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Boonton has the best argument in Morris County for a town you can do entirely on foot. The whole downtown is one long Main Street running uphill from the Rockaway River, the storefronts are 19th century and almost entirely independent, and there is a waterfall in a gorge about five minutes from your coffee.
The town is 2.49 square miles with roughly 8,800 residents. What makes it different from other walkable Morris County downtowns is that it is a genuine National Register historic district rather than a themed one. The Boonton Historic District was listed in 1980, covering Greek Revival and Italianate buildings dating from 1830 to 1890 along Main, Church, Birch, Cornelia and Cedar Streets. It grew as a company town around the New Jersey Iron Company, and the bones are still there.
Here is how to spend a day on it.
Coffee first, and you have real choices
Boonton Coffee Co. at 602 Main Street roasts on site and runs a curated live music series with its own booking contact. It stays open until 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, which is unusually late for a New Jersey coffee shop and makes it an evening option as much as a morning one.
A few doors up, Catfight Coffee at 616 Main Street sells officially licensed coffee blends tied to horror and metal properties including Alice Cooper, Misfits, Creepshow and Mastodon. It is exactly as specific a business as it sounds, and it works.
Java Smugglers Cafe and Health Bar at 922 Main Street sells bourbon barrel aged and rum barrel aged whole bean coffee alongside smoothie bowls and wraps, and is open seven days from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. We wrote about what makes Java Smugglers worth the stop when it first caught our attention.
For something entirely different, Sinofilia Tea Shop at 805 Main Street runs an authentic Chinese tea ceremony led by Tea Master Fengxiao Liu, bookable by appointment, plus a brew your own seating area. They stock Pu-erh, black, green, white and oolong, loose Chinese herbs and Yixing clay teaware.
Lunch and dinner on Main
Embark Smoked Meats at 811 Main Street is a woman owned barbecue counter smoking low and slow with a menu made fresh daily. They ask customers to order direct from their site rather than through third party apps. Open Wednesday through Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday.
Ombra Salumeria and Bar at 516 Main Street is the town’s most ambitious room. Owner and certified sommelier Gabi Lombardi modeled it on a Venetian bacaro, with cicchetti, imported meats and cheeses and a list built around Northern Italian wine. They run tasting events and live music.
Chili Willie’s at 702 Main Street has been there since 1988. Chef owner Jose cooks criolla recipes handed down from a grandmother who lived in Texas when it was still Mexican territory, and the restaurant states plainly that it uses no canned ingredients. Closed Mondays.
Roma Pizzeria and Restaurant at 709 Main Street opened in December 1968 across the street from where it stands now, moved to 709 in 1980, and has been run by the same family for more than 50 years. Sushi House at 701 Main Street serves brown and black rice options alongside white and is open seven days.
Heavenly Temptations at 712 Main Street opened in 1989 and is now celebrating 36 years, doing cafe service, baked goods, custom gift baskets and catering out of one storefront.
For dessert, Curly’s of Boonton at 121 Monroe Street makes small batch ice cream with hand pressed waffle cones, and separates nut based flavors for allergy safety. It is just off Main rather than on it, and it is open until 9:30 p.m. daily.
Grace Lord Park and the gorge
This is the thing people do not expect. At the bottom of Main Street, where it meets Essex Avenue, Grace Lord Park opens onto the Boonton Gorge. The Rockaway River drops through it past a man made dam, over the falls into an oval pool, then under a 19th century stone arch bridge. The gorge runs slightly over a mile, and the river falls roughly 260 feet across it.
The park itself has a gazebo, playground and swings, and the trail down into the gorge takes you past a cascading dam, the stone arch bridge, Washington Rock across the river, arches in the old iron furnace stone wall, an 1866 railroad bridge and the stone foundation of an 1867 railroad turntable. Trailhead parking is near the Makey Funeral Home just before the Rockaway River bridge on West Main Street. Water flow is best in early spring.
You are walking through a National Register site while you do it. The Boonton Iron Works Historic District, listed in 2023, covers 53 acres inside and around the park, with 13 contributing sites including the Arch Bridge and a surviving section of the Morris Canal.
One serious note. Swimming has been prohibited by ordinance since 1990, the rocks are genuinely dangerous, and there have been drownings. Look, photograph, and stay out of the water.
In October, the park becomes something else entirely. See our coverage of Boonton’s Haunted Trail at Grace Lord Park.
For a longer hike, Tourne County Park spans the Boonton Township and Denville line with more than 12 miles of trails, the Emily K. Hammond Wildflower Trail carrying 250 native plant and wildflower species, and a summit hike to an 897 foot peak with New York City skyline views. The Morris County Park Commission lists it with a Denville address.
The Boonton Reservoir comes up constantly and it is worth being clear: it is not open to the public. The Park Commission’s planned 7.7 mile loop trail is still in planning and grant seeking, with the first phase in Parsippany.
The shops are the reason to come back
Gingerbread Bookshop at 410 Main Street is a secondhand bookshop opened in 2024 by Brianne Colombo, a former New Jersey library director. It runs the Gingerbread Book Barter, where donating at least five books in good condition gets you a gingerbread cookie, plus a weekly baby lapsit storytime on Thursdays, a Friday storytime, and a monthly adult book club where every registrant gets a secondhand paperback of the book.
Hidden Tracks Records at 520 Main Street carries curated vinyl, CDs and cassettes from classics through new releases. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Bear Minimum Refillery at 618 Main Street, Unit B is a zero waste refillery with refill stations plus apothecary, bath, laundry, kitchen and oral care goods, a membership program and a neighborhood compost pickup service. Owner Liz started it after being furloughed during the pandemic and reading about New Jersey’s first refill shop. We covered how Bear Minimum built its sustainable model in more depth.
Boneyard Boutique at 817 Main Street sells curated crystals, tarot and oracle decks, handmade gifts, vintage clothing and home decor from independent makers, and runs in store workshops. Their hours shift week to week around workshops and festival pop ups, so check their site or Instagram before you go.
Broadfoot and Broadfoot at 819 Main Street has been a contemporary fine art gallery since June 1992, directed by owner Scott A. Broadfoot, representing roughly 27 artists across oil, acrylic, photography, watercolor, monotype and mixed media, with a strong outdoor sculpture program. Open Thursday through Saturday and always by appointment.
A few doors away, Hollywould Studios at 414 Main Street is an artist studio and gallery that books private art parties, but it is appointment only, so do not plan on walking in.
History you can walk into
Boonton’s own account is worth knowing. As early as 1747, Obadiah Baldwin ran an iron refining forge on the Rockaway River about a mile and a half downstream from the present town center. The Ogden family enlarged it and a workers’ village grew around it, and in 1761 the Ogdens named that village Boone-Towne in honor of Colonial Governor Thomas Boone. Boonton was incorporated as a Town by charter from the State Legislature in March 1867.
The Boonton Historical Society and Museum at 210 Main Street sits in the historic Dr. John Taylor Building, behind the American Legion parking lot near the train station. It was incorporated in 1959 and opens the first and third Sunday of each month from 1 to 4 p.m., plus by appointment. Its current exhibit is titled Boonton Was An Industrial Town.
The Boonton Holmes Public Library at 621 Main Street has its own story. James Holmes left his family home and $5,000 to create a free public library, and after his death in 1893 it opened in 1894. The original building simultaneously housed the librarian’s residence, the town’s first telegraph and telephone exchange, and the Times Bulletin newspaper. It was renamed the Boonton Holmes Public Library in 2010.
The Darress Theatre at 615 Main Street is the landmark you will notice and cannot go into. The 1919 vaudeville house was bought by the Town of Boonton in December 2020 with the goal of converting it into a roughly 500 seat regional performing arts center. Acquisition and concept design are complete and the project is now working through register listing, construction documents and fundraising. Construction is still ahead. In its vaudeville days patrons entered from under the stage and walked uphill through the rows.
Time your visit to an event
Boonton Main Street, Inc. runs most of what happens downtown from its office on the second floor of the library, and it has distributed over $30,000 in micro grants to local business owners.
The Boonton Farmers Market runs Saturdays from May through November, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Canal Side Park on Upper Plane Street, with live music, local vendors and a different kids event on the first Saturday of each month.
Boonton Brewfest is the signature beer event, and Boonton Day is the free town wide street festival on Main Street, with the Historical Society opening its doors as part of it. Taste of Boonton is a ticketed evening fundraiser in early spring featuring bites from local restaurants.
Free outdoor summer concerts have run at Grace Lord Park since 1987, put on by the all volunteer Boonton Area Cultural Arts organization and funded by donations.
Getting there and parking
Boonton sits in northeastern Morris County on the Rockaway River. Interstate 287 and US Route 202 both run through the center of town, and the I-287 South on ramp is right at the train station, so downtown is a genuinely quick exit off the highway. Main Street carries County Route 511.
Boonton station on the NJ Transit Montclair-Boonton Line sits right on Main Street under the Main Street bridge, so it is a walk off rather than a shuttle ride. One important caveat: the station has limited weekday service only and no weekend service except on holidays. Do not plan a Saturday trip around the train.
Parking is well organized and heavily enforced. There is free two hour parking on Main Street between Division and Hill Streets, Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Moving your car along Main Street to reset the two hour limit is illegal and the town says so directly. Metered parking runs on the side streets, with long term meters at three hours for a quarter up to a 12 hour cap and short term meters at 30 minutes for a quarter. The Upper Plane Street lot holds about 100 cars at $1 per day and is where the farmers market sets up. The American Legion lot at the train station and the Kiwanis Ambulance lot across from Town Hall are also $1 per day. Enforcement runs Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and is suspended on major holidays.
Boonton Main Street produced a Main Street parking, historic sites and walking trails map that is downloadable from the town’s parking page, and it is the single most useful thing to have open on your phone while you are there.
For more towns worth a day, see our guide to Morris County towns.
Featured image: The Falls at Grace Lord Park on Rockaway River by Robert A Lyon, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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