Plainfield Mayors

PLAINFIELD MAYORS: 1869 - 2021

City of Plainfield
Municipal Courthouse
325 Watchung Avenue 
Plainfield, New Jersey 07060


                                 

Plainfield Mayors Portrait Gallery: 1869 - 2021

A meeting of the citizens of Plainfield Township was held in Laing’s Hall on April 20, 1869 for the purpose of forming a city government.  The next day, April 21, 1869, Plainfield was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey State Legislature. The first charter election was held on May 4, 1869. With less than 5,000 citizens at the time, 644 votes were cast and Job Male (1808 – 1891) was elected the first Mayor of Plainfield.  Male immigrated to the United States with his parents, at 8 years of age, from his native England in 1816.

This permanent exhibit, located in the Plainfield Courthouse, offers a visual history of Job Male and the other 36 Mayors whose political actions and contributions shaped the City of Plainfield during their respective term (s). The 37 images cover a 144 - year period (1869 – 2016), portraying a historical record of Plainfield.

On February 17, 1917, in a speech delivered at a celebratory program held  in conjunction with the laying of the cornerstone for Plainfield City Hall,  then Mayor Leighton Calkins said “Here will be performed the duties of the servants of the people. Let this building be a monument to the fidelity of public officials sworn to the service of this community…Better that this building should never be erected than it should be desecrated by unworthy use.”

The Georgian-style building, completed in 1920, is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places and the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.

Ethel M. Washington                                                                                                                                        
Curator