. Arcadia Publishing, 2002. . Accessed January 14, 2015. Broad Street in Summit was designed and built for the trolley, which is why it is wider and straighter than most streets in the city. Portions of the rails could still be seen on it as late as the 1980s.
Relations between city authorities and businesses have not always been smooth; in 1898, city authorities and the New York and New Jersey Telephone Company had disputes about wires and telephone poles; the city acted and "wires and cables of the company were cut from the poles." There were disputes between Summit's commuters and the Lackawanna railroad about walkways; in one incident in 1905, "a number of passengers seeking to board the 6:35 train found their way barred. They made a united rush, and when the dust cleared away, the door wasn't there. It is said the company will put the door back. The commuters say they will remove it as often as it is replaced."
Following World War II, the city experienced a building boom as living outside New York City and commuting to work became more common and the population of New Jersey grew. At this point, Summit took on its suburban character of tree lined streets and architect-designed houses that it is known for today.The City of Summit , Summit Historical Society. Accessed November 25, 2006.
In 1974 there was a lawsuit to split "East Summit" off as its own municipality. Until 1973 the city had been divided into two wards, east and west, by the Erie Lackawanna Railroad tracks. Right before the 1973 municipal election new ward districts where determined that overrode the preexisting geographic boundaries in order to make the two wards roughly equal in population. Following a sweeping Republican victory in the election, the citizens of the eastern portion of the city claimed they had been gerrymandered by the city's Republican leadership in mayor Elmer J. Bennett and council president Frank Lehr. The eastern half of the city was more ethnically diverse and with a predominately Democratic voter base. As such Joseph R. Angelo was proclaimed the "Mayor of East Summit" and citizens sued the municipal government. The lawsuit to split the city in half, Mosely v. Kates, got as far as the Supreme Court of New Jersey which ultimately ruled in favor of the defendants and the city was kept whole.