PARSIPPANY — The neighbors in Sedgefield gather around the home of President Carlos Guzman, and trimmed the tree, ate delicious cookies and donuts, drank hot chocolate and coffee waiting for the arrival of Santa.
Santa arrived by the Mount Tabor Volunteer Fire Department and joined the crowd, greeted the children and posed for pictures.
The history of Sedgefield:
In the late 40″s Justus Nienaber purchased a 200 acre tract from Peter Freylinghuysen Jr. This was formerly the Ballantine Estate and included a beautiful two-story white colonial mansion, complete with gazebo, creek, pond and other outbuildings.
In 1949, he started to develop Sedgefield with a group of builders. The name was taken from a charming and peaceful Carolina resort hotel, The Sedgefield Inn, which is surrounded by a development of gracious homes.
The name Sedgefield itself is derived from two Anglo-Saxon words: secg (a sword), its popular meaning – any course, grass like herb, growing in damp places; and feld – a cleared piece of land.
Carrying on with the Anglo-Saxon Association, all the streets bear the names of English towns, villages or locations. The three entry streets are Sherwood, Sedgefield and Dartford. All streets between Sedgefield and Dartford are in alphabetical order. All streets between Robinhood and Friar are of English origin but are not in alphabetical order.
Development in Sedgefield can be determined by the type of roads in the area. The first section contained ranch or single story homes built on streets with no curbs. The second section contained ranch, split-level and two-story colonials built on streets with concrete curbs. The third and final section contained two-story colonials or split-level homes built on streets with Belgian block curbing and sidewalks.
Long time residents can remember when Littleton Road (US 202) was a two-lane tree-line road with very little traffic. It passed Rusty’s Hardware Store, the old St. Christopher’s Church (which was housed in the Blue Swan Inn) and a goat farm that used to be in the area of the Littleton Road bridge over Route 80. Alderney Dairy had a barn and pasture where Gatehall is now located. Cows and deer used to wander into Sedgefield along Robinhood Road. A few deer still visit us on occasion.
Back then, the Morris Plains Shopping Center had a Two Guys from Harrison store. Sip and Sup was located at the intersection of Route 202 and Route 10 where one could enjoy food and dairy products in a leisurely manner and watch the few cars going through the intersection. The area now covered with commercial buildings (Campus Drive, Sylvan Way and Dryden Way) contained dairy farms and was used by the Civic Association for picnics and fireworks.
In the 1970s, Sherwood Village (the section around Sherwood, Friar, Robinhood and Littlejohn Roads) was included as part of Sedgefield. Crawford Road was the last area to be developed.
The last home in Sedgefield was erected in 1988, a two-story colonial manufactured in Pennsylvania. This was the 295th home in Sedgefield.
