Gillette
The Cornish farm was built in 1732 by James Caldwell, an Irish immigrant who was Gillette's first settler. The town was named Gillette by Mr. George Howell, an engineer, who surveyed the construction of the West Line Railroad from Summit to Bernardsville. He named the area Gillette in appreciation of obtaining the right-of-way for the railroad to come through.The Gillette station was the original station but has been added onto over the years. Long Hill Road and Valley Road, are the old roads trough Gillette. Morristown Road was once the main roadway from Morristown to Plainfield. Mountain Avenue wasn't a road until the railroad was put through. It used to be a lane to the Cornish farm. The bridge on Hillcrest Road was an old wooden bridge going from Gillette to Berkeley Heights before 1936. Then they made a steel overpass over this site. The Gillette post office was served by the Passaic Valley Post Office. It was situated on the south side of Valley Road just east of Morristown Road. The post office was moved a number of times over the years. Not so long ago, the post office was housed in the Castle building on Valley Road. In 1957, it relocated to the corner of Valley Road and Mountain Avenue in the building that A. W. Nixdorff had operated the general store. The post office moved a to its current location in the late 1980's. The Gillette Elementary School on Valley Road in Gillette was built in 1935. The Pennington Brush Factor was one of the few industries in Gillette between 1940 and 1960.