A brief history


Published in the Asbury Park Press 2/20/03
There are several tales of how Little Silver received its name. In one, brothers Joseph and Peter Parker , who settled in this area in 1667 and owned land bounded by Parker's Creek on the south and Little Silver Creek on the north, named their holdings "Little Silver" in memory of their father's (George Parker) estate at Portsmouth, R.I. This in turn can be traced overseas to Little Silver, a village in Devonshire, England.
The borough's earliest residents were mostly farmers, fishermen and merchants.

1823 -- The Embury Methodist Church is built on Rumson Road.

1847 -- There are four houses in the main village area.

1868 -- The new Embury Methodist Church is erected and moved to Church Street.

Feb. 16, 1875 -- Little Silver is designated to be called "Parkerville."

1876 -- St. John's Episcopal Chapel on Point Road has its first service.

1878 -- John T. Lovett, a nurseryman, circulates a petition to the community with the selection of one name and it became Little Silver. His nursery once covered almost half the town, supplying large catalog houses such as Sears Roebuck, Macy's and Newberry's.

July 30, 1879 -- The Post Office name of "Parkerville" is changed to "Little Silver."

Late 1800's -- Development accelerates when the popularity of the Shore area as a tourist mecca spurs the development of summer boarding homes in the borough.

1890 -- The Little Silver Railroad Station is created on Sycamore Avenue.

Early 1900's -- The Little Silver Post Office on Church Street opens for business.

1904 -- There are about 825 borough residents -- but only four have telephones, including the owner of a general store where the fire company receives calls. Community residents include electricians, nurses and blacksmiths.

1906 -- A barn fire leads to the formation of the Little Silver Fire Company as area residents unite to fight the blaze. The firehouse is completed the following year on Church Street.

1912 -- Memorial stained glass windows are installed and a major interior renovation and installation of a pipe organ are done to Embury Methodist Church.

1920 -- The Women's Club of Little Silver starts up memberships.

1920s -- The Sickles Farm Market is in business.

April 28, 1923 -- Little Silver is incorporated, breaking away from Shrewsbury Township.

1926 -- The Little Silver Public Library is established in the firehouse on Church Street.

1930 -- The population is 1,109.

1930s -- The J. Horace Harding Memorial Park at the center of Harding Road is created in tribute to its namesake, who who built and paved the road at his own expense in 1918.

1932 -- The Little Silver Fire Company joins the Monmouth County Fire Association.

1935 -- The Public Library moves to the first floor of borough hall.

December 1942 -- The Little Silver Market on Prospect Avenue opens for business.

September 1946 -- Nose and mouth masks are issued to Little Silver schoolchildren by the Board of Education as a new step in safeguarding the health of pupils by preventing the spread of colds and other childhood diseases.

Nov 1951 -- The Little Silver Firehouse on Prospect Avenue is dedicated.

1954 -- Little Silver First Aid Squad forms. November 1956 -- The new Little Silver Shopping Center on Prospect Avenue opens.

1959 -- The Little Silver Board of Education agrees to allow students to be fingerprinted by local civil defense authorities.

March 1960 -- The Point Road Elementary School in Little Silver is dedicated.

1962 -- The Little Silver Family Pharmacy on Church Street opens.

1963 -- The Little Silver Board of Education adopts a policy calling for a moment of silence at the start of each school day.

1964 -- The Public Library moves to its present location, on Prospect Avenue.

November 1969 -- The Little Silver Racquet Club on Birch Avenue opens.

May 1972 -- A fire guts four stores in a shopping center on Branch Avenue.

1974 -- Th old Post Office building is moved to its present Prospect Avenue location and turned into a museum.

December 1974 -- Several children from the Markham Place School picket a convenience store, protesting candy prices.

March 1974 -- Coed Little Silver baseball league starts up.

September 1975 -- Red Bank Regional High School opens on 53 acres in Little Silver at Ridge and Harding roads.

Sept. 1975 -- The Little Silver Village Cookbook is published.

Nov 1975 -- Little Silver Park, the former Storck Estate off Willow Drive at the end of Lovett Avenue, is dedicated.

1975 -- Little Silver celebrates its bicentennial.

1976 -- The 361-year old Parker House at 235 Rumson Road in Little Silver is declared a state historic site.

August 1979 -- Vandals destroy 100-year-old tombstones in the cemetery at Embury Methodist Church.

1980 -- Another addition to the Little Silver Firehouse is completed.

1987 -- Little Silver buys 4.6 acres commonly known as the Parker Homestead to develop a recreational facility. The Sickles Farm eventually gets purchased to make the Sickles-Parker Tract.

May 1989 -- The Committee for a Safe Power Line hosted a rally and march to protest construction of power lines in Little Silver.

September 1992 -- The Point Road School in Little Silver is a finalist in a national competition to name the best schools in the United States.

December 1995 -- The store Ski Haus at Oceanport Avenue in Little Silver closes.

Feb. 9, 2000 -- John H. Foster, Little Silver police chief from 1963 to 1981 and founding father of the Little Silver fire department and first aid squad, dies.

-- Compiled by Chris Matkovich of the Asbury Park Press Library.