OUT FOR A SPIN: A party of motorists in 1907, when cars were allowed to drive through Duke’s Park in Hillsborough, now known as Duke Farms. They are pictured in front of Lover’s Tower, which is still on the property today. (Postcard courtesy of Gregory Gillette)

By Wendy Greenberg

Greg Gillette has been a school board member, a newspaper columnist, chair of the Walk for Autism for Central New Jersey, a producer of children’s shows, a stay-at-home dad, and an all-around civic volunteer. Now he has added another accomplishment: the first official Hillsborough local historian.

In that role he will continue a lot of what he was doing without the title — chronicling Hillsborough Township’s history and being a go-to source when someone has a history question (“Call Greg, he’ll know”).

“I’ve been doing it unofficially for years,” said Gillette, who sees history as a human connector — to jog people’s memories of dates and events, which seems to draw people together.

When the township applied for grants for its 250th Semiquincentennial committee, they filled in his name where the applications asked for the local historian. At the October 14 Township Committee meeting, Mayor John Ciccarelli appointed Gillette to the volunteer role officially.

“Greg Gillette has been sharing Hillsborough’s rich, interesting history with the community for years,” said Ciccarelli. “The state created the position in 1979. The statute allows the local historian to carry out historical programs, see that archives are properly preserved, produce an annual report, write or recommend articles, advise on acquisition of landmarks, and assist on commemorations.”

Gillette comes to the position well-practiced in civic volunteerism. He has been a member of the Hillsborough Historic Preservation Commission for over 20 years, serving as chair for 10. He has served on the Hillsborough-Millstone Municipal Alliance and as chair of the Cultural Arts Commission. Gillette and his wife, Patty, were co-chairs of Central New Jersey Walk Now for Autism, through Autism Speaks. Additionally, Gillette was elected and served for five consecutive terms on the Hillsborough Township Board of Education from 2007 to 2023, the longest serving Hillsborough board member in about a century. In 2018, he was honored with the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission History Award in the Leadership and Education category. He is currently serving on Hillsborough Township’s 250th Anniversary Committee.

He has been sharing local history with Hillsborough residents for years with his blog, found at cnhillsborough.blogspot.com, and his Facebook column, “Gillette on Hillsborough.” Starting in January, he will author a post on the township web site, “This Week in History.” “We’ll see how it goes,” he said.

If past columns are an indication, it should go well. As a former Courier News columnist, his writing has touched on political topics and events, but his most popular columns were related to local history, he said. Parent company Gannett syndicated the columns nationally. “I don’t know why people in San Diego wanted to read about Hillsborough, but they did,” he said.

GATEWAY TO HISTORY: The Raritan Gate Fountain once stood at the entrance to Duke’s Park on River Road, where the road bends to head towards Raritan. From the collection of local historian Greg Gillette, who has a lot of history on what is today Duke Farms on his blog and facebook page.

Gillette grew up in Monmouth County. He was a music major at New York University and for 20 years worked at Six Flags in its entertainment division, producing educational children’s programs for school assemblies. When he decided to settle somewhere with his wife and children, he got nostalgic for his youth in Monmouth, and Hillsborough, which had developed more slowly, fit the bill.

Hillsborough’s past provides Gillette with some of his favorite historical moments. Duke Farms has a storied history, and he most enjoys the era from about 1893 to 1925. “That’s a big favorite,” he said. His Facebook posts are dotted with Duke Farms history; for example, there are glimpses into the estate of J.B. Duke, with photos from before he decided to turn his property “into the grand, meticulously landscaped attraction known as Duke’s Park.” The posts are replete with anecdotes and historical photos, and information on the restoration and reforestation of the sweeping property where heiress Doris Duke grew up.

BELLE MEADE HISTORY: Pictured is the former Belle Mead Army Service Forces Depot on Mountain View Road. In the 1940s, it was the nation’s largest World War II-era military supply depot. Hillsborough Local Historian Greg Gillette has an extensive blog entry on the depot, which had a civilian workforce of more than 2,500 people.

He is also intrigued by the former Belle Mead Army Service Forces Depot, the largest World War II-era supply depot in the U.S., which is now the site of Mountain View Park. Supplies came by train to the 1,000 acre-site, were sorted out, and then went on to Europe.

As he explained in his blog, on January 29, 1941, “The Hopewell Herald reported that residents and farmers in the vicinity of Belle Mead had been approached by two real estate agents looking to potentially buy thousands of acres of land adjacent to the Sourland Mountain in Hillsborough Township,” and property owners allowed the sale of their land for “the purpose of National Defense.” Construction began on April 28, 1942, with newspapers reporting hundreds of workers erecting warehouse buildings and constructing miles of railroad sidings on the site. Gillette notes that future writer and social activist James Baldwin got a job there, rooming with a fellow worker who was living in Rocky Hill. Baldwin refers to the time in his book, Notes of a Native Son.

Gillette writes, “The Belle Mead ASF Depot was officially activated on 10 August 1942. Between the first inbound rail shipment in September 1942, and 30 June 1943, the depot had handled more than 580,000 tons and had a civilian workforce of more than 2,500 people,” including as many as 350 Princeton University students — and their professors — working at the depot warehouses on Sundays.

Gilette is also intrigued by the story of opera singer Anna Case, born in Clinton, who grew up the daughter of a blacksmith in Hillsborough’s South Branch. The nationally known concert singer married wealthy businessman Clarence Mackay in 1931 and eventually gave her gift from him, a 167-carat emerald necklace, to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “In the 1920s, there wouldn’t have been a person in America who didn’t know who she was,” wrote Gillette.

No doubt the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution will be the upcoming focus for Gillette. Hillsborough in 1776 was its own municipality, established on a royal charter from King George, named for the British secretary of state to the Colonies, Wills Hill, known as the First Earl of Hillsborough. “In 1776, Hillsborough was a pretty well-settled with farmsteads, large farms, indentured servants, mills and blacksmith — no villages, just the Neshanic Reformed Church,” said Gillette.

Gillette has also been working on a book edited by his daughter, who is a professional editor. We Sing Their Praise Forever: Historic Schoolhouses of Hillsborough, NJ, 1725-1925, is awaiting publication.

With all he has done for Hillsborough, Gillette credited the town with being good to him. “I wanted to give back,” he said. “I want people to use history to not only connect people to the past, but to connect people to each other. If I can get some of the facts down, and help people harness their memories, they connect with each other. A common nostalgia draws people together. As local historian, I hope to continue that.”