Beneath the Asphalt: The Lost Port of Raritan Landing

If you have ever tailgated at a Rutgers football game or taken a jog through Johnson Park in Piscataway, New Jersey, you have walked right over a ghost town.

Just a foot beneath the soil of River Road lies the network of foundations, wells, and roads of Raritan Landing, a once-bustling colonial port community. While the buildings are long gone, archaeologists have spent the last few decades unearthing the story of a town that once rivaled New Brunswick as a trade hub.

The Port That Disappeared

In the early 1700s, geography was destiny. Raritan Landing was established at the exact point on the Raritan River where the water became too shallow for large ships to navigate further upstream.

Because ships had to stop here, a town sprang up.

• The Hub: It became the storage depot for the Raritan Valley. Farmers brought grain and lumber here to be shipped to New York or the Caribbean.
• The Peak: By 1740, the settlement boasted 70 structures, including warehouses, cooperages, and a bustling wharf.

However, progress eventually killed the Landing. The construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in the 1830s and the arrival of the railroad made the river port obsolete. By 1870, the warehouses were dismantled, and the bustling town faded into pastureland.

The House on the Mountain

While the port city is buried, one witness remains standing on the bluff overlooking the river: the Cornelius Low House.

Cornelius Low was a wealthy merchant who made a fortune in shipping. After his first home near the water flooded in 1738, he bought land on the high bluff to build a new mansion, completed in 1741.

• The Style: Unlike his neighbors who built in the Dutch vernacular style, Low built a grand, English-style Georgian manor to show off his status.
• The “Facade” Trick: The house is built of over 350 tons of sandstone. However, Low was budget-conscious. He used expensive, rectangular cut stone only on the front façade facing the town. The other three sides were built of cheaper, irregular “rubble stone.” He literally put up a good front for his neighbors.

Because Low remained loyal to the Crown during the Revolutionary War, his house was spared destruction by British troops, allowing it to survive to this day.

The Rediscovery

For a century, Raritan Landing was a memory, kept alive only by old deeds and a reconstruction map drawn by local historian Cornelius Vermeule in 1936.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that the town was physically rediscovered.

• The Trigger: Construction projects for the NJ Department of Transportation and sewer lines necessitated archaeological surveys.
• The Finds: Archaeologists from Rutgers and the state discovered foundations, thousands of artifacts, and the remains of the Rising Sun Tavern.
• The Stadium: During the expansion of Rutgers Stadium in 2008, excavations revealed tavern fare—including deposits of oyster and clam shells—giving us a look at what the locals ate in the late 1700s.

If You Visit

Today, the site is a mix of visible history and hidden archaeology.

• The Museum: The Cornelius Low House (1225 River Road, Piscataway) is now the Middlesex County Museum. It is open to the public and features rotating exhibits on New Jersey history.
• The Survivor: Across Route 18, the Bodine-Metlar House (c. 1728) also survives, offering another glimpse into the architecture of the era.
• The Park: While you can’t see the ruins, a lone historic marker in Johnson Park denotes the site of the village, allowing you to stand on the riverbank and imagine the tall ships that once docked there.

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For More Information

• The Cornelius Low House / Middlesex County Museum (www.middlesexcountynj.gov)