historical timeline
HIGHLANDS, NJ
1524 The Highlands of Navesink were seen by the explorer Giovanni de Verrazano who wrote of natives "clothed in feathers of birds of various colours" and of naming "a small mountain which stands by the sea" which many believe the "mountain" upon which the Twin Lights now stands.
1525 Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese explored the area for Charles V of Spain and created the first maps which included Sandy Hook then called "Cabo de Arenas" or "Cape of Sands".
1529 Spaniard Diego Ribero creates first known map of Highlands area.
1609 Henry Hudson sailed his ship, the Half Moon, into the Sandy Hook Bay. One of his crew members, Robert Just, wrote: "This is very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see. Our men went on land, so they went up into the woods and saw great stores of very goodly oaks and some currants". John Coleman of Hudson's crew becomes the first European killed in North America by a Lenape Indian arrow through his neck in September.
1664 The British take control of New Jersey from the Dutch and renamed the settlement "Portland.” By January 25, the land in the Highlands of Navesink is purchased from the Lenape Indians and Richard Nicholls, Esq., first governor of the province (which would later become Monmouth County) conveyed all the land from Sandy Hook westward to the mouth of Raritan River to William Goulding, Samuel Spicer, Richard Gibbons, Richard Stout, James Grover, John Bowne, John Tilton, Nathaniel Sylvester, WIlliam Reape, Walter Clarke, Nicholas Davis and Obadiah Holmes.
1675 Monmouth County is established with its boundaries not definitely settled until 1709 and 1713.
1677 Richard Hartshorne becomes the first permanent settler of this area by purchasing 2,320 acres which included most of Sandy Hook and Highlands. The lease stated that Hartshorne was "to enjoy the whole range and benefit of herbage and feed for hogs and cattle with privilege of fowling, fishing, etc., upon the beach called Sandy Hook for 21 years rent: 1 pepper corn, yearly, if demanded. . .". Hartshorne removes the Lenape Indians from the area.
1704 A French privateer crew plunders two houses at Highlands on June 28.
1734 Highlands' oldest surviving house is built on Portland Road between Thompson and Riker Streets.
1744 A British frigate drags its anchor and runs ashore in the lower bay.
1762 New York merchants purchased a four acre site from the Hartshorne family for a light house. Two years later, the Sandy Hook Light House is lighted for the first time and today is the oldest operating light house in the United States.
1776 The British fleet arrives off Sandy Hook on June 29. Sympathizers with the British cause, mainly from Monmouth County, flee to Sandy Hook through Highlands in large numbers to help the British built fortifications which were held for the rest of the Revolutionary War.
1777 The Battle of Navesink becomes the first battle in Monmouth County as 170 British troops attack Monmouth County militia post at the Esek Hartshorne house on February 13.
1778 The celebrated Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, between Sir Henry Clinton and General Washington, took place on June 28, in which, what at first seemed a defeat, was turned, by the courage and promptness of General Washington, to a victory. The night after the battle, and while the American army lay on their arms with the expectation of renewing the conflict in the morning, the British general stole away and gained the heights of Middletown and the sure protection of the guns of the British fleet, which was lying in Sandy Hook Bay. General Washington considered it fruitless to pursue them any further, and marched his army to the Hudson and took a strong position, which covered the important passes of the Highlands on that river. One week after the battle, as recorded in Clinton's own narrative of the war, "the King's army descended from the High (lands) of Navesink, where I caused them to encamp, and embarking in transports (off Horse Shoe Cove) were conveyed to their respective stations on Staten, York, and Long Islands."
1781 The Loyalists stayed in control of Sandy Hook even after the war was ended by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19. Eventually they sought refuge in New York City, which was still occupied by the British.
1782 Captain Joshua Huddy hanged on April 12 at Water Witch in Highlands.
1783 The American Revolution ends by the Treaty of Paris on September 3.
1783 Eleven sailors desert the British ship HMS Assistance. They reach the Highlands shoreline but are pursued by 14 men led by Lieut. Hamilton Douglas-Halyburton. All of them die in a snow storm and are buried in a common grave on Sandy Hook.
1787 New Jersey is the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1790 President George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton go on fishing trip in the waters off Highlands in June.
1790 New Jersey is the first state to sign the Bill of Rights.
1790 Philip Freneau writes his poem "Navesink" focused on the Highlands hills.
1796 Nimrod Woodward purchases 800 acres of land on Sandy Hook and builds the first hotel in the Highlands of Navesink area.
1798 The first hotel in Highlands begins operation by Nimrod Woodward in the Esek Hartshorne house.
1805 James Fenimore Cooper becomes familiar with Highlands while serving in the navy and doing shore patrol of the Raritan Bay area for the next six years.
1812 Nimrod Woodward builds the first hotel located on the river, the "White House."
1813 Fort Gates is established in the Highlands hills with rifle and artillery companies in case of a possible attack by the British.
1813 British sloop Eagle captured in Sandy Hook Bay on July 4 by American troops disguised as fisherman.
1815 The first hotel to be built in Highlands is the "White House" built by Nimrod Woodward.
1819 The steamboat Franklin is first to stop at Highlands en route to New York.
1826 Stock market speculators created a system of semaphores built on the hill in Highlands by the Merchants Exchange Company to communicate between the Highlands and a broker's building in New York. The messages relayed by signal to New York, and across New Jersey to Philadelphia, provided speculators an edge on the market.
1828 The first Twin Lights are built with Joshua Doty as first keeper. However, before these original towers were completed, structural flaws appeared in the masonry and by the late 1850's plans were developed to replace the one built with inferior materials and bad workmanship.
1829 Visual telegraph is established on Twin Lights hill.
1830 James Fennimore Cooper writes The Water Witch in which the story is set in Highlands.
1832 The steamboat Saratoga is the first boat to serve Highlands from New York and is operated by the Monmouth Steamboat Company.
1834 New York Merchants Exchange establishes first semaphore telegraph on Twin Lights hill, linking Sandy Hook, Staten Island, and Manhattan with ship arrival reports.
1841 The south tower light of the Twin Lights receives a Fresnel lens.
1841 Schenck Hotel is established at river.
1843 The ship North America is wrecked on Sandy Hook on February 13 near Plum Island with 89 rescued and 510 dead.
1844 Joseph I. Thompson becomes the lighthouse keeper at Twin Lights for six years.
1847 Col. William Jones of New York buys and expands the Esek Hartshorne/Woodward Hotel to accommodate 200 persons while his daughter, Angeline, establishes a school in the hotel.
1850 Approximately 100 people live in Highlands as more Irish immigrants begin to settle.
1851 Thompson's Atlantic Pavilion is built on the Shrewsbury River.
1852 First post office is established in Highlands and Peter F. Schenck becomes the postmaster.
1853 Samuel Morse builds his magnetic telegraph near the Twin Lights lighthouse.
1854 James Farrell begins a news service using carrier pigeons until 1866 when the first transatlantic cable became operational.
1854 The Sea View Hotel is built on the Shrewsbury River by Ann Jarvis of New York
1856 The James W. McGarry house is built at Navesink Avenue and Valley Street and became a meeting place for Catholics.
1857 President James Buchanan stays at Thompson House while visiting Highlands.
1857 Albert Moses is murdered by James Donnelly at Sea View Hotel.
1857 The rivers and bays were frozen all the way to Long Island.
1858 General Albert Meyer experiments with semaphore wig-wag flag signals from the Twin Lights to Ft. Hamilton on Staten Island.
1858 The Neptune Club started on the Shrewsbury River between Upper and Lower Rocky Points.
1858 Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook begins to be built.
1860 213 people live in Highlands.
1860 Raritan and Delaware Bay Railroad connects New York via steamboat at Port Monmouth to Red Bank.
1861 Civil War starts with some soldiers stationed on Sandy Hook.
1862 The present-day Twin Lights are constructed and Gordon B. Sickles becomes the lighthouse keeper.
1862 Several men form Highlands volunteer and are assigned to the 29th Infantry Regiment to fill the state quota of men for the Union army.
1863 The U. S. Army Signal Corps is established after General Albert J. Meyer is successful with wigwag flag signals in 1858 from Twin Lights to Fort Hamilton, Staten Island, N.Y.
1865 The Long Branch and Sea Shore Railroad begins between Long Branch and the Spermaceti Cove steamboat dock to bring people from New York City to the shore.
1865 The first steam ferry of James Schenck carried vacationers from the Long Branch and Sea Shore Railroad station to Highlands.
1866 Merchants Steamboat Company's Sea Bird begins the New York to Highlands run for the next 60 years.
1866 The Jackson Club comes to Highlands and later (1868) builds its Jackson Club House on Shrewsbury Avenue at the foot of Jackson Street.
1870 The Spermaceti Cove steamboat dock is abandoned because the water is too shallow and a new one is built at Horseshoe Cove for the Long Branch and Sea Shore Railroad.
1872 Engraver Granville Perkins comes to Highlands to sketch several scenes for the first edition of Picturesque America.
1872 The first Highlands to Sea Bright bridge was opened by the Highlands Bridge Company of Edward and Benjamin Hartshorne.
1874 Proving Grounds are established on Sandy Hook.
1875 305 people live in Highlands.
1875 The draw bridge is struck on July 1 by a sloop.
1875 Rev. Abraham Allen arrives in Highlands and establishes the Dutch Reformed church, parsonage, and graveyard on property located at Fifth and Valley Streets.
1875 The Water Witch House, located on the block between Navesink Avenue, the bluff, Rogers and Waddell Streets, burns to the ground on October 9.
1876 William Cullen Bryant publishes the Centennial Edition of Picturesque America in which Highlands is featured.
1878 The second Highlands bridge is opened on June 27 with a wider draw for boats.
1878 The first public school is built at public expense at the northeast corner of Miller Street and Navesink Avenue.
1879 Atlantic Pavilion built by Benjamin Hartshorne becomes the Swift House.
1879 The Long Branch and Sea Shore Railroad becomes part of the Southern Railroad.
1880 460 people live in Highlands.
1882 The Central Railroad of New Jersey takes over the Southern Railroad.
1882 The steamboat Albertina begins the New York to Highlands run for the Merchants Steamboat Company until 1925.
1883 The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is incorporated in Highlands on November 27.
1883 The Twin Lights are powered by mineral oil to produce 20,000 candle power.
1884 The Highlands School at Miller Street is expanded to two stories.
1885 Walt Whitman visits Highlands and writes two poems, one of which is called "Fancies at Navesink."
1885 First Methodist Episcopal Church parish is established on May 10.
1886 Monmouth County buys the Highlands bridge for $10,000.
1886 The first Highlands Methodist (Episcopal) Church is built on August 22 on Miller Street near Shore Drive.
1888 William Sandlass builds Highland Beach Excursion Resort on Sandy Hook. and opens it in August 1889. The La Marcus Thompson designed Gravity Railroad roller coaster was a main feature. By the summer of 1895, the resort was hosting 125,000 visitors a season.
1888 The first church building of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is constructed at Navesink Avenue and Miller Street.
1889 A narrow gauge railroad is constructed to bring equipment and guns from the docks to the proof battery at Sandy Hook.
1889 Harper's Magazine writer F. E. Fryatt visits Highlands and writes extensively of its beauty, sites, and quaint way of life.
1889 Gustav Kobbe visits Highlands and describes town life and writes the first description of the clamming industry.
1889 The south tower of the Twin Lights is fitted with an electric arc light to produce 25,000,000 candle power.
1890 The captain and eight crewmen of the four-masted schooner Kate Marquise were lost despite the efforts of a Highlander named Charles Pederson, who waded out with a line through boiling surf.
1892 The Central Railroad of New Jersey extends its track from Atlantic Highlands to Highlands at the river by Bahrs’ restaurant.
1892 The Central Railroad of N.J. opens a new criss-cross bridge to allow trains, pedestrians and vehicles to cross simultaneously.
1893 A standard gauge railroad is completed from Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook to the mainland and connected with commercial railroad lines.
1893 The Steamboat Mary Patten begins her run from New York to Highlands and Long Branch for the next 37 years.
1894 The Schooner Kate Markee and eight sailors were lost near Highland Beach on April 11 during a storm.
1894 The first fire company in Highlands, organized by 25 volunteers, becomes the Seaside Fire Department.
1895 1,080 people live in Highlands.
1895 The Postal Telegraph Company establishes Marine Observation site on Twin Lights with agent Stephen Murray.
1895 The Water Witch Club purchased much of the land in the Monmouth Hills and the present Water Witch area of Highlands to develop exclusive summer vacation sites.
1895 Water Witch train station is constructed at Water Witch Avenue and Shore Drive.
1895 Fort Hancock is established on Sandy Hook as a Coast Artillery Post.
1895 The railroad tracks to Sandy Hook were wiped out by a storm. It was the line that took tourists from NYC steamers landing at Horseshoe Cove down to Highland Beach and on to Long Branch.
1896 Elisha Driscoll of Highlands discovers skeletons on the Spermaceti Cove island now called Skeleton Hill island.
1898 The Highland House Hotel was opened by William F. Patterson.
1899 Marconi uses radio-telegraph to report on Admiral Dewey Ship Parade on September 30.
1899 Marconi demonstrates the first practical use of radio telegraphy by sending Morse code reports of the America's Cup Races off Sandy Hook to a receiving station at the Twin Lights.
1900 The second Highlands fire company is organized as the Highlands Star Hook and Ladder Company. The Seaside Fire Company is renamed the Columbia Hose Company Number One.
1900 Legislation is introduced in the N.J. Assembly on February 23 to create the Borough of Highlands which is separated from Middletown Township.
1900 On June 13, the Borough Council passes Ordinance VIII prohibiting horses, cows and pigs from running loose on the streets and in September orders that three-inch hemlock and chestnut planking be used as curbs along the officially designated streets.
1900 The first United States Census is taken and the Borough of Highlands now has a population of 1,228 persons.
1901 The Thomas Patten, the only steel hulled boat and 201 feet long, began its run and ended in 1919.
1903 The Sandy Hook Proving Ground became a permanent installation and continued to test weapons through World War I. In 1919, the facility closed and the function was moved to Aberdeen, Maryland.
1903 The King Boat works is constructed by Stewart B. King on South Bay Avenue.
1904 The first fire code ordinances are passed by Council
1905 Sixty “clammers” unite to form the Baymen's Protective Association.
1906 The Water Witch Development Company begins marketing lots in the Water Witch section and the first Water Witch boat basin is constructed.
1906 The Martin Hotel is built by Martin Gerbrach at the corner of Portland Road and Highland Avenue.
1906 The first Highlands Auditorium Theatre (now the Lusty Lobster) on Bay Avenue is opened by Harry Sculthorpe to show films and vaudeville acts.
1907 Marconi Marine Radiotelegraph is moved from Twin Lights to Belmar.
1907 The first public water system is constructed at Miller Street below the Public School.
1907 The first trolley of the Jersey Central Traction Company arrives in Highlands from Campbell's Junction and Red Bank.
1907 The New Jersey Central Power and Light Company is given a franchise to supply the town with 45 electric street lights.
1907 The Creighton Hotel is built at 24 Bay Avenue.
1907 William H. Conners begins building the Cedar Grove Hotel.
1907 A Board of Trade or “Chamber of Commerce” begins with 42 members.
1908 A grave from 1783 of British officers and midshipmen was discovered on Sandy Hook.
1908 Corner stone is laid for the Highlands Methodist church on Bay Avenue.
1910 First private home at 254 Navesink Avenue is electrified.
1910 Neptune Club is destroyed by fire on February 16.
1910 Johnson's Drug store at 165 Bay Avenue is the first business to be electrified.
1910 A new Highlands post office was built at 71 Bay Avenue.
1910 Gravelly Point summer residents live in tents for the next 13 years.
1910 The Highlands Businessmen's Association sponsors the first Highlands Carnival to celebrate the town's first 10 years of the new century.
1910 The Borough of Highlands purchases its first town hall, the Firemen's Hall at Bay Avenue and Valley Street.
1910 Construction on the Highlands Public School doubles the size.
1912 The Water Witch section becomes part of the Highlands Borough.
1912 The low, wet area of town between Bay Avenue, Shrewsbury Avenue and Miller Street is filled in for new streets and houses.
1912 New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson is elected President of the U.S.
1913 Three Nor’easters within months of each other struck Highlands, but wiped out Sea Bright.
1914 The corner stone is laid for the Episcopal Church of St. Andrew the Apostle. The cemetery at Fifth and Valley is moved to All Saints and the old Reformed Church is sold and moved from there to become a shop on Bay Ave.
1915 The old Thompson Pavilion (Thompson House & Hotel) is torn down.
1917 Bahrs’ Restaurant is established in the old Michael McGuire boathouse by John and Florence Bahrs who came to Highlands in 1913.
1918 Dr. Everett Field removes bricks from Water Witch House and uses them to build a replica fireplace and chimney in his own home in Water Witch.
1918 A German U-boat sinks six American ships off the coast of New Jersey.
1919 Fred Bedle purchases Grandin Johnson's Drug store and opens Bedle Drugs at 165 Bay Avenue which stayed open until 1990.
1920 Prohibition makes Highlands an area with illicit trade of illegal whiskey.
1922 The trolley line from Red Bank to Highlands is abandoned and the Burdge and Russell Bus Company assumes the old trolley route.
1923 A new auditorium theatre opens while the old auditorium built in 1908 becomes a garage.
1924 An incandescent lamp replaces the arc light in the Twin Lights to produce 9,000,000 candle power.
1924 Veterans Memorial by bridge is dedicated on November 11.
1925 New York City imposes a ban on all Highlands clams until lifted in 1935.
1925 The Highlands Star begins publishing.
1925 Sewers are constructed along Bay Avenue. Both Bay and Navesink Avenues are paved with concrete.
1926 Highlands purchases the public beaches at Miller Street and by the bridge.
1926 The Boro Bus Company takes over bus service from Highlands to Red Bank.
1926 The Highlands Lions Club is formed.
1926 Gertrude Ederle is the first women to swim across the English Channel.
1927 Highland House Hotel on Navesink Avenue burns to ground.
1927 A state-of-the-art garbage incinerator is opened on the site of Jenny Parker Manor
1927 An earthquake, with is epicenter in Long Branch, shakes Highlands on June 1.
1928 The Public School at Miller Street burns to the ground on May 22.
1929 Homes and businesses are connected to a sewer system, the streets are paved and concrete sidewalks with curbs are constructed.
1929 Highlands American Legion Post is organized.
1930 Six men take first-aid training and then form the Highlands First Aid Squad.
1930 A novel of Army life at Fort Hancock called Parade Ground is written by Jacquelin Deitrick and published by Doubleday.
1931 The First Aid squad becomes independent of the fire department.
1931 The State of New Jersey opens Route 36 from Keyport to Highlands.
1931 First services are held on March 11 in the newly renovated interior of St. Andrew the Apostle church.
1931 "Romance in Highlands," starring Joseph Dempsey and produced by Daniel Dorn of Red Bank, is shown at the Highlands Auditorium Theater.
1931 The new Highlands Public School at Water Witch and Navesink Avenues is dedicated.
1932 The last of the steamboats, the Little Silver, was demolished.
1932 Concrete support work is begun for Highlands to-Sea Bright bridge.
1932 Highlands is battered by a fierce storm on November 10 with two feet of flood water on all of Bay Avenue.
1932 The second church building of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish is dedicated.
1933 The State of New Jersey Highway Department opens the Highlands drawbridge and calls it the “Million Dollar Bridge.” The old bridge is rebuilt leaving only the rail crossing. Timber from the old vehicle bridge is used to build the Water Witch bulkhead.
1933 The Western Union Marine Observation Tower at Twin Lights is demolished, but operations are continued on Sandy Hook.
1933 Some 40 liquor licenses are sold in Highlands after Prohibition ends and Federal authorities regulate the sale of beer.
1934 A clothing factory opens on the site of the old public school.
1935 An A&P food store opens at Bay Avenue and Miller Street.
1935 Radar (the "Secret Ray") is tested from Twin Lights hill on August 1.
1935 The Greenland Hotel is destroyed by fire on September 30.
1936 Dredging of the Shrewsbury River allows mud to fill in the swamp areas of the Water Witch area.
1943 Western Union buys Postal Telegraph Company and closes the Marine Observation site at Sandy Hook.
1944 A powerful hurricane devastates the Highlands in September sweeping homes from their foundations and moving them for several blocks.
1945 The Cedar Inn Restaurant is built on Navesink Avenue.
1946 USS Solar explodes at Earle Naval Pier on April 30.
1947 The novel, The Swamp Willow, describes early life in Highlands and is published by author Edwina Elroy.
1947 The Highlands boat basin at Washington Street is renovated.
1947 Katz's Confectionery opens at 202 Bay Avenue
1947 The Methodist Church burns to the ground on February 8.
1948 The corner stone is laid for the Highlands Methodist Church.
1948 William R. Cotrell, a 75 year old lobsterman, finds old gold coins, about the size of half-dollars, on the beach at the end of Cedar Street.
1950 The Borough of Highlands celebrates its Golden Anniversary since 1900.
1950 Kavookjian Field Living War Memorial opens on August 30.
1950 John Azzolina opens the Food Basket supermarket.
1951 O.L.P.H. establishes a convent at 130 Highlands Avenue for the Sisters who would open the first school in the church basement in September.
1951 Burtis Perry opens Paradise Trailer Park.
1951 The New Jersey Turnpike opens.
1951 The Borough Council issues 30 liquor licenses.
1951 The route of Garden State Parkway is set to by-pass all bay shore towns.
1951 The New York-Keansburg-Long Branch bus company starts its run through Highlands.
1952 The Twin Lights are de-activated.
1952 Shadow Lawn Trailer Park opens.
1952 Air raid drills are held and safe shelters are established in Highlands.
1953 A storm floods Bay Avenue on November 17 with three feet of water.
1954 Hurricane Carole strikes Highlands.
1954 Ft. Hancock becomes a Nike Missile base.
1954 The steam locomotive ends its run to Highlands on the Central Railroad of N. J. line.
1955 The Highlands Community Center, Inc. is formed to convert and operate the old water pumping station building on Miller St. (at site of Frank Hall Park) as a Community Center.
1955 Twin Light Historical Society is founded.
1959 Twin Lights Museum was opened.
1960 Hurricane Donna devastates Highlands on September 12.
1961 A new Borough Hall and Firehouse are dedicated.
1962 Three day powerful nor’easter storms devastate Highlands during March.
1962 Sandy Hook State Park opens on July 14 while Ft. Hancock continues until 1974.
1962 Henry Hudson Regional School at 1 Grand Tour opens.
1962 The State of New Jersey becomes responsible for the maintenance of the Twin Lights.
1963 O.L.P.H. opens school classes in the new school building at Miller Street and Highland Avenue.
1965 Twin Lights becomes a National Historic Site.
1965 A pool is built and opened to membership at Connors Hotel.
1967 Author Russell Peterson writes of nature in the Highlands area in Another View of the City.
1968 New Jersey prohibits parking along Route 36.
1968 Thomas Ptak is killed in action in Vietnam on March 26.
1968 Twin Lights Museum reopens.
1968 Hydrofoil ferry service begins from Highlands to New York City.
1972 Senior Citizens Club organized.
1973 Robert Soleau obtains permission to operate a clam depuration plant.
1974 Fort Hancock is deactivated and Gateway National Recreation Area becomes active.
1974 Construction begins for Top of the East (now Eastpointe) which will become a 14-floor condominium one year later.
1974 The first condominiums (Twin Light Terrace) were constructed down the hill and near the Twin Lights.
1975 Civil Service starts for Borough workers after voter approval in a referendum.
1975 The Borough celebrates its Diamond Jubilee.
1978 Borough Community Center on Snug Harbor Avenue is dedicated.
1984 Major storm hits Highlands on March 19 with $3 million in damage and four feet of water in some parts of the town.
1986 Ptak Towers Senior Citizen residence is dedicated.
1986 Direct Line Commuter Service begins ferry operation from the Clam Hut to Pier 11 in New York City.
1989 The TNT Hydroline begins commuter ferry service to Pier 11.
1991 Cipriani's Restaurant (formerly the Cedar Inn) burns to ground on January 29.
1992 A Nor’easter storm batters Highlands on December 12 and destroys much property.
1993 The first Bed and Breakfast Inn in Highlands is opened at 2 Grand Tour, The Sea Scape Manor.
1993 The film, Me and Veronica, is filmed in Highlands and utilizes some local residents as extras.
1993 A replica of Henry Hudson's Half Moon visits Highlands.
1993 The sale of the water plant and system is approved by residents.
1995 The Historical Society of Highlands is organized by Jane Horan who became its first president.
1995 The first Clam Festival is held on August 25.
1996 The Farmers' Market opens for business for the weekends.
1997 "Welcome to Highlands, Gateway to Sandy Hook" sign is dedicated.
1999 On January 3, a significant part of the hillside at 65 South Linden Ave collapses and destroys the Highland Shores Condo unit number one, and partially damages number two, but nobody is injured.
2000 Borough of Highlands begins a year-long Centennial Celebration.
2012 Hurricane Sandy strikes Highlands as a so-called Super Storm – Nor'Easter and Hurricane – which hasn’t happened since the 1820's with a moon tide.
MORE TO COME!