Montain Park Inn - Johnston Drive Victorian Resort from a flyer June 2009 "New Whispering Leaves" from Jane Cole and Susan Tucker of Coldwell Bankers

Map of "Mountain Park" proposed but never built along Johnston Drive

The Mountain Park Inn was not only a tourist destination, but the anchor of a major development project, most of which was never built!

This is a vintage brochure for the Mount Resort, which describes a planned development of 198 lots, each 100' x 200. The brochure's flowery language proves that, even then, realtors waxed poetic a glories of living on the first Watchung Mountain. "This is the first time that a home, 600 feet above the tide-water, has been offered the New York business man within an hour's ride of his office. Here his family can enjoy themselves among mountain breezes, free from the heat and turmoil of the City, and here he can join them at night and obtain the refreshing rest so necessary to the modern hustler." (Contin р.2)

Cont'd from p. l. The brochure describes the 100 guest inn in detail: "The rooms in the house are commodious, light and well furnished, and the view is equally grand from all sides of the building. The parlors and dining room are roomy and pleasant and are surrounded by broad piazzas. Lawn tennis courts, croquet grounds and the like are to be found adjoining the house.

Stable accommodations are also provded. The commutation rates between New York and Plainfield are $8.10 per month." The hotel, which later became Grossman's School for children with special needs burned on December 29, 1937, but the concrete steps which once led to the entrance can still be seen, on the big bend of Johnston Drive, below Oak Ridge Lane.

Listing John French as manager and Joseph Vail as an owner, the development was obviously started but never completed. If any reader knows more about what happened to Mountain Park, please contact us!