View of NYS&W ROW, Belet House in foreground, and the “Long” House in background late 1930’s s you drive road north out of Blairstown on Route 94, you pass a cluster of dwellings on each side of the highway. It’s hard to imagine that in the last decades of the 1800’s and first decade of 1900, this was the prosperous village of Paulina, NJ. In the late 1800’s Paulina was part of Frelinghuysen Township on the south bank of the Paulins Kill and Hardwick Township on the north side of the Kill. Paulina would later became a part of Blairstown Township. Beside the residences, Paulina hosted a sash and coffin manufactory, a general store/blacksmith’s shop that was last run by Hub Quick as a garage, an apple jack distillery on Mingle Rd, Presbyterian Church, Hotel, school, post office (in the Frelinghuysen section), a mill with dam that later became the Blair Academy laundry/water works/electric plant, an ax helve (ax handle) factory was located on the opposite side of the Paulina dam and a cider mill/saw mill operated by Hub Quick. Today the cider mill and the apple jack distillery are residences as is the sash works that in past years was known as the “long house”. The post office is still recognizable with its 1870’s false front as an attachment of the house it was always a part. On 1 October 1881 the NYS&W railroad bought John I. Blair’s 11 1/3 mile Blairstown Railway that ran along the Paulins Kill 3 from Blairstown to Delaware where it interchanged with the DL&W. However, in mid 1881 the NYS&W was already purchasing land for its route to Stroudsburg, PA from Beaver Lake (Two Bridges), NJ. Construction began on 1 July 1881 from Blairstown east toward Marksboro with the contract having been awarded to Mr. J. G. Todd of Somerset County. There were a total of 64 horses and 167 men working at various locations grading the right of way. The 400 foot rock cut at Paulina was under the supervision of a Mr. Ball with a force of 14 men. The fill from the Kill Rd. crossing (now East Crisman-Kill Rd) to the first bridge was the charge of Mr. J. Rosenkrans. The bridge in Paulina was constructed by the Practical Bridge Builders with Mr. Thaddeus Van Scoten the foreman. The road along the Kill near the A. J. Hill residence (near the present day Alana Lodge that was the old Lanterman farm) was relocated with the work under the supervision of Mr. Jonah Crisman. The cut between the second and third bridge above Blairstown was supervised by Mr. J. Whitesell. On April 7, 1882 the Susquehanna took formal possession of the Blairstown Railway. On a May 1, 1882 NYS&W broadside schedule there was no passenger between Beaver Lake and Blairstown, but the Blair(Continued on page 6)
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