In the spring and summer of 1777, George Washington kept an eye on British troop and ship movements on Staten Island and in the Raritan Bay from a promontory off Rock Road, on the border of Watchung and adjoining Green Brook, which is aptly called Washington's Lookout. In fact, Watchung was known as Washingtonville in the late 18th century.

Another early name for the borough was Browes Town because farmers let their cows browse, or graze, in the valley section. The first European settlers, of Dutch descent, came to the area in the early 1700's from Long Island for farming. Watchung remained a sleepy backwater for the next 200 years, with a population of just 500 in 1930, a 10th of what it is today.

One of the few early industries was the harvesting of ice when the borough's two lakes, now public parks, froze during the winter.

Another was tourism. Shortly after the completion in 1876 of Johnston Drive, named in honor of John Taylor Johnston, then president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Mountain View Hotel opened on Johnston Drive at what is now the corner of Oak Ridge Lane. The hotel was popular for decades as a summer resort for vacationers from New York and nearby cities, who came for the mountain air. The resort burned down in 1939.

Watchung got ts present name in 1926 when it incorporated as a borough.

from “If You're Thinking of Living in: Watchung” By Susan Scherreik NY Times Feb. 14, 1993 Section 10, Page 7