Kilmer House

As the old saying goes, the best place to hide something is in plain sight. That applies not only to missing items in detective novels, but to Johnson & Johnson history as well – specifically, to something as iconic as our first ever building.  Kilmer House readers will remember that we have two drawings of the first Johnson & Johnson building, but no actual, documented surviving photographs. Well, that’s about to change.  Are you ready? Here's the background to the story.  We have this well-known illustration: The first Johnson & Johnson building, by an unknown artist, from our a

It’s a cold January day in 1886, exactly 130 years ago. James Wood Johnson, one of the founders of Johnson & Johnson, is on a train heading from New York to Philadelphia. Early in 1885,  Johnson and his brothers Robert and Edward had left their former company Seabury & Johnson with the intention of starting a new business, and James was looking for a location. He was on a westbound Pennsylvania Railroad train from New York to Philadelphia. When the train stopped at a tiny station halfway through the journey, Johnson & Johnson found its hometown: the city of New Brunswick, New Jers