For more than a century this has been one of he finest residential areas in New Jersey. Development began in the 1870s, and continued into the 1920s. The Ballantines, the Clarks and other families who had amassed fortunes in local industry created grand estates on the ridge overlooking the New York skyline. Elias G. Heller named the area Forest Hill in 1890, and built housing for workers in his file factory near the city's northern boundary. The creation of Branch Brook Park in the late 1890s enhanced the area's natural beauty as well as its separate identity. Forest Hill has long been noted for elegant houses in a wide variety of styles, spacious lawns and gardens, and tree-lined streets. Fifty-five blocks, bounded approximately by the park and Verona, Mount Prospect and Second avenues, were entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
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