and ten or twelve houses. Three years later there were twenty houses and a population of one hundred. In 1846 there were seventy houses, two stores, one public house, two docks and ten or twelve mechanic shops.”

The commercial establishments now number in the hundreds and while many of them are of more recent vintage some date back to the nineteenth century. Among these are West Furniture Company established in 1869 by Robert West, a rug weaver from Ireland, and Bedle's Funeral Home opened in 1845 by William Bedle. Both establishments are still being run by family members. Our two banking houses, while now conducting business under new names, had their inception in 1884 and 1890 as the Keyport Banking Company and the Peoples National Bank, respectively.

So, though many things have changed over the past two centuries, many things have endured and the following description of Keyport is as apt today as it was when published in 1845 in the Historical Collections of New Jersey.

"Keyport is beautifully situated on Raritan Bay about two miles from Middletown Point (now Matawan) and twenty miles from New York. There is from the village a splendid view of the bay and Staten Island, the Narrows, Sandy Hook and the ocean exhibiting on a pleasant day, when the vast expanse of water is dotted with sails, a scene of beauty."

Photo Caption: Front Streets, Keyport, N.J.