West Orange Podcast Takes A ‘Journey Into Local History’

WEST ORANGE, NJ — What do you get when you cross a five-generation town historian with a recent transplant to West Orange? The “Roads of Home” podcast, it turns out.

Township historian Joe Fagan and his producer, Pat Kelly – known as “PK” – recently launched their podcast after meeting to discuss local history, including Rock Spring, Crystal Lake and the West Orange cable cars. The dynamic resonated with the pair, who decided to take the conversation into the digital arena.

Since then, the pair have put out multiple episodes of their podcast, which can be accessed here. Local links included Eagle Rock Reservation, Crystal Lake and the Shillelagh Club in West Orange.

There were initially plans to produce three podcasts, but if there’s enough interest in their “passion project,” the show will go on, Kelly said.

“The podcast is conversational in nature,” Kelly elaborated. “We will start with a goal of covering certain landmarks, people or stories, but inevitably veer off into various talking points that might not always be in line with the episode.”

Fagan said the podcast was designed to be a “weekly journey into local history.”

According to Fagan, who also serves as the township public information officer, history is like “meeting an old friend who knows who we are, tells us what we want to hear and leaves us to visit another day.”

Fagan noted that some may say history is dead, but added that he “can feel its beating pulse and encourage listeners to tune in and hear for themselves as together we discover the roads of home.”

“Every tomorrow includes a little piece of yesterday,” he said.

Want to catch up with some of Fagan’s other tales of local history? Check out the below articles (click headline to read).

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