Fieldville is a historical
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
located within
Piscataway Township in
Middlesex County, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. The location is sometimes described as being on
River Road south of
Bound Brook.
The community was named after John Field and his descendants who settled the area.
History
John Field (1659–1729) purchased along the
Raritan River
The Raritan River is a river of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its Drainage basin, watershed drains much of the mountainous areas in the North Jersey, northern and Central Jersey, central sections of the state, emptying into the Raritan Bay near ...
in 1695 from Benjamin Clarke.
Historic houses
The original Field House, built by John Field in 1710, was located between River Road and the Raritan River. It was destroyed in 1907.
Richard R. Field (1755–1840) lived in a frame house at 260 River Road, dated by a foundation stone.
John Field's grandson, John Field (born 1714), built a stone house at 625 River Road in 1743. It is a
contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...
of the
Road Up Raritan Historic District, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. A later addition was wood-frame construction.
About 1868, Benjamin McDowell Field built a large two-story frame house along River Road. It was also known as the ''Kenneth Perry House'', named after its last owner. The house was destroyed by fire in 1965.
[
File:John Field House, south elevation.jpg, John Field House, built 1743
File:Benjamin McDowell Field House, front.jpg, Benjamin McDowell Field House in 1960
]
Fieldville Dam
As part of the Delaware and Raritan Canal
The Delaware and Raritan Canal (D&R Canal) is a canal in central New Jersey, built in the 1830s, that connects the Delaware River to the Raritan River. It was an efficient and reliable means of transportation of freight between Philadelphia and ...
, a dam was constructed on the Raritan River at Fieldville to supply water for the last five miles of the canal to New Brunswick
New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
.
Transportation
Fieldville is accessed by two major roads: Interstate 287
Interstate 287 (I-287) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving northern New Jersey and the counties of Rockland County, New York ...
and County Route 622 (River Road).
See also
* Road Up Raritan Historic District
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{Middlesex County, New Jersey
Piscataway, New Jersey
Unincorporated communities in Middlesex County, New Jersey
Unincorporated communities in New Jersey
1710 establishments in New Jersey