Download or read book Montclair written by Royal F. Shepard and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a century and a half, Montclair has been known as one of America's most attractive residential suburbs. Yet for an equally long period, it was a simple, rural settlement. As one historian put it, when the trains came in 1856 they "completely changed the character of our town from a sparsely settled agricultural region to a community of elegant suburban homes." Elegant homes remain, and at the opening of the latest century, they lured a new surge of refugees from Gotham. Some of the finest homes are shown in these pages. This history meanwhile reflects the rich mix of race, ethnicity, and opportunity that went into the making of the town. Montclair presents various aspects of the town, from Washington's Headquarters, to Italian immigrants laying pipes, to the No. 29 trolley climbing past the Food Fair.