Engaged in manufacturing for two centuries, it was only natural that Rahway would become the home of several manufacturing giants of the 20^th century.  The Regina Music Box Company located in Rahway in the 1890s.  In 1903, a small chemical company began production on Scott Avenue.  That small concern, started in 17^th century Germany by Frederick Jacob Merck, is now an international giant in the pharmaceutical industry.  Both the Mac-Lac Shellac Company and Quinn and Boden, a book manufacturing company, began production in Rahway in 1906.  The latter grew from the Mershon Company, a successful publishing company founded by two Rahway brothers in 1882.  The Wheatena Company came to Rahway in 1907.  Wheatena, a manufacturer of cereals located on Elizabeth Avenue and Grand, harvested grain from its own wheat fields that encircled the plant.   

Following the close of World War I in 1919, automobiles slowly replaced carriages, and social clubs, fraternal organizations and service organizations such as the Rahway Yacht Club, the Ilderan Outing Club, the Masons, the Moose, the Elks and the Knights of Columbus, flourished.  The year 1928 saw two construction projects that would have a major impact on the character of the city.  In July, trustees broke ground on Jefferson Avenue for a new building for a hospital established in 1916 in a Jaques Avenue house by thirteen area physicians.  In October, the million-dollar Rahway Theater opened its doors to reveal a palatial interior.  Built for both vaudeville and movies, the 1,600-seat theater included a magnificent crystal chandelier, an orchestra pit, a Wurlitzer organ, dressing rooms, an elegant lobby, a sitting room and a nursery for the children of theater patrons.  Now restored to its former glory and known as the Union County Performing Arts Center, the theater features live entertainment throughout the year. 

In 1974, the Penn Central Railroad demolished the city’s train station built in 1913, where it quickly fell into disrepair as public and private investment in mass transit declined.  In 1999, a new $16 million NJ Transit train station opened and was joined by a new public plaza in 2001.  During the mid-1990s, Mayor James Kennedy strengthened the presence of Merck & Co., Inc. in Rahway by rezoning the company’s Rahway campus as the first research-and-development zone in New Jersey, fueling a billion-dollar expansion of the plant and a doubling of Merck’s workforce in Rahway. 

Since World War II, Rahway, like many municipalities in the Northeast, lost much of its industrial base as factory jobs shifted south or overseas.  The city has seen the rise of service-dependent jobs within its borders and growth in finance, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications throughout the region as Rahway residents traveled throughout New Jersey and New York for employment.  Now beginning the 21^st Century, Rahway is a diverse middle-class community of 26,500 that has been reinventing itself in the post-industrial age and will be celebrating 150 years of its incorporation as a city in 2008. 

Prepared by: 
Linda B. McTeague, Executive Director
Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum Association

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