Our story begins as we were researching another story tied to swim clubs in New Jersey’s Basking Ridge area, and we were preparing a story about Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club. A fun story you can read later, but what we uncovered had us all say, “stop that work, as we found another swim club in the area known as the Millridge Swim Club, a more affordable swim club more into the Great Swamp region off White Bridge Road. That research brought us to where we’re at now…..
PREVIEW RELEASE:
For those who subscribe to early releases of Mr Local History Research. Additional updates will be provided as we receive answers to our research requests from our sources.
We’ve split this story into two stories – one about Reggie’s Jazz Club and the one below specificially dedicated to the Millridge Swim Club
Before the Millridge Swim Club existed, there was Reggie’s Playland Farm, and we found it in a strange real estate listing from 2002.
WHAT?
If you traveled down a dirt road into the rural area of today’s great swamp, a 1930’s estate was once Reggie’s Playland Farm, where Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald performed?
Yes it’s true. Aa 22-acre estate in the Millington section of Long Hill includes a swimming pool, carriage house, three-car garage, spa, cabana, double tennis court, and baseball diamond.
It was offered at $1.175 million through Basking Ridge’s Weichert Realtors.
We were mezmerized by the advertisement and dropped every other story to focus on this one. An iconic jazz club on the edge of the Great Swamp (before there was a Great Swamp). Well, that has to be one of the most incredible stories to tell? Well, let’s do it.
Passaic Township & Reggie’s Playland
* Passaic Township was renamed Long Hill Township on November 3, 1992, when residents approved the change in a public referendum by a narrow vote of 1,901 to 1,821. The principal reason was persistent confusion with the City of Passaic, located about 22 miles away, and with Passaic County. The township was actually in Morris County, and residents wanted a name that better reflected their own community and avoided association with the more urban City of Passaic.
Long before the swampy rural site became a jazz club, the area known as Passaic Township was a quiet lazy area east of Basking Ridge, once known as the property owned by Revolutionary War General William Alexander. As you can also see in the 1800s the area was just rural farmlands next to the unoffical “great swamp” known to the area for hundreds of years.
Fast forward to the 1940s, nestled on more than 22 acres just east of the White Bridge, along White Bridge Road in Millington, an estate evolved from a glamorous jazz-era social club into a “Green Book” destination welcoming African American travelers.
This 1940 map (above) shows the Millington section of Passaic Township, today Long Hill Township, during the era of Reggie’s Playland Farm. The jazz and social club, later remembered for attracting visitors from New York City, was located on the property near Pleasant Plains Road and White Bridge Road. The same property would later become home to Millridge Swim Club. Period references identified Playland Farm with Pleasant Plains Road, while the later Millridge property was pinned to 1526 White Bridge Road. Both Pleasant Plains Road and White Bridge Road retain their names today. Traveling west, White Bridge Road crosses the Passaic River into Basking Ridge, where the roadway continues as Lord Stirling Road.
Meet Everett Reginald “Reggie” Drew
Everett Reginald “Reggie” Drew was more than the owner of Reggie’s Playland Farm; he was a visionary entrepreneur who created one of northern New Jersey’s most significant African American recreational destinations during the era of segregation.
Credit: Newark Star Ledger 1950.
Born in Morristown in 1901, Reggie Drew spent years working as a bellhop at the Manhattan Hotel in Lakewood, NJ, and in the restaurant industry before purchasing property along Millington’s White Bridge Road in 1942 and opening Reggie’s Playland Farm. At a time when Black families often had few welcoming places to gather, Drew built a destination that offered swimming, dining, music, dancing, overnight accommodations, and outdoor recreation in a safe, well-maintained setting.
Known for his integrity and high standards, he and his wife Minnie earned the respect of both their patrons and the local community, establishing Reggie’s Playland as a beloved summer retreat that would later evolve into the Millridge Swim Club. Along the way, Reggie’s became connected to legendary performers, civil rights history, and generations of local families, making it one of the area’s most fascinating and overlooked historic landmarks.
Sidebar:
The Green Book – Reggie’s Playland Farm was Approved
Published annually from 1936 through 1966, The Negro Motorist Green Book was an indispensable travel guide for African American motorists during the era of segregation. Created by New York postal worker Victor H. Green, the guide listed hotels, restaurants, tourist homes, gas stations, resorts, and other businesses where Black travelers could expect to be welcomed and treated with dignity. At a time when discrimination was widespread and even a simple road trip could be dangerous, the Green Book provided a trusted roadmap to safe accommodations across the United States.
Page 87 – Millington, New Jersey – Playland Farm was listed in The Green Book in 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955 and 1956.
Among those listings, MLH researchers found Playland Farms in Millington, making the former Reggie’s Playland Farm one of the relatively few documented Green Book destinations in New Jersey. Its inclusion suggests that African American travelers could find lodging, recreation, or hospitality there during a period when many similar establishments remained closed to them.
For those who never saw it, the film Green Brook was an absolute gem….
Reggie’s Playland Farm
Playland Farm being listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book, the nationally recognized travel guide that identified welcoming businesses for African American travelers during the era of segregation, its inclusion confirms that visitors from across the region knew they would find not only food, recreation, and overnight accommodations, but also a place where they would be welcomed, making Reggie’s Playland Farm an important and inclusive destination during a time when such places were all too rare.
Our researchers also found two announcements showing that Reggie’s Playland Farm was approved for a consumption license in 1947 and a food license shortly thereafter confirming that the farm was transitioning to a more social destination that included more than just farming. We also found similar renewals all the way to 1955 where we then later found a transfer after the Everett’s sold the farm.
From the 1930s through the 1950s, Reggie’s Playland Farm earned a reputation as one of northern New Jersey’s most entertaining summertime destinations, where music, laughter, and hospitality blended into memories that lasted a lifetime. That reputation extended well beyond the local community.
Cab Calloway & Ella Fitzgerald at Playland?
Rumor had it that if you were lucky enough to spend a summer evening at Reggie’s Playland Farm, you might get a great specialty meal, known for its chicken dishes and high-quality spirits, then hear the unforgettable sounds of Cab Calloway belting out “Minnie the Moocher” or Ella Fitzgerald captivating the crowd with “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” Whether visitors came for the music, a meal at the bar and grill, an overnight stay, or simply a relaxing day in the country, Reggie’s offered a unique escape from city life.
The story that Cab Calloway performed at Reggie’s is difficult to document directly, but it certainly fits his touring pattern. On July 27, 1940, Calloway and his orchestra were performing at the Meadowbrook in Cedar Grove, New Jersey (25 miles away), another suburban venue drawing on the New York entertainment market. The recording of that performance is below.
The Ella Fitzgerald connection to Reggie’s Playland Farm remains tantalizing, although a contemporary performance advertisement has yet to surface. Fitzgerald was performing regularly in nearby New York City by 1940, including a celebrated engagement at the Famous Door on West 52nd Street. A decade later, the 1950 Negro Motorist Green Book listed Playland Farms in Millington as a destination for Black travelers. More than fifty years later, a 2001 Daily Record account of the property specifically remembered Reggie’s as a jazz social club where patrons gathered to hear Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald. So it has been written, but MLH won’t stop until we find the proof.
A Century of Change
As MLH kept digging, each generation saw something different when they looked out over this property on the original Pleasant Plains Road, now White Bridge Road. To early residents, it was simply a farm, one of many scattered along the edge of the Great Swamp. The earliest aerial photographs from 1931 reveal open fields, a farmhouse, barns, and agricultural land that had probably been worked for decades.
As farming declined after World War II, the property entered an entirely new chapter. At some point, it was acquired by the Brazilian Society, Inc., which began transforming the quiet farm into a recreational retreat. The farm buildings remained, but swimming pools, tennis courts, bathhouses, and picnic grounds slowly replaced fields that had once produced crops.
ation. In 2002, approximately 21.1 acres were sold to the United States for incorporation into the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, while a small 0.83-acre parcel was retained. Within only a few years, the pools, clubhouse, tennis courts, and many of the remaining structures disappeared. Nature slowly reclaimed the landscape.
The Sale that Returned Once Famed Jazz Club to the Great Swamp
In 2002, the Millridge Swim Club estate offered an extraordinary combination of historic charm and recreational amenities. The three-level brick Southern Colonial mansion featured a welcoming front porch, hardwood floors with decorative inlays, nine-foot ceilings, crown moldings, crystal lighting, multiple fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen with granite countertops and custom cabinetry, three bedrooms, a renovated master suite, and a finished third-floor attic. A separate two-story carriage house provided four additional bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room, making it ideal for guests or extended family.
Outside, the 22-acre property was equally impressive. The grounds included a 20-by-40-foot in-ground swimming pool, a 12-foot whirlpool spa, a pool house, a cabana, a covered patio, a party room, a double tennis court, a baseball diamond, barns, and beautifully landscaped gardens with mature specimen plantings. Surrounded by open space, the estate blended luxury living with recreation, preserving many of the features that had made Reggie’s Playland Farm and later Millridge Swim Club a beloved gathering place for generations.
“Map of Property for Brazilian Society, Inc., Long Hill Township, Morris County, New Jersey, prepared by Walter J. Van Treek Jr., Professional Land Surveyor, dated February 18, 1977.” (still searching for this map)
Following the closure of the Millridge Swim Club, the property’s future took a very different direction. On April 8, 2003, owners Donald Rosol and Penelope Mudd sold most of the approximately 22-acre property to the United States for $900,000, adding it to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Rather than being redeveloped, the land was acquired for conservation and habitat restoration.
In its February 2004 newsletter, Friends of Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge announced that the refuge had acquired the property at 1526 White Bridge Road, describing it as the former Mudd/Rose house and once the site of the Millridge Swim Club. The newsletter noted that plans for the property were still being developed and that “some of the outbuildings will be demolished.” Over time, the former pools, clubhouse, tennis courts, and other recreational features disappeared from the landscape, leaving little evidence today that the once thriving summer destination ever existed. What was not sold to the Great Swamp was 0.83 acres, including the house, garage, and some of the land, but that would also be sold later and demolished.
Today
Today, visitors driving along White Bridge Road would never guess they are passing a place that has lived so many different lives. The fields became a farm. The farm became a private retreat. The retreat became one of the area’s favorite swim clubs. The swim club became protected wildlife habitat. Perhaps that is the property’s greatest story. Rather than disappearing, it simply kept reinventing itself, each generation leaving its own mark before passing the land to the next.
And on the same road…..
Related Posts
Our Readers’ Top 10 MLH Posts this Week
Timeline and Additional Notes / Questions & Remaining Research
| Date | Owner / Operator | Evidence | What We Know | Research Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silas Leonard and Sarah M.Leonard | ||||
| July 19, 1856 | Henry B. Wilson | Morris County Clerk’s Office in Book of Deeds P-5, page 30, | Containing seventeen acres, excepting therefrom one-half acre heretofore conveyed by Silas Leonard and Sarah M.Leonard, his wife, to Henry в. Wilson, by deed dated July 19, 1856 | Is this the same house that later became 1526 White Bridge Road? |
| 1931 | Unknown | Aerial photograph | Property appears as a working farm with buildings along White Bridge Road. | Who owned the farm in 1931? |
| 1945 | Everett R. Drew | Newspaper advertisement | Playland Farm advertises Berkshire hogs on Pleasant Plains Road, Millington. | When did Drew acquire the property? |
| 1947 | Everett R. Drew | Liquor license, Board of Health, advertisements | Reggie’s Playland Farm evolves into a public recreation destination with food, lodging, a bar and grill, and entertainment. | |
| 1955 | Everett Reggie Drew | LHHS | Drews sell and move to California. | The Drews had been wintering in LA since 1938 as noted in 1952 newspaper notice. |
| 1956 | John P. Jerling / Ruetter property | Fire article and Sheriff’s Deed | Farm buildings still existed. Property referred to as the Ruetter property, formerly owned by John G. Jerling. | How do Jerling, and Ruetter fit into the ownership chain? |
Very interesting article and information. It’s a shame that none of the historical remnants exists anymore. There should at least be a metal sign with a summary of the history as you see in other places. My husband is familiar with some of the information and said the Passaic Township Little League team played games at the Mill Ridge club.
Millridge is where a lot of us went. Ridge Class of 1966 after-graduation party was at Millridge. Bill Friars was our swim team coach