Mount Hope, New Jersey

History

Mount Hope was formerly an unincorporated iron mining village associated with the American Revolutionary War. Mining operations were said to have begun around 1710 and operated continuously through the 1970s. John Jacob Faesch was the first to develop Mount Hope into an iron plantation with the erection of a stone furnace in 1772 and operated the facility until his death in 1799. Various owners and lessees ran the furnace until 1831 when the Mount Hope Mining Company was incorporated in response to the opening of the Morris Canal and its transportation opportunities. Operations ceased from 1893 to 1899 due to financial panics, the opening of the Mesabi Range in Minnesota and cheaper imported iron ore from South America. Empire Steel & Iron Company bought the mine and reopened it in 1900. Additional companies and partnerships continued until its final closure in 1979.

The Mount Hope Miners' Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 for its significance in architecture, social history, and religion.

Geography

Mount Hope is in west-central Morris County, at the southwestern end of Rockaway Township. It is bordered to the southwest by the borough of Wharton and to the east by the unincorporated community of White Meadow Lake. Interstate 80 forms the southern boundary of the Mount Hope CDP. Dover is 3 mi to the south, Rockaway is 2.5 mi to the southeast, and Parsippany is 8 mi to the southeast.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mount Hope CDP has a total area of 2.31 sqmi, of which 2.20 sqmi are land and 0.11 sqmi, or 4.60%, are water. The community is drained to the southwest by Green Pond Brook, a tributary of the Rockaway River and part of the Passaic River watershed.

Demographics

Mount Hope first appeared as a census designated place in the 2020 U.S. census.

References

Sources

• Ernst Kraus, "John Jacob Faesch, Ironmaster". The Highland Magazine (1974)
• The Historical Society of Rockaway Township

References

1. "2024 U.S. Gazetteer Files: New Jersey". United States Census Bureau.
2. [https://data.census.gov/profile?g=160XX00US3448930 Census Data Explorer: Mount Hope CDP, New Jersey], [[United States Census Bureau]]. Accessed June 15, 2023.
3. [https://mcdc.missouri.edu/applications/geocodes/?state=34 Geographic Codes Lookup for New Jersey], Missouri Census Data Center. Accessed June 9, 2023.
4. {{cite gnis. 878546. Mount Hope
5. [https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerwebmain/Files/tab20/tigerweb_tab20_cdp_2020_nj.htmlState of New Jersey Census Designated Places - BVP20 - Data as of January 1, 2020], [[United States Census Bureau]]. Accessed January 1, 2023.
6. "Locality Search". State of New Jersey.
7. {{NRISref
8. "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov.
9. "2020 Geography Changes". [[United States Census Bureau]].
10. "P2: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2020: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Mount Hope CDP, New Jersey".