1853) and over a dozen, privately owned 17th, 18th and 19th-century dwellings. 1836), Old Presbyterian Burying Ground (ca. 1688 footprint), Dutch Reformed Church (ca. Many of the structures/sites built on the village lots along Kings Highway during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries still stand today. The design of Middletown, with individual lots fronting the main road followed the New England system, whereby landowners resided on lots in the village, with most of their land situated on outlying lots.
Kings Highway upon completion was six rods, or 99 feet in width. As a result, one of the first tasks of the new settlers was to clear and upgrade the path to meet the demands of the 17th-century colonists. One of the consequences however, of a sparse indigenous population was that many of these roads fell into disuse, as exemplified by stretches of trees and brush that had grown over the pathways by the time of colonial settlement. Routes traversed by American Indians were favored by the colonists because of their proximity to higher ground surfaces away from ravines, steep slopes, bogs, streams, and marshy ground. In fact, many of the first New Jersey towns were laid out more or less within the loose frameworks of surviving American Indian features. The town of Middletown, first settled in 1664, consisted of 36 “lotts” bifurcated by the Kings Highway, which was actually an old American Indian path known as the Minisink Path. Middletown was no different, as the colonial road known as the “King’s Highway” was the baseline around which the town was laid out. Throughout history, transportation networks have always been the cornerstone of any successful settlement.
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