Orange has its origins in
Connecticut's
New Haven Colony. In 1666, 30 of New Haven's families traveled by water to found "a town on the Passayak" River. They arrived on territory now encompassing
Newark,
the Oranges, and several other municipalities. The area was in the northeast portion of a land grant conveyed by King
Charles II of England to his brother James, Duke of York. In 1664, James conveyed the land to two proprietors, Lord
John Berkeley and Sir
George Carteret. Since Carteret had been Royal Governor of the Isle of
Jersey, the territory became known as "New Jersey." Orange was initially part of the city of Newark, but it was originally known as "Newark Mountains". On June 7, 1780, the townspeople of Newark Mountains officially voted to adopt the name Orange. At the time, a significant number of people favored secession from Newark. This did not occur until November 27, 1806, when the territory now encompassing all of the Oranges was finally detached. On April 13, 1807, the first government was elected, but not until March 13, 1860, was Orange officially incorporated as a city. Immediately, the new city began fragmenting into smaller communities, primarily because of local disputes about the costs of establishing paid police, fire, and street departments.
South Orange was organized on January 26, 1861; Fairmount (later to become part of West Orange) on March 11, 1862;
East Orange on March 4, 1863; and
West Orange (including Fairmount) on March 14, 1863. By 1960, all had left. Beer was a major industry in Orange beginning in the early 1900s, when the three Winter Brothers of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arrived in the city and built the first brewery. The Orange Brewery was constructed in 1901 at a reported cost of $350,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). The production of beer ceased with
prohibition in 1920, and after the repeal of the
Volstead Act in 1933, the brewery was sold to John F. Trommers of Philadelphia. Trommers brewed beer under that label until 1950, when the concern was again sold to Liebmann Breweries, Incorporated, which bottled
Rheingold Beer. Eventually, after passing through several other owners, the plant was closed permanently in 1977. Other notable firms in Orange were the
Monroe Calculating Company, manufacturers of the adding machines of the same name, and the Bates Manufacturing Company, producers of office accessories such as staplers and stampers. From about 1917 to 1926, the
United States Radium Corporation refined ore and extracted the
radium used to make luminous paint for dials and hands of watches and other indicators. Years later, the carcinogenic effects of this material became known, and the polluted site of the factory became a liability for the city. The
Radium Girls were a group of hundreds of female factory workers who contracted
acute radiation syndrome after ingesting radioactive
radium when they followed instructions to rub brushes on their lips that were being used to paint luminescent watch dials, many of them suffering cancers and other deformities due to the radiation poisoning. The company's facility at 422–432 Alden Street was added to the
National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey in 1999.
Notable residents and visitors Orange has produced such notables as baseball's
Monte Irvin and heavyweight boxer
Tony Galento. Actor
William Bendix lived and worked here for a short while. Presidents, presidential candidates, and governors visited. Orange held major celebrations for its 100th anniversary, and another when it turned 150.
Late 20th century political and social changes (1897) Once a multi-ethnic, economically diverse city, Orange suffered indirectly from the
1967 riots in
Newark (even though Newark and Orange do not share a border) and directly from the construction of
Interstate 280 through the heart of the downtown area, triggering middle-class "
white flight" from aging industrial towns to the new automobile suburbs being built in western Essex County and elsewhere. By the end of the 1970s, Orange had many of the urban ills normally associated with larger cities. However, the city still features many tree-lined streets with well-maintained homes. In 1982, citizens voted overwhelmingly to change the designation of Orange from a
city to a
township, thereby making it eligible for federal Revenue Sharing funds. ==Geography==