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Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Perth Amboy is a city in northeastern Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", referring to its location adjoining Raritan Bay.

The earliest residents of the area were the Lenape Native Americans, who called the point on which the city lies "Ompoge". Perth Amboy was settled in 1683 by Scottish colonists and was called "New Perth" after James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth; the native name was eventually corrupted and the two names were merged. Perth Amboy was formed by Royal charter in 1718, and the New Jersey Legislature reaffirmed its status in 1784, after independence. The city was a capital of the Province of New Jersey from 1686 to 1776. During the mid-1800s, the Industrial Revolution and immigration grew the city, developing a variety of neighborhoods which residents from a diverse range of ethnicities lived in. The city developed into a resort town for the Raritan Bayshore near it, but the city has grown in other industries since its redevelopment starting in the 1990s. Its residents are mostly Hispanic.

Perth Amboy borders the Arthur Kill and features a historic waterfront. The Perth Amboy Ferry Slip was once an important ferry slip on the route south from New York City; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The Raritan Yacht Club, one of the oldest yacht clubs in the United States, is located in the city. Perth Amboy is connected to the Staten Island borough of New York City via the Outerbridge Crossing.

Name
The Lenape Native Americans called the point on which the city is built "Ompoge", meaning "level ground" or "standing or upright". When settled in 1683, the new city was dubbed "New Perth" in honor of James Drummond, Earl of Perth, one of the 12 associates of a company of Scottish proprietors; Drummond has been honored with a statue located outside of city hall. The Algonquian language name persisted, corrupted to Ambo, or Point Amboy, and eventually a combination of the native and colonial names emerged, also appearing in South Amboy.

Scottish colony
Perth Amboy was settled by Scottish colonists around 1683 who had been recruited to inhabit the share of the East Jersey colony owned by Robert Barclay, a Quaker who would later become the absentee governor of the province.

Charter and incorporation
Perth Amboy was formed by Royal charter on August 4, 1718, within various townships and again by the New Jersey Legislature on December 21, 1784, within Perth Amboy Township and from part of Woodbridge Township. Perth Amboy Township was formed on October 31, 1693, and was enlarged during the 1720s to encompass Perth Amboy city. Perth Amboy Township was incorporated as one of New Jersey's initial 104 townships through the Township Act of 1798 on February 21, 1798. The township was replaced by Perth Amboy city on April 8, 1844.

Provincial capital
Elizabeth (then known as Elizabethtown) was designated in 1668 as the first capital of New Jersey. In 1686, Perth Amboy was designated as the capital of East Jersey, while Burlington was the capital of West Jersey. After the two were united as a royal colony in 1702, the two cities alternated as the capital of the Province of New Jersey until November 1790, when Trenton was designated as the unified state capital, chosen based on its location midway between New York City and Philadelphia.

A few of the buildings from this early period can still be seen today. Most notably, the Proprietary House, the home of William Franklin, the last Royal Governor of New Jersey and estranged son of Benjamin Franklin, still stands in the waterfront area of the city. Architect John Edward Pryor was hired in 1761 to design and construct the building, which was completed in September 1764, years late and over budget. Franklin preferred his alternate home in Burlington. Franklin finally moved in 1774 into the Proprietary House. Franklin's father, Ben, tried unsuccessfully to convince his son to support the Colonial cause. William Franklin was arrested and detained at Proprietary House in 1776 until he was tried and convicted of treason.

Perth Amboy City Hall was first built as a court house for Middlesex County in 1714, having been designated as the county seat the previous year. The building was later used as the home of the East Jersey Provincial Assembly. The building was destroyed by a major fire in 1731 and rebuilt in 1745. Another fire was deliberately set in 1764, forcing a rebuilding that was completed in 1767. It is the oldest city hall in continuous use in the United States. On November 20, 1789, City Hall was the site where the New Jersey General Assembly met to ratify the Bill of Rights, becoming the first state in the nation to do so.

Market Square, located across from City Hall, is a park that had been an outdoor marketplace during the Colonial era. Market Square includes a replica of the Liberty Bell, a statue of George Washington, and the Bill of Rights Arch, which commemorates the fact that New Jersey was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

St. Peter's Church, which held its first service in 1685 and received a royal charter in 1718, has been recognized as the first Episcopal congregation in the state. Its current building, dating from the 1850s, is surrounded by a graveyard of early inhabitants and displays a collection of stained-glass windows with religious scenes as well as early depictions of New Jersey receiving her charter and a meeting between William Franklin and his father, Ben.

Perth Amboy was New Jersey's primary inbound port for African slaves.

The Kearny Cottage is a remaining example of 18th-century vernacular architecture. Operated as a historic house museum and operated by the Kearny Cottage Historical Society. Built in 1781 on High Street, the house was moved to Sadowski Parkway in the 1920s, and was later relocated to its current site at 63 Catalpa Avenue, just inland from the mouth of the Raritan River.

During the colonial period and for a significant time thereafter, Perth Amboy was an important way-station for travelers between New York City and Philadelphia, as it was the site of a ferry that crossed the Arthur Kill to Tottenville, Staten Island. The first ferry operated in 1684 and regular service began operating in 1709. This ferry became less important when the Outerbridge Crossing opened in 1928, but continued to operate until 1963. In 1998, the Perth Amboy Ferry Slip was restored to its 1904 appearance. A replica of the ticket office has been constructed and is used as a small museum.

On March 31, 1870, Thomas Mundy Peterson became the first African-American in the United States to vote in an election under the recently enacted provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Peterson voted in an election to update the Perth Amboy city charter.

Industrialization and immigration
By the middle of the 19th century, immigration and industrialization transformed Perth Amboy. Factories such as A. Hall and Sons Terra Cotta, Guggenheim and Sons and the Copper Works Smelting Company fueled a thriving downtown and employed many area residents. Growth was further stimulated by becoming the tidewater terminal for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and a coal shipping point. Perth Amboy developed tightly-knit and insular ethnic neighborhoods such as Budapest, Dublin, and Chickentown. Immigrants from Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Russia, and Austria quickly dominated the factory jobs.

In 1903, the Perth Amboy Public Library, one of the first Carnegie libraries in the state, made possible through grants from Andrew Carnegie and donations by local philanthropists, opened to the public.

In 1914, Perth Amboy hosted a minor league baseball team called the Perth Amboy Pacers, who played as members of the Class D level Atlantic League. The Atlantic League folded after one season.

In late August 1923, an estimated 6,000 persons rioted, breaking through police lines after the Ku Klux Klan attempted to organize a meeting in the city.

The city was a resort town in the 19th century and early 20th century, located on the northern edge of the Raritan Bayshore. Since the early 1990s Perth Amboy has seen redevelopment. Small businesses have started to open up, helped by the city's designation as an Urban Enterprise Zone. The waterfront has also seen a rebirth. The marina has been extended, and there are new promenades, parks, and housing overlooking the bay.

The chapter "More Alarms at Night" in humorist James Thurber's biography My Life and Hard Times involves Perth Amboy. One night during his adolescence in Ohio, young Thurber is unable to go to sleep because he cannot remember the name of this New Jersey community. He wakens his father, demanding that he start naming towns in New Jersey. When the startled father names several towns with single-word names, Thurber replies that the name he is seeking is "two words, like helter skelter". This convinces his father that Thurber has become dangerously insane. Thurber also wrote the story later made into the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, about an "inconsequential guy from Perth Amboy, New Jersey". Perth Amboy's water pumping station is located in Old Bridge Township.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city had a total area of 5.93 square miles (15.36 km2), including 4.66 square miles (12.07 km2) of land and 1.27 square miles (3.28 km2) of water (21.37%).

Perth Amboy, and South Amboy across the Raritan River, are collectively referred to as The Amboys. Signage for Exit 11 on the New Jersey Turnpike refers to "The Amboys" as a destination. The Amboys are the northern limit of the area informally referred to as the Bayshore.

Perth Amboy borders Woodbridge (adjacent by land to the north and west), Sayreville (to the southwest, across the Raritan River), South Amboy (south across the upper reaches of Raritan Bay, directly connected only by rail), and the New York City borough of Staten Island (east across the Arthur Kill).

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include Barber, Eagleswood and Florida Grove.

Perth Amboy sits on a geological layer of clay several hundred feet thick. Consequently, clay mining and factories such as A. Hall and Sons Terra Cotta located in Perth Amboy in the late 19th century.

In its September 2005 issue, Golf Magazine named Perth Amboy the unofficial "Golf Capital of the U.S.", despite the fact that there are no golf courses within the city limits, citing the city's access to 25 of the magazine's Top 100 Golf Courses in the U.S., which can be found within 150 mi of Perth Amboy.

Waterfront
Perth Amboy features a historic waterfront, which has gone through significant revitalization. Local attractions include the Perth Amboy Ferry Slip, two small museums, an art gallery, a yacht club, and a marina. Near the marina lies a park with a small bandshell. On Sunday afternoons in the summertime, Perth Amboy hosts the Concerts by the Bay in the park's bandshell. Every Thursday evening in the summer, Perth Amboy hosts the Mayor's Concert Series in Bayview Park. Perth Amboy also hosts an annual Waterfront Arts Festival. The waterfront is also characterized by a redbrick promenade near the water and many stately Victorian homes, some on hills overlooking the bay and tree lined streets with well-manicured lawns. The land rises steeply after two blocks. This hides the rest of the town, making the waterfront look like a quiet fishing village. Points of interest on the waterfront include St. Peter's Episcopal Church, and the Proprietary House, which is now the former governor's mansion and houses a museum and some offices. Kearny Cottage, which also has a museum, is here. This section of Perth Amboy once had a thriving Jewish community with yeshivas, synagogues, kosher butchers and bakers. Today, however, there are only two synagogues left, each with only a few older members.

A project called 'The Landings at Harborside' was to have featured 2,100 residential units along with indoor parking, 150000 sqft of retail space, a community center, and recreation amenities for the public as well. However, after meeting with Charles Kushner, the developer who spent two years in prison after being convicted of witness tampering, tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions, Mayor Wilda Diaz endorsed a scaled-back design concept for the development, allowing Section 8 housing rentals instead of owner-occupied units as originally promised.

The Raritan Yacht Club is the state's second-oldest and one of the oldest yacht clubs in the United States, founded in 1882 from the merger of two older clubs, one founded in 1865 and the other in 1874. Also located on the waterfront and founded in 1917, St. Demetrios was one of the first Greek Orthodox churches in central New Jersey. Established by the Greek immigrants who came to the United States at the turn of the 19th century, this community has stood as a beacon of the Orthodox Faith and Hellenism in Middlesex County.

Downtown Perth Amboy
Perth Amboy was settled by Europeans in 1683 and incorporated as a city in 1718. It was founded by English merchants, Scots seeking religious freedom, and French Protestants, who sought to make use of Perth Amboy's harbor to its full potential. Downtown is the main commercial district, and is centered on Smith Street. It is an Urban Enterprise Zone, and the reduced sales tax rate (half of the statewide rate) funds revitalization of Smith Street with newly planted trees, Victorian streetlights, benches, garbage cans, and redbrick sidewalks. Smith Street is a shopping center seven blocks wide, with stores catering to working-class customers. The street is flanked by mainly two- to three-story buildings of varied architecture. It also has a lone bank skyscraper called 'Amboy Towers', 10 stories tall, located at Five Corners, the intersection of Smith Street, New Brunswick Avenue and State Street. Once home to several department stores downtown, the largest storefront today is a discount retailer.

Harbortown
Harbortown is a townhouse development on the waterfront which continues to be expanded since construction started in 1987. "Section 8" housing along with more affluent homes can be found in Harbortown, an economically and ethnically diverse townhouse development in the city.

This area was the Lehigh Valley Railroad marshaling yards where coal was loaded onto barges for shipment to New York City and elsewhere until the LVRR went bankrupt in 1976.

Hall Avenue
Hall Avenue is a neighborhood centered on Hall Avenue east of the NJ Transit train tracks. The street itself, Hall Avenue, is no longer the commercial strip it once was. However, there is a recently built strip mall on the corner of Hall Avenue and State Street called the "Firehouse Plaza". There is also a "Banco Popular" branch of the bank headquartered in Puerto Rico. However, Hall Avenue is now primarily residential. Most of the homes are aging apartments, but there are also some newly constructed homes. Hall Avenue remains a traditional Puerto Rican neighborhood, and it hosts the city's annual Puerto Rican Day Festival, which is held on the same day of the historic Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. Rudyk Park is north of Route 440 and features the Roberto Clemente Baseball Field and an industrial park.

Southwestern section
The southwestern section is a mainly working-class residential neighborhood with some light industry, once the site of Eagleswood Military Academy. The city's largest strip mall is located here. This neighborhood has a large and diversified Hispanic neighborhood with many Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and recently, South Americans. Much of the city's Mexican population also lives in this section. Previously, this section of Perth Amboy had a large Irish population and was once named "Dublin". Following the Irish came the Eastern Europeans, primarily Polish and Hungarian. Most of the housing consists of small one- or two-family houses. The main commercial strip is Smith Street, west of the NJ Transit train tracks.

Western section
The western section of the waterfront is west of Kearny Avenue. It is an overwhelmingly blue-collar Hispanic neighborhood. Most of the homes are over 100 years old; many are modest row houses. Sadowski Parkway Park lines through the southern end of the neighborhood and has a walkway with a beach. The park also hosts the Dominican festival and other festivals during the summer.

State Street
State Street is a neighborhood east of the NJ Transit train tracks, north of Fayette Street, and south of Harbortown. Like the southwestern section of Perth Amboy, it is predominantly working-class Hispanic. In addition, this neighborhood had many industries and factories before they moved overseas. The neighborhood is mainly Caribbean Hispanic. This section once had a large Cuban community. The State and Fayette Gardens, an apartment complex in the neighborhood, were called "The Cuban Buildings" at one time. The Landings at Harborside redevelopment project is being constructed in this neighborhood.

Amboy Avenue
Amboy Avenue is a quasi-suburban, working to middle-class neighborhood. It is also referred to as the "Hospital section" or the "High School section" due to the fact that these places are located in the neighborhood. Today most residents are Hispanic; Amboy Avenue once had a strong Italian population.

Maurer
Maurer is a chiefly working to middle-class neighborhood that lies in the northern part of Route 440. It is heavily industrial with many oil refineries and brownfields. Like Amboy Avenue, it is quasi-suburban.

Chickentown
Chickentown is a neighborhood in the western part of Route 35 south of Spa Springs, just south of Route 440. It shares many of the same characteristics of Spa Springs but to a lesser extent. The city's largest park, Washington Park, is located here. It received its name from all the chicken farms (hens and eggs) that were located here before World War II.

Climate
Perth Amboy has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa) typical of New Jersey with hot, humid summers and cold, wet winters.

Demographics
The city is one of many U.S. communities with a majority Hispanic population.

2010 census
The 2010 United States census counted 50,814 people, 15,419 households, and 11,456 families in the city. The population density was 10806.8 /sqmi. There were 16,556 housing units at an average density of 3521.0 /sqmi. The racial makeup was 50.26% (25,541) White, 10.54% (5,358) Black or African American, 1.10% (561) Native American, 1.69% (859) Asian, 0.05% (27) Pacific Islander, 30.77% (15,634) from other races, and 5.58% (2,834) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 78.10% (39,685) of the population. The city's Hispanic population was the second-highest percentage among municipalities in New Jersey as of the 2010 Census, ranked behind Union City with 84.7%.

Of the 15,419 households, 40.0% had children under the age of 18; 40.1% were married couples living together; 24.6% had a female householder with no husband present and 25.7% were non-families. Of all households, 20.3% were made up of individuals and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.25 and the average family size was 3.65.

27.3% of the population were under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 30.2% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32.4 years. For every 100 females, the population had 97.3 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 94.3 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $47,696 (with a margin of error of +/− $3,644) and the median family income was $53,792 (+/− $2,943). Males had a median income of $38,485 (+/− $2,450) versus $30,078 (+/− $3,452) for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,162 (+/− $933). About 16.3% of families and 19.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.8% of those under age 18 and 15.2% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census there were 47,303 people, 14,562 households, and 10,761 families residing in the city. The population density was 9,892.0 PD/sqmi. There were 15,236 housing units at an average density of 3,186.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 46.41% White, 10.04% African American, 0.70% Native American, 1.53% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 35.59% from other races, and 5.61% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 69.83% of the population.

There were 14,562 households, out of which 40.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.6% were married couples living together, 21.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.1% were non-families. 20.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.20 and the average family size was 3.63.

In the city the population was spread out, with 28.5% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 18.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,608, and the median income for a family was $40,740. Males had a median income of $29,399 versus $21,954 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,989. About 14.3% of families and 17.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.1% of those under age 18 and 12.8% of those age 65 or over.

In 2000, 27.79% of Perth Amboy residents identified themselves as being of Puerto Rican ancestry, the fifth highest concentration of Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland of those municipalities with 1,000 or more residents identifying their ancestry. In the same census, 18.81% of Perth Amboy residents identified themselves as being of Dominican ancestry, the third highest concentration in the country of Dominicans in the United States after Haverstraw, New York, and Lawrence, Massachusetts, using the same criteria.

Economy
Portions of the city are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), one of 32 zones covering 37 municipalities statewide. The city was selected in 1994 as one of a group of 10 zones added to participate in the program. In addition to other benefits to encourage employment within the UEZ, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the $6 5/8$% rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants. Established in October 1994, the city's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in October 2025. As of 2023, hundreds of millions of dollars were being invested in the redevelopment of Perth Amboy's waterfront area, in part related to its strategically-located industrial area.

Local government
The City of Perth Amboy is governed under the Mayor-Council system of municipal government under the Faulkner Act. The city is one of 71 municipalities (of the 564) statewide governed under this form. The governing body is comprised of the Mayor and the City Council, all of whom are elected at-large on a non-partisan basis. The city council includes five members, who are elected to four-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either two or three seats coming up for election in alternating even-numbered years. The mayor also serves a four-year term of office, which is up for election the same year that two council seats are up for vote. In October 2010, the City Council voted to shift the city's non-partisan elections from May to November, with the first balloting held in conjunction with the General Election in November 2012.

, the mayor of Perth Amboy is Helmin J. Caba, whose term of office ends December 31, 2024. Caba defeated former three-term mayor Wilda Diaz who had served 12 years in office from 2008 to 2020. After trailing behind incumbent mayor Wilda Diaz by 33%-30% (a margin of more than 400 votes) in the November 2020 general election, he won the mayoral runoff election against Wilda Diaz on December 15, 2020. Members of the City Council are Hailey V. Cruz (2026), Rose B. Morales (2024), Kenneth Puccio (2026), Milady Tejeda (2026) and Bienvenido "BJ" Torres (2024).

In the November 2014 general election, Fernando Gonzalez came in third place, winning the final seat up for election ahead of Sergio Diaz by nine votes. In March 2015, a Superior Court judge ordered a special election between Diaz and Gonzalez after finding that votes had been illegally cast and that there was evidence of fraud in mail voting. In the special election, Gonzalez beat Diaz by a 112-vote margin.

Federal, state and county representation
Perth Amboy is located in the 6th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 19th state legislative district.

Politics
As of March 2011, there were a total of 22,737 registered voters in Perth Amboy, of which 9,212 (40.5%) were registered as Democrats, 1,022 (4.5%) were registered as Republicans and 12,500 (55.0%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 3 voters registered to either the Libertarian Party or the Green Party.

In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 87.0% of the vote (11,774 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 12.3% (1,667 votes), and other candidates with 0.7% (100 votes), among the 13,869 ballots cast by the city's 24,253 registered voters (328 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 57.2%. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 81.6% of the vote (10,999 cast), ahead of Republican John McCain with 16.8% (2,261 votes) and other candidates with 0.7% (91 votes), among the 13,473 ballots cast by the city's 23,248 registered voters, for a turnout of 58.0%. In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 71.0% of the vote (8,677 ballots cast), outpolling Republican George W. Bush with 27.5% (3,359 votes) and other candidates with 0.4% (79 votes), among the 12,223 ballots cast by the city's 21,686 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 56.4.

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Democrat Barbara Buono received 63.1% of the vote (3,574 cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 35.6% (2,014 votes), and other candidates with 1.3% (74 votes), among the 5,915 ballots cast by the city's 24,593 registered voters (253 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 24.1%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 69.8% of the vote (4,645 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 24.2% (1,611 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 3.4% (228 votes) and other candidates with 0.8% (50 votes), among the 6,654 ballots cast by the city's 22,185 registered voters, yielding a 30.0% turnout.

Roads and highways
, the city had a total of 75.14 mi of roadways, of which 58.59 mi were maintained by the municipality, 11.11 mi by Middlesex County, 4.27 mi by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and 1.17 mi by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The city is crisscrossed by many many major roads and highways. Major roads in the city include Route 35 Route 184, Route 440, CR 501 and CR 616.

The Outerbridge Crossing, which opened to traffic on June 29, 1928, is a cantilever bridge over the Arthur Kill that connects Perth Amboy with Staten Island. Known locally as the "Outerbridge", it is part of a major route on NY-440 / NJ-440 from the south and west to New York City and Long Island. Despite the assumption that the name is derived from its location as the southernmost bridge in New York State and Staten Island, the Outerbridge Crossing was named in honor of Eugenius H. Outerbridge, first Chairman of the Port Authority. The bridge clears the channel by 143 ft, providing passage for some of the largest ships entering the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The Victory Bridge carries Route 35 over the Raritan River, connecting Perth Amboy on the north with Sayreville to the south. From the time of its construction in 1926 until the Edison Bridge was completed in 1939, all traffic heading across the Raritan River was funneled through the Victory Bridge, whose original single-span swing bridge was replaced under a project completed in 2005 that provides two spans of traffic, including a 134 m main span that was the longest precast cantilever segmental construction in the United States at the time of its construction.

Public transportation
The city has NJ Transit train service at Perth Amboy station. The station provides service on the North Jersey Coast Line to Newark Penn Station, Hoboken Terminal, Secaucus Junction, New York Penn Station and the Jersey Shore.

NJ Transit buses serve the Port Authority Bus Terminal on the 116 route, Elizabeth on the 48 line, with local service available on the 813, 815, and 817 bus routes.

Bicycle regulation
Since 1939, legal use of a bicycle in Perth Amboy requires a license issued by the Perth Amboy police department. The purchase and sale of used bicycles must be reported to the Perth Amboy police department. Any person operating a business engaged in the sale or purchase of new or used bicycles must file a daily report with the Chief of Police detailing the particulars of all transactions. There is at least one bicycle shop in Perth Amboy.

Education
Public schools in Perth Amboy are operated by Perth Amboy Public Schools, serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide that were established pursuant to the decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Abbott v. Burke which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.

As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of 12 schools, had an enrollment of 10,786 students and 898.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.0:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics ) are Ignacio Cruz Early Childhood Center (with 667 students in Pre-K), Edmund Hmieleski Jr. Early Childhood Center (362; Pre-K), School #7 Early Childhood Center (NA; Pre-K), Anthony V. Ceres Elementary School (581; K–4), James J. Flynn Elementary School (550; K–4), Rose M. Lopez Elementary School (812; K–3), Edward J. Patten Elementary Elementary School (660; K–4), Dr. Herbert N. Richardson 21st Century Elementary School (491; K–4), Robert N. Wilentz Elementary School (637; K–4), Dual Language School (397; 4–8), William C. McGinnis Middle School (1,398; 5–8), Samuel E. Shull Middle School (1,410; 5–8) and Perth Amboy High School (2,547; 9–12).

Based on data from the 2013–2017 American Community Survey, 14.5% of adults over the age of 25 in Perth Amboy have a bachelor's degree or higher, a percentage significantly below the state average of 38.9% and the 42.7% of those in Middlesex County.

The Academy for Urban Leadership Charter High School is a public high school serving grades 7–12 open since September 2010, operating independently of the Perth Amboy Public Schools under the terms of a charter granted by the New Jersey Department of Education. The school opened with one hundred 9th graders, with plans to add a class of 100 students each year until it reached its goal of 400 students in grades 9–12 by the 2013–2014 school year and has since added grades 7 and 8. As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 414 students and 39.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.6:1.

Eighth grade students from all of Middlesex County are eligible to apply to attend the high school programs offered by the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools, a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career and technical education at Middlesex County Academy in Edison, the Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences in Woodbridge and at its East Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Piscataway technical high schools, with no tuition charged to students for attendance.

Assumption Catholic School (Pre-K–8) and Perth Amboy Catholic Primary School / Upper School (Pre-K–8) operate under the supervision of Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen.

In 1903, the Perth Amboy Public Library became the first Carnegie library in the state, made possible through a grant of $20,000 from Andrew Carnegie Foundation and donations from local philanthropists, which were supplemented in 1914 by an additional $30,000 in Carnegie grants to pay for two additional reading rooms. The library reopened in 2015 after a $2 million renovation project that kept the library closed for more than two years.

Notable people
People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Perth Amboy include:

 * Soren Sorensen Adams (1879–1963), inventor and manufacturer of novelty products, including the joy buzzer
 * Garth Ancier (born 1957), media executive best known for being one of only two people to have programmed three of the five US broadcast television networks
 * Solomon Andrews (1806–1872), creator of the first successful dirigible airship; served three terms as mayor of Perth Amboy
 * Carolyn Aronson (born 1966), hair care entrepreneur
 * Mike Baumgartner (1922–1991), bobsledder who competed in the Four-man event at the 1964 Winter Olympics
 * Jay Bellamy (born 1972), safety who played in the NFL for the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints
 * Jon Bon Jovi (born 1962), singer was born in Perth Amboy
 * Padi Boyd, astrophysicist who is the head of NASA's Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory
 * Kelly J. Breen (born 1969), trainer of thoroughbred racehorses
 * Malcolm Brenner (born 1951), author, journalist and zoophile
 * Miles Browning (1897–1954), officer in the United States Navy in the Atlantic during World War I and in the Pacific during World War II who was a pioneer in the development of aircraft carrier combat operations concepts
 * Frank Buckiewicz (1930–2017), football player and coach who served as the head football coach at Pacific University from 1965 to 1980
 * Johnny Buff (1888–1955), boxer who was world bantamweight champion from 1921 to 1922
 * Anne Casale (1930–2002, class of 1948), cookbook author and cooking teacher
 * Karen A. Cerulo (born 1957), sociologist specializing in the study of culture, communication and cognition
 * Alan Cheuse (1940–2015), writer
 * Steve Christiansen (born 1956), rower who competed in the men's eight event at the 1976 Summer Olympics
 * Stanley Norman Cohen (born 1935), co-creator of the first genetically modified organism and the process of recombinant DNA technology
 * Craig Coughlin (born 1958), politician who has represented the 19th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly since 2010 and has served as the Speaker of the General Assembly since 2018
 * Flora Parker DeHaven (1883–1950), actress and mother of actress Gloria DeHaven
 * Thomas J. Deverin (1921–2010), politician who served 11 terms in the New Jersey General Assembly, from 1970 to 1992
 * Cora Alice Du Bois (1903–1991), cultural anthropologist
 * William Dunlap (1766–1839), theater pioneer
 * Bernard J. Dwyer (1921–1998, class of 1938), politician, who served in the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey from 1981 to 1993
 * Walt Flanagan (born 1967), comic book artist and podcaster, creator of One True Three
 * Bill Flynn (born 1938), politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1974 to 1986
 * William Franklin (1730–1813), last governor of Province of New Jersey
 * Arthur Franz (1920–2006), actor
 * Elsie Frost (1919– 2003), American educator who was a children's advocate and wife of James A. Frost.
 * Thomas Gordon (1652–1722), lawyer who served as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and New Jersey Attorney General for the Province of New Jersey
 * Angelina Grimké (1805–1879) and Sarah Grimké (1792–1873), abolitionists
 * Vida Guerra (born 1974), model, was born in Cuba but was raised in Perth Amboy
 * Gene Hubka (1924–2017), American football tailback who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
 * George Inness (1825–1894), landscape painter
 * Augustus Johnston (1729–1790), Rhode Island Attorney General, Tory sympathizer
 * Lewis B. Kaden, businessman, attorney, legal scholar, and former political advisor who served as vice chairman of Citigroup from 2005 to 2013
 * Lawrence Kearny (1789–1868), the "Sailor Diplomat", who paved the way for an open-door policy with China
 * Edward L. Kemeys (1843–1907), sculptor in residence at Eagleswood Mansion
 * Morgan Foster Larson (1882–1961), Governor of New Jersey from 1929 to 1932
 * Yvonne Lopez (born 1957), politician who has represented the 19th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly since 2018
 * Miilkbone (born 1974 as Thomas Wlodarczyk), rapper
 * Walter Mitty, fictional character from the 1947 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
 * Steve Mizerak (1944–2006), champion pool player
 * Joseph Montani (PAHS, 1970), astronomer and planetary scientist who named the minor planet "12465 Perth Amboy" after his hometown
 * John A. Nagy (1946–2016), author of books about espionage and mutinies of the American Revolution
 * Maria, Lady Nugent diarist, first lady of Jamaica was probably born here in 1771.
 * George Otlowski (1912–2009), politician who served as mayor of the city from 1976 to 1990
 * Thomas H. Paterniti (1929–2017), dentist and politician who served as Mayor of Edison and in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature
 * Edward J. Patten (1905–1994), lawyer and politician who represented New Jersey's 15th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 until 1981
 * Will Pennyfeather (born 1968), former center fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates
 * Thomas Mundy Peterson (1824–1904), first African-American to vote under the provisions of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. constitution in 1870
 * Bony Ramirez (born 1996), self-taught painter and visual artist
 * Joseph J. Sadowski (1917–1944), United States Army soldier awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in World War II
 * Richie Sambora (born 1959), guitarist for Bon Jovi, was born here
 * Arthur J. Sills (1917–1982), attorney who served as New Jersey Attorney General from 1962 to 1970
 * Dave Smigelsky (born 1959), former American football punter who played for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League and Washington Federals of the United States Football League
 * Joann H. Smith (1934–1998), politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from the 13th Legislative District from 1986 to 1998
 * Marcus Spring (1810–1874), founder of Raritan Bay Union and Eagleswood Military Academy
 * Steve Stanko (1917–1978), heavyweight weightlifter and bodybuilder who was crowned Mr. America in 1944 and Mr. Universe in 1947
 * John Stevens (c. 1715–1792), colonial American landowner, merchant and politician who was a delegate to the Continental Congress from New Jersey
 * John Stevens (1749–1838), engineer who developed the multitubular boiler engine and the screw propeller
 * Alec John Such (1951–2022), musician who was best known as a founding member of the rock band Bon Jovi, and as their bass player from 1983 to 1994
 * Bruce Taylor (born 1948), former NFL player
 * Brian Taylor (born 1951), former professional basketball player who played for the New York Nets and three other teams in his 10-year career in the NBA
 * Harry Tierney (1890–1965), composer
 * Marc Turtletaub (born 1946), movie producer and former president and CEO of The Money Store
 * Marcus Valdez (born 1999), professional football defensive lineman for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League
 * John Watson (1685–1768), one of the first painters in America and holder of the first gallery of paintings in the country
 * Ruth White (1914–1969), Emmy Award winning television, stage and motion picture actress
 * Amy Wilentz (born 1954), writer
 * David T. Wilentz (1894–1988), N.J. Attorney General from 1934 to 1944, who prosecuted Bruno Hauptmann in the Lindbergh kidnapping trial
 * Robert Wilentz (1927–1996), Chief Justice of New Jersey Supreme Court from 1979 to 1996
 * Warren W. Wilentz (1924–2010), attorney and politician
 * Blenda Wilson (born 1941), university president and education executive who was the first African-American woman to lead a large (over 25,000 students) university in the United States
 * John Wisniewski (born 1962), politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1996 to 2018, where he represented the 19th Legislative District

Sister cities

 * 🇵🇹 Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
 * 🇺🇸 Hillsdale, Michigan

title: Perth Amboy, New Jersey


text:
Piscataway, New Jersey

Piscataway is a township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of the New York metropolitan area, in the Raritan Valley. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 60,804, an increase of 4,760 (+8.5%) from the 2010 census count of 56,044,  which in turn reflected an increase of 5,562 (+11.0%) from 50,482 at the 2000 census.

The name may be derived from the area's earliest European settlers who came from near the Piscataqua River, a landmark defining the coastal border between New Hampshire and Maine, whose name derives from peske (branch) and tegwe (tidal river), or alternatively from pisgeu (meaning "dark night") and awa ("place of") or from a Lenape language word meaning "great deer". The area was appropriated in 1666 by Quakers and Baptists who had left the Puritan colony in New Hampshire.

Piscataway Township was formed on December 17, 1666, and officially incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798, as part of the state's initial group of 104 townships. The community, the fifth-oldest municipality in New Jersey, has grown from Native American territory, through a colonial period and is one of the links in the earliest settlement of the Atlantic Ocean seacoast that ultimately led to the formation of the United States. Over the years, portions of Piscataway were taken to form Raritan Township (March 17, 1870, now Edison), Dunellen (October 28, 1887), Middlesex (April 9, 1913) and South Plainfield (March 10, 1926).

Rutgers University's main campus spills into the township. SHI Stadium, home field for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, is in Piscataway as well as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

History
The earliest settlers of the area were the Lenape Native Americans; a group of four European settlers coming from New Hampshire acquired 40000 acres of land in 1666 that had been occupied by Native Americans. In 1666, the first proprietary Governor of the Province of New Jersey, Philip Carteret, granted 12 new settlers from Massachusetts a 100 square mile allotment of land that was later founded as the townships of Piscataway and Woodbridge. Similar types of settlements established by religious dissenters fleeing Puritan colonies in New England were being formed in other parts of New Jersey, notably the Elizabethtown Tract in Northern New Jersey near the mouth of the Raritan River and extending upwards into modern day Essex County, and the Monmouth Tract in Central New Jersey near the Raritan Bay and extending southward along the Jersey Shore to the Barnegat Inlet.

Additional settlers from the Piscataqua River area of New Hampshire moved to Piscataway, bringing the name. Coming from a lumbering, shipbuilding and fishing background, these settlers, consisting of mostly Baptists and Quakers, were comfortable with their new surroundings, and looking forward to starting a new life away from political and religious persecution in the north. They were also enterprising and pioneering families who were already experienced in wilderness settlement. Before the original settlers, there were pioneer scouts who surveyed these new lands and waterways. The town name of Piscataway came from these early pioneers who originally came from the town of Piscataqua. During the original land purchase, the pioneers had signed 12 Articles of Agreement with Governor Carteret, which served as the legal basis for the government of Piscataway and Woodbridge and which shaped the democratic development of self-government. In short, these articles were mainly designed to provide liberty and land ownership for new families and to allow them to establish their own government representatives and religious freedoms.

After a few line and boundary changes, Piscataway and its outer plantations were reported to total 40,000 acres, with 66 square miles of land in 1685. The Lenape Native Americans occupied the entire Piscataway area, but were dispelled as the encroachment of European settlers increased. Across multiple generations, the Lenape established defined trails that European settlers appropriated in order to traverse through the wilderness area and partition new lands. Over time, many of these primitive trails became the main routes of travel between communities and became the basis of roads that still exist today. The trails along the Raritan River were named after a local population of Native Americans called the Raritangs. Piscataway Township is the fifth-oldest municipality in New Jersey and among the fifty oldest municipalities in the United States.

On February 8, 1777, the Battle of Quibbletown, a running battle took place between approximately 2,000 British and Hessian troops under the command of British General Charles Lord Cornwallis and the local patriot militia led by Colonel Charles Scott and a separate militia commanded by Brigadier General Nathaniel Warner.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 18.96 square miles (49.11 km2), including 18.79 square miles (48.68 km2) of land and 0.17 square miles (0.43 km2) of water (0.88%).

The township lies on the south side of the Raritan Valley, a line of cities in Central Jersey, along with New Brunswick, Highland Park and South Plainfield. Piscataway is 45 minutes southwest of New York City and 53 minutes northeast of Philadelphia.

Piscataway is bordered by nine municipalities: Dunellen, Edison, Highland Park, Middlesex, New Brunswick and South Plainfield in Middlesex County; Franklin Township and South Bound Brook in Somerset County; and Plainfield in Union County.

Society Hill (with a 2010 Census population of 3,829 ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Piscataway Township.

Piscataway is often segmented by local residents into unincorporated communities, localities and place names which include Arbor, Bound Brook Heights ("the Heights"), Fellowship Farm, Fieldville, Johnson Park, Lake Nelson, New Brunswick Highlands, New Market (known as Quibbletown in the 18th Century), Newtown, North Stelton, Possumtown, Randolphville, Raritan Landing and Riverview Manor. The original settlement of Piscatawaytown is located in present-day Edison.

Camp Kilmer, constructed starting in 1941 on 1500 acres of Piscataway and Edison, was activated in June 1942 by the United States Army as a staging area and part of an installation of the New York Port of Embarkation. Troops were quartered at Camp Kilmer in preparation for transport to the European Theater of Operations in World War II, ultimately becoming the largest processing center for troops heading overseas and returning from World War II, processing over 2.5 million soldiers. Following the failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Camp Kilmer was reactivated and used to process 30,000 refugees who were resettled in the area and across the country. The camp was officially closed in 2009.

Significant portions of Piscataway make up the Livingston and Busch Campuses of Rutgers University.

The Arbor and New Brunswick Highland sections of Piscataway were African American neighborhoods in the past.

The New Market section historically comprised the Quaker village of Quibbletown. The early name of the village originated from the fact that settlers of different religious denominations quibbled about whether the Sabbath should be observed on Saturday or on Sunday in the village.

2010 census
The 2010 United States census counted 56,044 people, 17,050 households, and 12,958 families in the township. The population density was 2975.5 /sqmi. There were 17,777 housing units at an average density of 943.8 /sqmi. The racial makeup was 38.46% (21,554) White, 20.69% (11,596) Black or African American, 0.31% (173) Native American, 33.45% (18,744) Asian, 0.02% (13) Pacific Islander, 3.59% (2,011) from other races, and 3.48% (1,953) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.22% (6,289) of the population.

Of the 17,050 households, 35.0% had children under the age of 18; 59.9% were married couples living together; 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present and 24.0% were non-families. Of all households, 18.6% were made up of individuals and 5.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and the average family size was 3.33.

20.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 17.8% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.0 years. For every 100 females, the population had 99.2 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 96.8 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $88,428 (with a margin of error of +/− $3,958) and the median family income was $95,483 (+/− $3,327). Males had a median income of $57,308 (+/− $4,335) versus $48,606 (+/− $1,863) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $31,254 (+/− $1,335). About 2.5% of families and 4.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.9% of those under age 18 and 4.5% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census there were 50,482 people, 16,500 households, and 12,325 families residing in the township. The population density was 2,688.6 PD/sqmi. There were 16,946 housing units at an average density of 902.5 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the township was 48.81% White, 20.31% African American, 0.21% Native American, 24.80% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 3.08% from other races, and 2.77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.93% of the population.

As of the 2000 Census, 12.49% of Piscataway's residents identified themselves as being of Indian American ancestry, which was the fourth highest of any municipality in the United States and the third highest in New Jersey—behind Edison (17.75%) and Plainsboro Township (16.97%)—of all places with 1,000 or more residents identifying their ancestry.

There were 16,500 households, out of which 34.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.6% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.3% were non-families. 19.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.29.

In the township, the population was spread out, with 21.9% under the age of 18, 14.1% from 18 to 24, 33.3% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 8.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.2 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $68,721, and the median income for a family was $75,218. Males had a median income of $47,188 versus $36,271 for females. The per capita income for the township was $26,321. About 2.7% of families and 3.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.3% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy
Corporate residents of Piscataway include:
 * American Standard Brands
 * Cintas Corporation
 * Colgate-Palmolive, Research and Development
 * GenScript Biotech
 * Gorgias Press, an academic publisher that specializes on Eastern Christianity.
 * Hapag-Lloyd America, an international shipping company.
 * IEEE
 * Ingersoll Rand and its wholly owned subsidiary Trane
 * Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.
 * Pepsi Cola Bottling Group – bottling plant.
 * Siemens Hearing Instruments, the world's largest manufacturer of hearing aids.

The world headquarters of Telcordia Technologies had been located in Piscataway, until a June 2011 deal in which Ericsson acquired the company in a deal valued at $1.15 billion.

Sports
SHI Stadium was originally constructed in 1994 with 41,500 seats as the home of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team and was expanded to a capacity of 52,454 in 2009 after a $100-million expansion.

Louis Brown Athletic Center is the home of the Rutgers University men's and women's basketball teams. The venue was originally named the Rutgers Athletic Center, still called the RAC by many, and can accommodate 9,000 attendees. The athletic center was the home of the professional New Jersey Nets for the four seasons from 1977–1981 after moving from New York and before the Meadowlands Arena was completed.

Yurcak Field is a multi-purpose soccer and lacrosse stadium, built in 1994, and holds 5,000 people. The stadium is officially named "The Soccer/Lacrosse Stadium at Yurcak Field" in honor of Ronald N. Yurcak, a 1965 All-American Rutgers lacrosse player. Rutgers University host their home games at this stadium.

Local government
In November 1966, Piscataway voters, under the Faulkner Act, approved a Charter Study and elected a Charter Study Commission to recommend the form of government best suited to the township's needs. The Commission recommended Mayor-Council Plan F. Voters approved the plan in a referendum in November 1967 and the new form of government was inaugurated on January 1, 1969. The township is one of 71 municipalities (of the 564) statewide governed under this form. Under Plan F the Mayor is the administrator and the Council is the legislative body. A full-time business administrator, appointed by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the Council, and responsible to the Mayor, supervises the day-by-day operation of municipal government. The Township Council has seven members, one representing each of four wards, and three at-large members. The Mayor and Council members serve four-year terms on a staggered basis, with either the three at-large seats (and the mayoral seat) or the four ward seats up for vote in even years as part of the November general election.

, the mayor of Piscataway is Democrat Brian C. Wahler, whose term of office ends December 31, 2024. Members of the Township Council are Council President Gabrielle Cahill (D, 2024; At Large), Council Vice President Dennis Espinosa (D, 2026; Ward 2), Sharon Carmichael (D, 2026; Ward 3), Michele Lombardi (D, 2026; Ward 4), Linwood D. Rouse (D, 2024; At Large – elected to serve an unexpired term), Kapil K. Shah (D, 2024; At Large) and Frank Uhrin (D, 2026; Ward 1).

In May 2021, the Township Council appointed Linwood D. Rouse to fill the at-large seat expiring in December 2024 that had been held by Chanelle Scott McCullum until she stepped down to take a seat on the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners following the death of Commissioner Kenneth Armwood. Rouse served on an interim basis until the November 2021 election, when he was elected to serve the balance of the term of office.

Camille Fernicola was appointed to fill the at-large seat expiring in December 2016 that had been held by Michael Griffith until his death in November 2014. In the November 2015 general election, Fernicola was elected to serve the balance of the term of office.

Chanelle McCullum was appointed in April 2013 to fill the vacant at-large seat of Kenneth Armwood, who had been the township council president until he was appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders. McCullum was elected in November 2013 to serve the balance of the unexpired term through its expiration in December 2016.

Federal, state and county representation
Piscataway is located in the 6th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 17th state legislative district.

Politics
As of March 2011, there were a total of 31,266 registered voters in Piscataway Township, of which 11,355 (36.3%) were registered as Democrats, 3,034 (9.7%) were registered as Republicans and 16,859 (53.9%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 18 voters registered to other parties.

In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 74.4% of the vote (15,659 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 24.4% (5,125 votes), and other candidates with 1.2% (262 votes), among the 21,227 ballots cast by the township's 33,597 registered voters (181 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 63.2%. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 71.0% of the vote (15,978 cast), ahead of Republican John McCain with 27.2% (6,111 votes) and other candidates with 1.0% (215 votes), among the 22,491 ballots cast by the township's 32,398 registered voters, for a turnout of 69.4%. In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 64.2% of the vote (12,627 ballots cast), outpolling Republican George W. Bush with 34.3% (6,749 votes) and other candidates with 0.8% (218 votes), among the 19,670 ballots cast by the township's 27,842 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 70.6.

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Democrat Barbara Buono received 50.6% of the vote (5,388 cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 48.2% (5,129 votes), and other candidates with 1.1% (122 votes), among the 10,823 ballots cast by the township's 34,170 registered voters (184 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 31.7%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 54.9% of the vote (6,773 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 37.6% (4,637 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 6.0% (738 votes) and other candidates with 0.9% (111 votes), among the 12,334 ballots cast by the township's 31,079 registered voters, yielding a 39.7% turnout.

Fire and EMS
Piscataway is divided into four fire districts which are served by a total of two volunteer rescue squads and six volunteer fire companies, one of which combines both fire and EMS services. The fire districts are the zones in which fire departments operate, and although the volunteer EMS squads follow the basic regions of the districts, only North Stelton Fire Rescue EMS is a part of a fire district. On weekdays and weekends from 6 am until 6 pm, Hackensack Meridian Health EMS staffs an ambulance in Piscataway. When the volunteer rescue squads are not in service, either Hackensack Meridian Health, Rutgers University Emergency Services or Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital may be asked to send an ambulance.

 * District 1
 * Arbor Rescue Squad (EMS), 1790 W. 7th Street (partial coverage)
 * River Road Rescue Squad (EMS), 101 Shirley Parkway (partial coverage)
 * New Market Fire Company, 801 South Washington Avenue
 * North Stelton Fire Rescue (EMS), 70 Haines Avenue (partial coverage)

 * District 2
 * River Road Rescue Squad (EMS), 101 Shirley Parkway
 * River Road Fire Company, 102 Netherwood Avenue
 * Holmes Marshall Fire Company, 5300 Deborah Drive
 * Possumtown Fire Company, 85 Stratton Street South

 * District 3
 * Arbor Rescue Squad (EMS), 1790 W. 7th Street
 * Arbor Hose Company, 1780 West Seventh Street

 * District 4
 * North Stelton Volunteer Fire Company, 70 Haines Avenue

 * Fire Prevention
 * Fire Marshall's Office, 555 Sidney Road

Police
The primary law enforcement agency in the township is the Piscataway Police Department. Rutgers University Police Department operates on its campuses within Piscataway. The New Jersey State Police patrols the section of Interstate 287 that bisects the township.

Education
The Piscataway Township Schools serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grades. As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprised of 10 schools, had an enrollment of 7,161 students and 530.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.5:1. In addition to its high school, there are four schools for K–3, two intermediate schools serving grades 4–5 and three middle schools for students in grades 6–8. Schools in the district (with 2018–19 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics ) are Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School (506 students; in grades K–3), Grandview Elementary School (789; Pre-K–3), Knollwood Elementary School (505; K–3), Randolphville Elementary School (469; K–3), Arbor Intermediate School (585; 4–5), Martin Luther King Intermediate School (4–5), Conackamack Middle School (472; 6–8), Quibbletown Middle School (485; 6–8), Theodore Schor Middle School (576; 6–8) and Piscataway High School (2,267; 9–12).

Eighth grade students from all of Middlesex County are eligible to apply to attend the high school programs offered by the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools, a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career and technical education at Middlesex County Academy in Edison, the Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences in Woodbridge Township and at its East Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Piscataway technical high schools, with no tuition charged to students for attendance.
 * Middlesex County schools:

Other Middlesex County schools in Piscataway include:
 * Nuview Academy Piscataway Campus, 1 Park Avenue – Programs for students with symptoms of; Depression, ADHD, Conduct Disorder, Thought Disorder, or Anxiety Disorder.
 * Bright Beginnings Learning Center, 1660 Stelton Road – Programs for students with Autism.
 * Piscataway Regional Day School, 1670 Stelton Road – Programs for students with Autism.
 * Raritan Valley Academy, 1690 Stelton Road – Programs for students with behavioral disabilities, learning and/or language disabilities.

 * Private schools:
 * Lake Nelson Seventh-day Adventist Academy, opened in February 1959, serves students in Pre-K to tenth grade.
 * Timothy Christian School is a K–12 that was founded in 1949.
 * An-Noor Academy, a Pre-K–12 school that has served the area's Muslim community since 2000.

 * Colleges and continuing education:
 * Rutgers University Busch and Livingston Campuses
 * Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and University Behavioral HealthCare (which overlaps with Rutgers Busch Campus)
 * StenoTech Career Institute is a technical school that offers court reporting and medical transcription training.

Roads and highways
, the township had a total of 206.70 mi of roadways, of which 181.68 mi were maintained by the municipality, 18.94 mi by Middlesex County and 6.08 mi by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Piscataway is served by a number of roads and highways. Interstate 287 traverses the township and includes exits 6, 7, 8 and 9. County roads include CR 501 (along the border with South Plainfield) and CR 529. Route 18 runs along Hoes Lane to Interstate 287, which passes through the center of the township for about 4 mi.

Other limited access roads that are accessible include the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) in East Brunswick (Exit 9) and neighboring Edison (Exit 10).

Public transportation
NJ Transit provides bus service to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on the 114 route, to Newark on the 65 and 66 routes and local service on the 819 route. Train service is not available in Piscataway, but service is available on the Raritan Valley Line at the Dunellen station and on the Northeast Corridor at the Edison station.

Taiwanese airline EVA Air provides a private bus service to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City for customers based in New Jersey. This service stops in Piscataway.

Points of interest

 * WVPH is the community radio station of Piscataway High School and Rutgers University.
 * Ferrer Colony and Modern School and Fellowship Farm Cooperative Association are the remnants of the 1910s Utopian societies.
 * Road Up Raritan Historic District includes nine historic homes along River Road and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
 * Metlar-Bodine House is a museum dedicated to the history of Piscataway "from Indian trails to Interstate" and was established in 1979 in a house whose earliest portions date to 1728.
 * Cornelius Low House, constructed in 1741 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is operated as a Middlesex County Museum.
 * East Jersey Old Town Village, located in Johnson Park, includes 16 homes characteristic of the farm houses that populated the area, that have been relocated and reconstructed on the site.

Notable people
People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Piscataway include:

 * Mike Alexander (born 1965), former NFL wide receiver
 * Edward Antill (1701–1770), colonial plantation owner, attorney, and early politician in New Jersey colony
 * Edward Antill (1742–1789), soldier who fought at the Battle of Quebec and was the son of the politician with the same name
 * Margueritte Aozasa (born 1990), college soccer coach who is head coach of the UCLA Bruins women's soccer team
 * Melissa Bacelar (born 1979), horror film actress
 * Justin Bailey (born 1977), basketball player for University of Hartford and then foreign professional teams for 13 years
 * Samuel E. Blum (1920–2013), chemist and physicist who developed the ultraviolet excimer laser
 * Marvin Booker (born 1990), linebacker who has played in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
 * Ralph Bowen (born 1961), Canadian-born jazz saxophonist
 * Anthony Branker (born 1958), jazz musician and educator
 * John Celestand (born 1977), 30th pick of 1999 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers
 * Mark Ciardi (born 1961), film producer and former Major League Baseball pitcher
 * Anthony Davis (born 1989), offensive tackle for the San Francisco 49ers
 * Dwayne Gratz (born 1990), cornerback who has played in the NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars
 * J. D. Griggs (born 1990), defensive end who has played in the Canadian Football League for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
 * Rachael Hip-Flores, actress who has appeared in Good People in Love and the web series Anyone But Me
 * Malcolm Jenkins (born 1987), safety for the New Orleans Saints. Played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes
 * Asjha Jones (born 1980), WNBA basketball player for the Connecticut Sun
 * Joe Lizura (born 1961), television meteorologist, who has also been an actor, spokesperson, author and television show developer, writer and producer
 * Isaac Low (1735–1791), member of the First Continental Congress in 1774 who opposed armed conflict with the British and left the American side after the Declaration of Independence
 * Nicholas Low (1739–1826), merchant, developer, and younger brother of Isaac
 * Lisa Marie (born 1968), actress who has appeared in Planet of the Apes and Sleepy Hollow
 * Luther Martin (1748–1826), Founding Father who refused to sign the United States Constitution as it violated states' rights in his view
 * Raqiyah Mays (born 1978), actress and hip-hop journalist
 * Richard Levis McCormick (born 1947), 19th President of Rutgers University
 * Richard P. McCormick (1916–2006), historian and professor emeritus at Rutgers University, who served as president of the New Jersey Historical Society
 * Matt Nagy (born 1978), head coach of the Chicago Bears who played in the Arena Football League
 * Derrick Palmer (born 1988/89), labor activist and whistleblower who is Vice President of Organizing of the Amazon Labor Union.
 * Joseph Fitz Randolph (1803–1873), member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey from 1837 to 1843
 * Brandon Renkart (born 1984), practice squad player for the Arizona Cardinals
 * Paul Rudnick (born 1957), playwright, novelist, screenwriter and essayist
 * Gail Shollar (1957–1992), early victim of carjacking, whose death led to stricter state penalties for the crime
 * Bob Smith (born 1947), member of the New Jersey Senate since 2002 who spent five years as mayor of Piscataway
 * Karl-Anthony Towns (born 1995), NBA basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves
 * Kyle Wilson (born 1987), cornerback for the New York Jets
 * Eric Young Jr. (born 1985), second baseman and outfielder who has played for the New York Mets

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Piscataway, New Jersey


text:
Plainsboro Township, New Jersey

Plainsboro Township is a township situated in southern Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Centrally located in the Raritan Valley region, the township is an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area, even though it is slightly geographically closer to Center City, Philadelphia than to Midtown Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 24,084, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 1,085 (+4.7%) from the 22,999 recorded at the 2010 census,  which in turn reflected an increase of 2,784 (+13.8%) from the 20,215 counted in the 2000 census.

Plainsboro was incorporated as a township on May 6, 1919, from lands north of Plainsboro Road and Dey Road that had been part of South Brunswick and lands south of Plainsboro Road and Dey Road that had been part of Cranbury. The main impetus towards the creation of the township was the lack of schools serving the area; a new school was constructed after the township was established, which still exists as J.V.B. Wicoff School, named for one of the individuals who led the effort to create Plainsboro.

History
The original residents of Plainsboro were the Unami people, a subtribe of the Lenape Native Americans. In the 17th century, the Dutch settled the area for its agricultural properties.

The oldest developed section of Plainsboro is at the intersection of Dey and Plainsboro Roads. It is thought that the road was named after a Dutch-built tavern that sat at the intersection, called "The Planes Tavern," in the early 18th century or earlier. The building still stands and was featured on HGTV's If These Walls Could Talk along with the historic Plainsboro Inn building (circa 1790) that was built adjacent to "Planes Tavern" at Plainsboro Road and Dey Road.

In 1897, the Walker-Gordon Dairy Farm opened up, which, among many other things, contributed Elsie the Cow and The Walker Gordon Diner, which has since been closed. The site of the farm has been turned into a single-family home community named Walker-Gordon Farm, which consists of over 350 homes.

Other family farms arrived during the first three quarters of the 20th century, notably the Parker, Simonson, Stults, and Groendyke farms. The Parker Farm was eventually integrated into the Groendyke farm, and both became part of Walker-Gordon's Dairy Farm, which is now a housing development. The Simonson and Stults Farms still stand and operate in Plainsboro.

Plainsboro was officially founded on May 6, 1919, and was formed from sections of Cranbury and South Brunswick townships. Plainsboro Township was created in response to Cranbury and South Brunswick refusing to build a new fireproof and larger school in Plainsboro Village. Every year, the date is celebrated with a parade, festival, and a concert.

In 1971, Princeton University (which owned most of the township) and Lincoln Properties, Inc., together started to develop the area into what it is now, a large suburban township still holding on to its rural past. By the 1980s, Princeton University had acquired nearly 5000 acres of Plainsboro Township, a holding far larger than the 4.5 acre size of the original university campus. In response to the development, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South was opened in nearby Princeton Junction, then just called WWP High. To accommodate the additional growth, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North was opened in Plainsboro in September 2000, beginning a north–south rivalry between the Pirates and the Knights.

The latest addition to Plainsboro is the Village Center, which is adjacent to the historic village area. Located at the intersection of Schalks Crossing and Scudder Mills Roads, Plainsboro Village Center currently features eight buildings totaling almost 75000 sqft of retail, commercial and office space, as well as 11 single-family homes and 12 townhomes. The Village Center contains wide landscaped sidewalks and outdoor, cafe'-style seating. The Village center's downtown atmosphere is the location of many shopping and dining destinations. The Village Center features a large village green with a tranquil fountain and walking paths in a park-like setting. The Village Center also houses a new $12.4 million Plainsboro Library, which opened on April 10, 2010. The township broke ground on July 27, for two new buildings that will host medical offices, additional retail space and eight residential condominium units.

A new hospital facility was under development in Plainsboro, that would be renamed University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. The new hospital and 171 acres medical campus was designed to include a modern medical office building attached to the hospital, a world-class education center, a health and fitness center, a skilled nursing facility, a pediatric services facility and a 32 acres public park. Officials at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) announced they will be opening a facility in Plainsboro on 13 acres of the new hospital campus. Constructed at a cost of $523 million, the new hospital opened in May 2012, with patients relocated from the former facility in Princeton that had been in use for 93 years. The hospital was acquired in January 2018 by University of Pennsylvania Health System and renamed as Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 12.11 square miles (31.37 km2), including 11.74 square miles (30.40 km2) of land and 0.37 square miles (0.97 km2) of water (3.09%).

Plainsboro Center (with a 2010 Census population of 2,712 ) and Princeton Meadows (13,834 as of 2010 ) are unincorporated communities and census-designated places (CDPs) located within Plainsboro Township.

Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Aqueduct, Schalks and Scotts Corner.

The township borders the municipalities of Cranbury and South Brunswick in Middlesex County; and East Windsor, Princeton and West Windsor in Mercer County.

2010 Census
The 2010 United States census counted 22,999 people, 9,402 households, and 5,886 families in the township. The population density was 1,951.6 per square mile (753.5/km2). There were 10,089 housing units at an average density of 856.1 per square mile (330.5/km2). The racial makeup was 41.07% (9,445) White, 8.03% (1,847) Black or African American, 0.30% (69) Native American, 46.22% (10,630) Asian, 0.02% (4) Pacific Islander, 1.76% (404) from other races, and 2.61% (600) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.21% (1,429) of the population. As of the 2010 Census, 29.6% of the township's population self-identified as being Indian American, making them the largest minority group in the township.

Of the 9,402 households, 36.5% had children under the age of 18; 53.4% were married couples living together; 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present and 37.4% were non-families. Of all households, 31.2% were made up of individuals and 3.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 3.14.

24.7% of the population were under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 35.7% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 7.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.5 years. For every 100 females, the population had 98.8 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 96.4 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $86,986 (with a margin of error of +/− $5,536) and the median family income was $114,457 (+/− $6.162). Males had a median income of $76,846 (+/− $6,185) versus $58,515 (+/− $5,722) for females. The per capita income for the township was $46,222 (+/− $2,054). About 1.9% of families and 3.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.6% of those under age 18 and 4.0% of those age 65 or over.

2000 Census
As of the 2000 United States census there were 20,215 people, 8,742 households, and 5,122 families residing in the township. The population density was 1,707.7 PD/sqmi. There were 9,133 housing units at an average density of 771.5 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the township was 58.20% White, 7.58% African American, 0.10% Native American, 30.51% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 1.36% from other races, and 2.24% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.64% of the population.

As part of the 2000 Census, 16.97% of Plainsboro Township residents identified themselves as being Indian American. This was the second-highest percentage (behind Edison) of Indian American people in any municipality in the United States with 1,000 or more residents identifying their ancestry. In the 2000 census, 8.55% of Plainsboro Township's residents identified themselves as being of Chinese ancestry. This was the second-highest percentage (behind Holmdel Township) of people with Chinese ancestry in any municipality in New Jersey with 1,000 or more residents identifying their ancestry.

There were 8,742 households, out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.4% were married couples living together, 6.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.4% were non-families. 33.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 2.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the township the population was spread out, with 24.6% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 45.2% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 4.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.8 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $72,097, and the median income for a family was $88,783 (these figures had risen to $82,609 and $102,586 respectively as of the 2007 American Community Survey estimate ). Males had a median income of $62,327 versus $44,671 for females. The per capita income for the township was $38,982. About 1.4% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.7% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy
Forrestal Village is an upscale mixed use lifestyle center located on U.S. Route 1. The center opened in 1986 and has a gross leasable area of 720000 sqft, 52 acre of retail and office space. It was designed by Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Massachusetts with the architectural firm Bower Lewis Thrower/Architects to "create a retail mix that will not just bring people in every few weeks like the regional malls do".

As of 2022 its tenants are primarily smaller boutique retailers, offices, restaurants, and a hotel. The center has also been approved for residential units. MarketFair in Princeton and Quaker Bridge Mall in Lawrence Township are also a short distance away.

Local government
Plainsboro Township is governed by a Township Committee form of New Jersey municipal government. The township is one of 141 municipalities (of the 564) statewide governed under this form. The governing body is comprised of a five-member Township Committee whose members are chosen at-large on a partisan basis for three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either one or two seats up for vote each year as part of the November general election. Every January 1, the Township Committee re-organizes and selects a mayor and deputy mayor from among its membership. Township Committee meetings are open to the public and held on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. A Township Administrator appointed by the Township Committee oversees Plainsboro's professional employees. Major departments are Administration, Township Clerk, Finance, Recreation/Cultural Affairs, Municipal Court, Public Safety, Public Works, Planning/Zoning, and Building Inspections, each overseen by a department head.

, members of the Plainsboro Township Committee are Mayor Peter A. Cantu (D, term on committee ends December 31, 2026; terms as mayor ends 2024), Deputy Mayor Edward Yates (D, term on committee ends 2025; term as deputy mayor ends 2024), David Bander (D, 2025), Neil J. Lewis (D, 2024) and Nuran Nabi (D, 2024).

Federal, state and county representation
Plainsboro Township is located in the 12th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 14th state legislative district.

Politics
As of March 23, 2011, there were a total of 11,460 registered voters in Plainsboro Township, of which 3,884 (33.9%) were registered as Democrats, 1,486 (13.0%) were registered as Republicans and 6,081 (53.1%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 9 voters registered as Libertarians or Greens.

In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 69.3% of the vote (5,416 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 29.3% (2,286 votes), and other candidates with 1.4% (111 votes), among the 7,859 ballots cast by the township's 12,074 registered voters (46 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 65.1%. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 70.4% of the vote (5,760 cast), ahead of Republican John McCain with 27.8% (2,280 votes) and other candidates with 1.1% (87 votes), among the 8,187 ballots cast by the township's 11,847 registered voters, for a turnout of 69.1%. In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 63.4% of the vote (4,603 ballots cast), outpolling Republican George W. Bush with 35.5% (2,575 votes) and other candidates with 0.6% (63 votes), among the 7,261 ballots cast by the township's 10,605 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 68.5.

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 54.9% of the vote (2,232 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 43.4% (1,763 votes), and other candidates with 1.7% (68 votes), among the 4,121 ballots cast by the township's 12,289 registered voters (58 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 33.5%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 58.7% of the vote (2,478 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 43.2% (1,823 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 7.3% (309 votes) and other candidates with 1.2% (51 votes), among the 4,223 ballots cast by the township's 11,142 registered voters, yielding a 37.9% turnout.

Public schools
Plainsboro Township and West Windsor Township are part of a combined school district, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade from the two communities. The district has four elementary schools (grades Pre-K/K–3), two upper elementary schools (grades 4 and 5), two middle schools (grades 6–8) and two high schools (grades 9–12). As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of 10 schools, had an enrollment of 9,386 students and 773.2 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.1:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics ) are Dutch Neck Elementary School (located in West Windsor: 704 students; in grades K-3), Maurice Hawk Elementary School (West Windsor: 723; K-3), Town Center Elementary School (Plainsboro: 431; PreK-2), J.V.B. Wicoff Elementary School (Plainsboro: 349; K-3), Millstone River School (Plainsboro: 967; 3-5), Village School (West Windsor: 617; 4-5), Community Middle School (Plainsboro: 1,131; 6-8), Thomas R. Grover Middle School (West Windsor: 1,208; 6-8), West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North (Plainsboro: 1,521; 9-12) and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South (West Windsor: 1,649; 9-12). The district is overseen by a directly elected nine-member board of education whose members are allocated to the two constituent municipalities based on population, with four of the nine seats allocated to Plainsboro.

In 2005, Community Middle School received first place at the national "Science Olympiad" competition and took first place for a second time in 2007. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North was the 32nd-ranked public high school, and South was 62nd-ranked, in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2012 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools.

Three of the district's schools have been recognized by the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South was recognized during the 1992–1993 school year and Maurice Hawk Elementary School was recognized in 1993–1994, while West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North was recognized in the 2006–2007 school year.

Eighth grade students from all of Middlesex County are eligible to apply to attend the high school programs offered by the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools, a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career and technical education at Middlesex County Academy in Edison, the Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences in Woodbridge and at its East Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Piscataway technical high schools, with no tuition charged to students for attendance.

Private schools
The campus of the former St. Joseph's Seminary, located in Plainsboro, is home to a number of private schools.
 * French American School of Princeton (Pre-K–8)
 * The American Boychoir School (closed after 2017–2018 school year)
 * The Laurel School
 * Wilberforce School, a Classical Christian school. The school had been located in Plainsboro from 2011 to 2014 but permanently located in the former Saint Joseph's seminary in 2019.

Historic district
Princeton Nurseries was a large commercial plant nursery in Plainsboro Township, near the historic village of Kingston, New Jersey. Founded in 1913 by William Flemer Sr., it once was the largest commercial nursery in the United States. The company stopped operations here in 1995. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Princeton Nurseries Historic District on August 28, 2018.

Roads and highways
, the township had a total of 64.94 mi of roadways, of which 55.78 mi were maintained by the municipality, 7.06 mi by Middlesex County and 2.10 mi by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Several major transportation routes traverse the township. US 1 is a major transportation route that passes through the northwestern part of township. County Route 614 has its western terminus at US 1 and passes through the center of Plainsboro.

The closest limited access road is the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) which is accessible from Interchange 8 in neighboring East Windsor Township and Interchange 8A in Monroe Township.

Public transportation
New Jersey Transit bus service includes the 600, which provides service to Trenton. NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor rail line runs through the township. NJ Transit and Amtrak trains service the township at the nearby Princeton Junction.

Suburban Transit buses 300 line to New York from the Park and Ride in U.S. Route 130 provides service directly to Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.

Cycling
There are many cycle routes through Plainsboro, connecting the main shopping districts and down to the D&R Canal cycle pathway. There are a few discontinuities in the cycle routes, but generally they are well-maintained.

Healthcare
Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center (commonly abbreviated as "PMC") is a regional hospital and healthcare network located in Plainsboro Township. Servicing the greater Princeton region (which includes parts of Middlesex, Mercer, Monmouth, and Somerset counties) in central New Jersey, the hospital is owned by the Penn Medicine Health System and is the only such hospital in the state of New Jersey. PMC is a 355-bed non-profit, tertiary, and academic medical center. It is a major university hospital of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of Rutgers University and has a helipad to handle transport critical patients from and to other hospitals via PennStar. The hospital was previously located in Princeton on Witherspoon Street, until May 22, 2012, when the new location opened off of U.S.1. The new hospital was designed by a joint venture between HOK and RMJM Hiller. The PMC network offers a wide array of services at its main campus location in Plainsboro, along with its network of primary and specialty care through its Family-based Physician practice locations across Central Jersey (in locations such as in Cranbury, Dayton, East Windsor, Ewing, Hillsborough, Lawrenceville, Monroe, Morganville, Pennington, Robbinsville, and West Windsor).

Other nearby regional hospitals and healthcare networks that are accessible to the township include CentraState Medical Center in nearby Freehold Township, the Old Bridge Township division of Raritan Bay Medical Center, and the Hamilton Township division of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH). Saint Peter's University Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital are also located nearby in New Brunswick.

Media appearances

 * Plainsboro is the namesake of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in the Fox TV series House.
 * Plainsboro is referred to in Tim Curry's song "Paradise Garage" from his album Fearless.
 * Plainsboro and the fictional Plainsboro High School are the setting around which the HBO film Rocket Science is based.
 * Plainsboro is mentioned in the description of the battle area in Orson Welles's 1938 radio broadcast, The War of the Worlds, when the radio announcer describes the aftermath of the purported Martian invasion at nearby Grover's Mill.
 * Plainsboro was featured on the MTV series, True Life ("I'm Graduating from High School") season 11, 2008, on which MTV took a look at the life of three seniors who were enrolled at High School North.
 * Plainsboro is the site for the tomb of Elsie the Cow.

Science and research

 * From 1986 through 1989, Plainsboro was home to the John von Neumann Center on College Road, which hosted the liquid nitrogen-cooled ETA10 supercomputer, then the world's fastest computer, and was a major hub of the early Internet.
 * Plainsboro is home to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a laboratory for plasma physics research.
 * The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, where the first computer models of climate were developed, is physically located in Plainsboro on the James Forrestal Campus of Princeton University.
 * Plainsboro had a nuclear research reactor (on Nuclear Reactor Road) built in 1957.
 * In 1930, the Rotolactor was invented by Walker Gordon Farms in Plainsboro. The Rotolactor was the first rotary milking parlor and a popular tourist attraction. It remained in use into the 1960s.

Notable people
People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Plainsboro Township include:
 * David Jordan Bachner (1991–2009), baseball pitcher
 * Andrew Bynum (born 1987), former professional basketball player
 * Patrick Clark (1955–1998), chef
 * Boris Epshteyn (born 1982), political strategist, investment banker and attorney
 * Linda R. Greenstein (born 1950), represents the 14th Legislative District in the New Jersey State Senate
 * Henry W. Jeffers (1871–1953), one of the leaders in establishing Plainsboro Township, and served as its first mayor after incorporation in 1919
 * Gary Jeter (1955–2016), former NFL defensive end who played for the New York Giants, Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots
 * Mariam Nazarian (born 1983), concert pianist and producer, who made her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 16
 * Rebecca Soni (born 1987), U.S. Olympic swimmer and gold medal winner of the 200m breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
 * Barbara Wright (born 1933), member of the New Jersey General Assembly who also served as mayor of the township
 * Felicia Zhang (born 1993), former pair skater who is a two-time U.S. national medalist and competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics

title: Plainsboro Township, New Jersey


text:
Plainsboro Center, New Jersey

Plainsboro Center is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Plainsboro Township, situated in southern Middlesex County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 2,760, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 48 (+1.8%) from the 2,712 recorded at the 2010 census, which in turn reflected an increase of 503 (+22.8%) from the 2,209 counted in the 2000 census.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had a total area of 0.762 mi2, including 0.759 mi2 of land and 0.003 mi2 of water (0.42%).

2010 census
The 2010 United States census counted 2,712 people, 1,192 households, and 735 families in the CDP. The population density was 3572.0 /mi2. There were 1,311 housing units at an average density of 1726.7 /mi2. The racial makeup was 42.74% (1,159) White, 4.87% (132) Black or African American, 0.44% (12) Native American, 48.53% (1,316) Asian, 0.04% (1) Pacific Islander, 1.07% (29) from other races, and 2.32% (63) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.09% (138) of the population.

Of the 1,192 households, 32.6% had children under the age of 18; 53.7% were married couples living together; 5.8% had a female householder with no husband present and 38.3% were non-families. Of all households, 33.9% were made up of individuals and 5.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.97.

23.0% of the population were under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 41.0% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 8.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.9 years. For every 100 females, the population had 96.9 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 95.8 males.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States Census there were 2,209 people, 1,026 households, and 572 families living in the CDP. The population density was 1,273.0 /km2. There were 1,089 housing units at an average density of 627.6 /km2. The racial makeup of the CDP was 53.19% White, 4.75% African American, 0.05% Native American, 38.89% Asian, 0.95% from other races, and 2.17% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.21% of the population.

There were 1,026 households, out of which 29.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.8% were married couples living together, 5.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.2% were non-families. 37.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 1.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the CDP the population was spread out, with 21.9% under the age of 18, 7.3% from 18 to 24, 51.1% from 25 to 44, 16.3% from 45 to 64, and 3.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.1 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $70,759, and the median income for a family was $81,201. Males had a median income of $70,110 versus $42,500 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $36,555. About 4.8% of families and 3.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.6% of those under age 18 and 35.8% of those age 65 or over.

Nearby historic communities

 * Blackwells Mills in Franklin Township (Somerset County)
 * Blawenburg in Montgomery Township
 * Clarksburg in Millstone Township
 * Dayton in South Brunswick
 * The Estate of Duke Farms in Hillsborough
 * Dutch Neck in West Windsor Township
 * Griggstown in Franklin Township (Somerset County)
 * Harlingen in Montgomery Township
 * Kingston in Franklin Township (Somerset County) and South Brunswick
 * Lawrenceville in Lawrence Township (Mercer County)
 * The Livingston Avenue Historic District in New Brunswick
 * Marlboro in Marlboro Township, along with a detailed list of Historic Sites in Marlboro Township
 * The Monmouth Battlefield Historic District in Freehold Township and Manalapan Township
 * Monmouth Junction in South Brunswick
 * Perrineville in Millstone Township
 * The Princeton Battlefield Historic District in Princeton
 * Princeton Junction in West Windsor Township
 * The Road Up Raritan Historic District in Piscataway
 * Tennent in Manalapan Township
 * West Freehold in Freehold Township

title: Plainsboro Center, New Jersey