• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Preservation New Jersey

Promoting the economic vitality, sustainability, and heritage of New Jersey’s diverse communities through advocacy and education.

  • About
    • About Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
  • Programs
    • Building Industry Network
      • BIN Resource Directory
      • Renew/Join
    • Educational Programs
    • 10 Most Endangered
    • Awards Celebration
    • Annual Meeting
      • 2020 Annual Meeting Recap
    • 1867 Sanctuary
  • 10 Most
    • About the 10 Most Endangered Places
      • Nominate an Endangered Place
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 25th Anniversary
    • 2020
    • 2015 – 2019
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
      • 2015
    • 2010-2014
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • 2012
      • 2011
      • 2010
    • 2005-2009
      • 2009
      • 2008
      • 2007
      • 2006
      • 2005
    • 2000-2004
      • 2004
      • 2003
      • 2002
      • 2001
      • 2000
    • 1995-1999
      • 1999
      • 1998
      • 1997
      • 1996
      • 1995
  • News
    • PNJ Newsletter
    • PNJ in the News
    • Advocacy
      • Historic Tax Credits
    • Events
  • Support Us
    • Membership
      • Individual
      • Business/Organization
    • Donate
    • PNJ Supporters
    • Volunteer
  • Contact

Michelin Site

September 4, 2017 by

Year Listed: 2005
Status: Endangered
City: Milltown
County: Middlesex

Additional Features:


DESCRIPTION:
When Milltown incorporated in 1896 it had already been a mill-centric village for more than a century. Rubber had arrived in 1843 when a New Brunswick firm that made rubber overshoes relocated, but the tire hit Milltown’s road in 1907 when the French manufacturer Michelin, presciently hoping to capitalize on the burgeoning American automobile market, chose Milltown for its first American tire factory. (They were a year ahead of the Ford Model T.)

The 21-acre site soon boasted its own railroad siding. In 1916 Michelin began producing its very successful Universal Tread tire in Milltown bringing national attention through advertisements that ran in popular magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. In 1919 Michelin built 53 bungalows for workers’ homes. In the 1920s more than 2000 people worked for Michelin in Milltown in 15 buildings that contained 475,000 square feet of factory floor. But Michelin’s market had a blowout when the economy collapsed, and they closed their Milltown facility in 1930.

In the past 75 years businesses have come and gone, and parts of the complex are lost. What remains, however, are distinctive rows of relatively low, connected, brick buildings with stepped gables that conceal peaked triangular green-ribbed sky lights. The buildings are currently about one quarter occupied, and the owner is allowing them to deteriorate. A developer is poised to demolish the entire complex in favor of a mixture of affordable apartments and market rate, age restricted units as soon as an environmental clean up is completed.

PNJ wonders why this whole site needs to be demolished and filled to capacity with new housing: why a core element in the town’s identity must be sacrificed in its entirety. Some of the buildings could be adaptively reused for housing or to meet community needs such as for a new firehouse. Important symbolic elements such as the water tower and smoke stack should be retained.

CONTACT:
David Schewendemann, Milltown Historical Society
PO Box 96
Milltown, NJ 08850
732-828-0249

Footer

STAY UP TO DATE

Sign up to receive free updates.

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Search Our Site!

Tags

10 most 10Most 2021 Accessibility AIA Annual Meeting Architectural Details architecture Awards Brick Camden Cape May celebration Cumberland docomomo events Exterior Envelope Façade Restoration Gala historic Historic Sites Council HTC Hudson Masonry meeting modern Morris Murphy new jersey news Passaic Preservation preservation awards roebling Roofing Slate Structural Repair Sustainability Sustainable Construction tour Traditional Construction trenton Warren Wood Woodstown
  • About Us
  • Membership
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us

Web Designer © 2023 Preservation New Jersey