If You're Thinking of Living In Milltown, N.J.
by Jerry Cheslow - Staff Writer, The New York Times - Published: September 14, 1997

A Factory Town's Blue Collar Is Fading  

Milltown's Mayor Raymond (Duke) Graulich has his nickname tattooed on his right forearm and ''Mother'' on his left, and he says that's ''typical Milltown.''
 
Indeed, this 1.6-square-mile 19th century Middlesex County borough has a rugged, unvarnished look. The worn concrete sidewalks on the mile-long Main Street, though almost spotless, have not given way to modern brick pavers. There is no effort to make shop awnings match and, scattered among the delis, dry cleaners, florists, locksmiths and hardware stores, are five taverns, two gun shops and a taxidermist.
 
''We are still that same old blue-collar community we were when I was born 63 years ago,'' said Mayor Graulich.
 
But other longtime residents speak of profound changes. Donna Zukowski, 38, who grew up in Milltown, said that her parents had moved there because her father got a job in a diaper factory on Main Street. At the time, there was a leather factory across the street and a Personal Products cosmetics factory just down the block.
 
''Then, everyone who lived here worked here,'' said Ms. Zukowski. ''Now there are few jobs in Milltown and nearly everyone works outside the borough. The population is also mixed now, with about half blue-collar and half better-educated people.''
 
Ms. Zukowski, a computer programmer who has lived in half a dozen municipalities across New Jersey, moved back to her father's house in Milltown last year. She is now hunting for her own home there.
 
''It's peaceful, there's almost no crime and the town is almost fully developed so you will get just what you pay for and there will be no surprises down the road,'' she explained.
 
According to Mayor Graulich, only one parcel of land remains undeveloped and it is on the southern fringe of the borough, just off Main Street next to a 131,000-square-foot Home Depot store, the largest taxpayer in town. The Mayor said that the owner of the site has approvals for a 123,000-square-foot Target discount store there, which is expected to be completed within a year. Some residents say the Target store will exacerbate the already congested traffic situation on Main Street.
 
Milltown grew up around the Lawrence Brook, which bisects the borough from east to west and feeds into the manmade Mill Pond -- the border between North and South Main Streets.
 
Although Indian arrowheads were found on some of the early farms in the area, there is no evidence of any permanent Indian settlement in the confines of the current borough. Among its first settlers was Jacob I. Bergen, who built a grist mill in 1816 along Lawrence Brook. Until 1845, the tiny settlement that grew around the mill was known as Bergen's Mills. Later the name was shortened to Milltown.
 
Among the other early industrialists was Christopher Meyer, of German extraction, who established a rubber factory along the brook in the 1840's. He was followed to Milltown by hundreds of German peasants who gave the town its early character.
 
In 1907, Michelin Tire, a French concern, bought the Meyer Rubber Factory and expanded it rapidly until it employed nearly 3,000 people. In the process, Michelin built houses for workers and imported laborers from France. The streets were paved, electric lights were installed and the Middlesex & Somerset Traction Line included Milltown on its route to New Brunswick, the largest town in the area at the time.
 
In 1930, when the nation was in the grip of the Great Depression, Michelin closed the plant and sold off the factory houses. The Michelin factory has since been demolished, but many of the 200 sturdy company bungalows are still in use -- priced between $115,000 and $125,000.
 
Those bungalows, mainly on Riva Avenue on the southern side of town, have the lowest market value among the 2,500 houses in the borough, according to Kathleen Turner, broker/owner at the Turner & Kehoe Agency, a real estate firm on North Main Street. At present, there are 22 houses listed for sale in Milltown by the Multiple Listing Service at prices ranging from $114,444 to $273,000.
 
Small three-bedroom colonials built on the southern side of town at around the same time as the factory houses rose sell for $140,000 to $160,000, Mrs. Turner said. Newer, postwar three-bedroom split-levels sell in the $170,000's and larger four-bedroom colonials on the more prestigious northern side of town range in price from about $220,000 to $270,000, she noted.
 
There is only one large condominium in the borough, the 45-unit The Mill, a conversion of a factory that was built in 1897 for the India Rubber Company and later served as headquarters for the Russell Playing Card Company. A two-bedroom unit in the building recently sold for $94,000. Three bedrooms usually fetch about $10,000 more, according to Mrs. Turner. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
 
Among those purchasing a home in Milltown were Thomas E. Kedves and his wife Christine, both 27, who moved from an apartment in nearby Highland Park. Mr. Kedves is in the family's catering business in Woodbridge, 12 miles to the north, and Mrs. Kedves is a store manager in Short Hills, which is about 35 miles to the north.
 
''We wanted a town with a Main Street and fell in love with Milltown's,'' Mr. Kedves said. ''Then, when we started examining housing prices in other nearby towns with Main Streets, we found that we could get a lot more for our money here.''
 
The couple purchased a three-bedroom 60-year-old colonial on a 100- by 100-foot lot for $169,000 in May. Mr. Kedves said that a similar home would have cost over $200,000 in Highland Park. Unlike in Highland Park, where he said they barely knew their neighbors, ''everyone is outside in their yards in Milltown in summer, which almost obligates you to engage in conversation.''
 
Mr. Kedves would like to see some upscale restaurants opening in town. At present, Main Street's only eating establishments are delis, sub shops and pizzerias.
 
"When we go out to eat, we go to New Brunswick, which is about four miles away,'' he said, ''and we would prefer to just walk down to Main Street. But I'm not sure the population here would support a fancier restaurant.''
 
Nearly all the rental apartments in the borough are in two-family houses, scattered throughout the borough. Two-bedroom apartments rent for $700 to $900, according to Mayor Graulich.
 
Milltown has two public schools -- the 340-student Parkview School on Violet Terrace for kindergarten through grade 3 and the 390-student Joyce Kilmer School on West Church Street for grades 4 to 8. The borough's high school students are bused five miles to nearby Spotswood High School, under a contractual arrangement.
 
According to Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Walter E. Boright, the Milltown district is growing because older residents are selling their houses to young families. In 1993, the district had a total of 619 students.
 
The school system is investing heavily in computer technology, according to Dr. Boright. Over the last two years, a $250,000 extension was built onto the Parkview School to serve as a media center, where the library, video equipment and a 13-station computer laboratory is to be housed.
 
By the end of October, the district plans to complete its technology upgrade program, giving every classroom in the district at least one computer that has Internet capability, a VCR and a television set.
 
''Any teachers we hire must have strong computer skills,'' said Dr. Boright. ''The older teachers are being sent to in-service training in technology.''
 
According to the superintendent, the system has ''intensive parent involvement.'' He also said that the teachers often stay after school on their own time to tutor students.
 
"We are a small district, where everyone knows everyone,'' he explained. ''That makes the system manageable and allows the teachers to appreciate and act on each child's uniqueness.''
 
According to Dr. Boright, more than 90 percent of last year's eighth grades passed all three of the New Jersey early warning tests in reading, writing and mathematics. 'We had the highest pass rate in Middlesex County,'' he said.
 
Milltown has 241 students in Spotswood High School, where 85 percent of the 150 seniors last June went on to higher education. The school offers advanced placement courses in mathematics, sciences, American history and English, has three computer labs and will shortly open a science lab where students will be able to conduct both hands-on and computer-simulated experiments.
 
Besides the public schools, the borough has one Roman Catholic parochial school, the coed Our Lady of Lourdes on Cleveland Avenue, covering kindergarten through grade 8.
 
The borough has two major parks -- the 10-acre Borough Park across from the Parkview School and the six-acre Albert Avenue Park on Albert Avenue. Among the amenities in borough park is a large, saucer-shaped municipal swimming pool, which families can join for $180 a season and individuals can join for $45.
 
Borough Park is also the venue for an annual Fourth of July fireworks display, which follows a parade down Main Street. That celebration generally draws about half of the town's residents, according to Mayor Graulich.