Parsippany-Troy Hills has been greatly changed by development in
the last 50 years. This is partly because of the amount of open
land that existed at the start of the 1950s when the town was
dominated by large dairy farms and chicken farms, and large
estates owned by Geraldine R. Dodge, the Ballantine family, and
the McAlpin family. Farms in Parsippany supplied vegetables,
milk and eggs to the New York market. The short distance to the
city was important before widespread refrigeration. Most of
these large tracts of land became housing developments in the
1950s, as people moved out of more urban areas in search of back
yards and better schools. Morris County also became an important
summer destination for people escaping the heat and crowding of
cities. Parsippany’s population grew in the summer as lake
communities were developed in the 1930s, but more and more
houses in these communities were winterized and converted into
year-around residences in the ‘40s and ‘50s. As the population
grew, need for services