There will be a Special Township Committee meeting on May 20, 2008 at 7:00 PM at the Harding Township School, Lees Hill Road, New Vernon to discuss the proposed Morris Township Recreation Complex.  Information concerning the Proposed Mt. Memble Recreation Complex can be found here.

     Agendas for upcoming meetings can be found here  Upcoming Agendas.  We have recently begun to add approved meeting minutes to the site.  They can be found here   Past Minutes, in folders associated with the relevant board, TC, PB, BoA, and BoH.

        Township History (from “Historic Character of Harding” brochure) Much of what is now known as Harding was an agricultural community with roots stretching as far back as the early 1700’s.  Bypassed by turnpikes, canals and railroads, Harding remained a rural backwater.

     For almost two centuries, Harding’s open and rolling landscapes reflected its agricultural use, as land had been cleared for cattle pastures, orchards and fields of grain. The Great Swamp and the slopes near Jockey Hollow were also used by local farmers for wood supply.  The villages of New Vernon, Logansville, Pleasantville and Green Village were the centers of this agricultural community; it was not unusual for villages to have a store and post office, a school of one or two rooms, churches, blacksmiths and sometimes a tavern.  Wealthy city residents in search of rural tranquility bought great swaths of farmland, enlarged old farmhouses and landscaped the grounds.  Several estate owners, desirous of better roads and wishing to deter suburban development, led the movement to form Harding Township.  And so, in 1922 the township was created from the northern half of Passaic Township (the southern portion is now called Long Hill Township) and named after the incumbent president, Warren G. Harding.

     The desire to preserve Harding’s rural character was quite evident by 1928.  An unusual private land preservation effort was begun with the New Vernon Neighborhood Restrictive Agreement, when several estate owners convinced many others to place a restrictive covenant on their land.  This pre-zoning, voluntary effort to limit development and save the pastoral qualities of over 1000 acres across Harding Township influenced subsequent zoning codes and notions of the landscapes value.