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Westfield, New Jersey

Westfield is a town in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located 16 mi southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 31,032, an increase of 716 (+2.4%) from the 2010 census count of 30,316,  which in turn reflected an increase of 672 (+2.3%) from the 29,644 counted in the 2000 census.

In March 2018, Bloomberg ranked Westfield as the 99th highest-income place in the United States, and the 18th highest-income location in New Jersey. According to a 2014 nationwide survey, Westfield was ranked as the 30th-safest city to live in the United States.

The town has been one of the state's highest-income communities. Based on data from the American Community Survey for 2013–2017, Westfield residents had a median household income of $159,923, ranked 8th in the state among municipalities with more than 10,000 residents, more than double the statewide median of $76,475.

History
History says that Westfield took its name from the rich "fields west of Elizabeth Town, and hence for over one hundred years went by the name of West Fields." Town records say that "the settlement of Westfield dates back to the last year (1699) of the seventeenth century. It was the result of the 'Clinker Lot Division.' Almost immediately after the division emigration from the older parts of the town of Elizabeth began to set towards the interior,—especially to the territory lying between the Rahway river, on the east, and the mountains, on the west. It was not, however, until 1720 that the settlers became numerous enough to constitute a distinct community." The old village area, now the downtown district, was settled in 1720 as part of the Elizabethtown Tract.

Westfield was originally formed as a township on January 27, 1794, from portions of Elizabeth Township, while the area was still part of Essex County, and was incorporated on February 21, 1798, as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships by an act of the New Jersey Legislature. It became part of the newly formed Union County on March 19, 1857. Portions of the township have been taken to form Rahway Township (February 27, 1804), Plainfield Township (April 5, 1847), Cranford Township (March 14, 1871), Fanwood Township (March 6, 1878; now known as Scotch Plains) and Mountainside (September 25, 1895). The Town of Westfield was incorporated on March 4, 1903, replacing Westfield Township. The name of the town is derived from its location in the western, undeveloped fields of the Elizabethtown tract.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had a total area of 6.74 square miles (17.46 km2), including 6.72 square miles (17.42 km2) of land and 0.02 square miles (0.05 km2) of water (0.28%).

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Germantown and Tamaques Reservation Mill.

Six municipalities border the town of Westfield: Mountainside to the north, Springfield Township to the northeast, Garwood and Cranford to the east, Clark to the southeast, and Scotch Plains to the west and southwest.

The upper reaches of the Rahway River Parkway run through the township along tributaries of the Rahway River.

The Robinson's Branch of the Rahway River additionally flows through the southern portion of Westfield en route to the Robinson's Branch Reservoir, also known as the Clark Reservoir.

It is located about one hour from Manhattan.

Library
The Westfield Memorial Library was founded in 1873 as the "Every Saturday Book Club" and has evolved over the past century into the Westfield Memorial Library of today. The Library is located in a large, modern, Williamsburg-style building at 550 East Broad Street. The library's collection consists of over 250,000 books, two dozen public computers, a wide array of multimedia options, a large youth services area with a vivid mural depicting Westfield history, and multiple tables and carrels for studying. The library offers classes for adults and children, storytimes for children, and computer instruction.

Downtown
Westfield's downtown features many local and national stores and several landmarks that were shown and used in the NBC network television show Ed such as the Rialto Theater. There are over 40 restaurants and casual dining establishments throughout the downtown. Downtown is located mostly north of the Westfield train station. The downtown area has a mix of independent stores and boutiques as well as national stores. Over one-third of the retailers and restaurants have existed for 25 years or more.

Downtown Westfield, with over 200 retail establishments and 400 commercial enterprises, is a regional destination in New Jersey. The Downtown Westfield Corporation (DWC) manages the Special Improvement District (SID) area's growth and enhancement. The DWC participates in the National Main Street program associated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It is funded by a SID assessment on downtown properties and operates as the district's management agency. The DWC sponsors marketing efforts and promotions, special event planning, urban design and building improvement projects. The DWC works closely with the town government and volunteer groups to improve the downtown area. In 2004, Westfield won the Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust. In 2010, Westfield was the winner of the America in Bloom contest for communities with a population of 25,001–50,000 against the other two towns entered in their category. Shopping and dining in Westfield attracts citizens from other communities across the state.

Several war memorials (including ones dedicated to the Korean War, World War II, Spanish–American War, and the Vietnam War) are located in a plaza near the downtown. The plaza is also home to the September 11 Memorial Park, which pays special tribute to the residents of Westfield who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Downtown Westfield hosts events and festivals throughout the year. Throughout the summer, jazz groups perform live, outdoors, every Tuesday night. October 2018 saw the first annual AddamsFest, honoring Westfield resident Charles Addams. The festival featured exhibits, lectures, film screenings, and a masquerade ball, among other things. Other festivals include the Spring Fling and FestiFall.

In August 2020, Le Tote announced that Lord & Taylor, the town's only department store and the chain's only freestanding location in New Jersey, would close as part of a plan to shut down 38 Lord & Taylor store nationwide. Efforts are being made to redevelop the site.

Parks and recreation
Parks in the town include:
 * Brightwood Park
 * Gumbert Park
 * Lenape Park, is a 450 acres wildlife reserve and park that is part of Union County's Rahway River Parkway. The park also includes portions of Cranford, Kenilworth and Springfield Township. An approximately 4.5-mile off-road paved pedestrian path stretches eastbound from Mountainside Police Headquarters in Mountainside, through Echo Lake Park in Westfield, Lenape Park in Westfield and Cranford, Black Brook Park in Kenilworth, and ending near 505 North Michigan Avenue in Kenilworth.
 * Mindowaskin Park
 * Tamaques Park
 * Gary Kehler Stadium is named in honor of Gary Kehler (1931–2007), the former Westfield High School football coach and long-time town resident.

2010 census
The 2010 United States census counted 30,316 people, 10,566 households, and 8,199 families in the town. The population density was 4512.2 /sqmi. There were 10,950 housing units at an average density of 1629.8 /sqmi. The racial makeup was 88.17% (26,729) White, 3.25% (984) Black or African American, 0.12% (36) Native American, 5.67% (1,718) Asian, 0.03% (10) Pacific Islander, 0.79% (241) from other races, and 1.97% (598) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.92% (1,492) of the population.

Of the 10,566 households, 43.1% had children under the age of 18; 68.0% were married couples living together; 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present and 22.4% were non-families. Of all households, 19.2% were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85 and the average family size was 3.31.

30.0% of the population were under the age of 18, 4.7% from 18 to 24, 22.5% from 25 to 44, 29.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.0 years. For every 100 females, the population had 92.7 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 87.2 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $127,799 (with a margin of error of +/− $10,580) and the median family income was $150,797 (+/− $11,480). Males had a median income of $111,762 (+/− $7,767) versus $71,217 (+/− $5,624) for females. The per capita income for the town was $63,498 (+/− $4,577). About 0.9% of families and 2.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.4% of those under age 18 and 2.0% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census there were 29,644 people, 10,622 households, and 8,178 families residing in the town. The population density was 4,403.1 PD/sqmi. There were 10,819 housing units at an average density of 1,607.0 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 89.98% White, 3.88% African American, 0.09% Native American, 4.08% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.62% from other races, and 1.33% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.82% of the population.

There were 10,622 households, out of which 40.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.0% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.0% were non-families. Of all households, 19.3% were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.20.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 28.4% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 24.5% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $98,390, and the median income for a family was $112,145. Males had a median income of $82,420 versus $45,305 for females. The per capita income for the town was $47,187. About 1.7% of families and 2.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.3% of those under age 18 and 3.1% of those age 65 or over.

Local government
Westfield is governed under a special charter granted by an act of the New Jersey Legislature. The town is one of 11 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that operate under special charters. The governing body is comprised of a Mayor and an eight-member Town Council, with all positions filled in partisan elections. The Mayor is elected directly by the voters at-large to a four-year term of office. The Town Council consists of eight members, with two members elected from each of four wards. Town Council members are elected to serve four-year terms on a staggered basis, with one seat in each ward coming up for election every other year. The Town Council holds meetings every two weeks where it discusses legislation under consideration, and which are open to the public.

, the Mayor of Westfield is Democrat Michelle W. "Shelley" Brindle, whose term of office ends on December 31, 2025. Members of the Westfield Town Council are Michael Armento (Ward 2; R, 2027), David M. Contract (Ward 3; D, 2025), Michael J. Dardia (Ward 2; D, 2025), Michal D. Domogala (Ward 3;, 2027), Linda S. Habgood (Ward 1; D, 2025), David Kiefer (Ward 4; D, 2027), Dawn Mackey (Ward 4; D, 2025), and Todd B. Saunders (Ward 1; R, 2027).

In April 2022, the Town Council selected Emily Root from a list of three alternatives submitted by the Democratic municipal committee to fill the Ward 1 seat expiring in December 2023 that had been held by James Boyes until he resigned from office earlier that month. Root served on an interim basis until the November 2022 general election, when voters then selected her to serve the balance of the original term of office.

Police
The Westfield Police Department (WPD) has provided police protection to the town since 1903. The chief of police is Christopher Battiloro, who was appointed to the position in December 2018, after serving for four months on an interim basis. The department operates a Patrol Division, Traffic Safety Bureau, Records Bureau, Detective Bureau and its own Emergency Services Unit. Westfield's Parking Services also falls under the jurisdiction of the WPD, and is responsible for monitoring parking and traffic safety within Westfield's Central Business District and near schools. The WPD also has a Law Enforcement Explorers Post, Post #90. Each division of the WPD operates different vehicles, most with a black-and-white paint scheme.

Fire
The Westfield Fire Department was formed in 1875 following a fire that destroyed a city block on East Broad Street. The WFD is a combination department with 36 paid/career firefighters and 15 volunteer firefighters. There are four platoons of eight (a Battalion Chief, two Lieutenants and five Firefighters) working a 24-/72-hour work schedule out of two fire stations. Administrative members include the Chief of Department, the Deputy Chief of Operations, and the Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention. The Fire Safety Inspector position in the Fire Prevention Bureau was eliminated in January 2009 due to budget cuts. The Chief of Department is Anthony Tiller.

Westfield Fire Headquarters, located at 405 North Avenue West, is staffed 24 hours a day by a Battalion Chief (Shift Commander), a lieutenant and three firefighters. These personnel make up the engine company, first due on the north side of town, and the ladder company. A reserve engine company and a utility pick-up are also housed at fire headquarters. The office of the Chief of Department and the Deputy Chief of Operations are located here as well.

Station 2, located at 1029 Central Avenue, is staffed 24 hours a day by a lieutenant and two firefighters. These personnel make up the engine company, first due on the south side of town. A reserve engine company, a utility pick-up, and a spare SUV are also housed at Station 2. The Fire Prevention Bureau is located at Station 2 and houses the office of the Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention.

The WFD in operates a fleet of four E-One Engines (2 x 2,000 GPM & 2 x 1,500 GPM) and 1 Pierce Arrow XT 100' Rearmount Ladder, one support SUV, and three staff 4x4 vehicles. The paint scheme for the older apparatus (Engine 4) is yellow, with the newer apparatus (Ladder 1, Engines 2, 3 & 5) being red bodies with white cabs. The support vehicles, a Ford Pick-Up (Utility 7), a Chevy Pick-Up (Utility 8), and a Jeep Cherokee (Car 9) are red with white striping and the remaining staff vehicles, for Chief Officers, are unmarked Dodge Durangos (Car 1,11,12).

The WFD responds annually to approximately 2,000 calls for service. The WFD serves as a backup EMS agency for the town if the Westfield Volunteer Rescue Squad is not readily available. All members are CPR-Defib certified with 27 members currently New Jersey certified EMTs with the remaining members trained to the first responder level. Both stations are staffed with FF/EMTs 24 hours a day.

The WFD is also a partner in the Union County Fire Mutual Aid agreement, responding to numerous requests for aid to any of the other 20 municipalities in Union County.

The career firefighters (excluding the Chief and Deputy Chiefs) are members of New Jersey Firefighter's Mutual Benevolent Association (NJ FMBA) Local 30.

Rescue squad
The Westfield Volunteer Rescue Squad is staffed around the clock by volunteer certified EMTs. Shifts range from 5 hours in the morning and afternoon to 14 hours overnight. The Squad has three ambulances with a crew every shift. Members are paged in the event that another emergency arises and the original crew is answering a medical call. Dispatchers are also volunteers, answering phones directly from the police line.

Federal, state and county representation
Westfield is located in the 7th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 21st state legislative district.

Politics
As of March 2011, there were a total of 20,684 registered voters in Westfield, of which 6,485 (31.4% vs. 41.8% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 5,244 (25.4% vs. 15.3%) were registered as Republicans and 8,942 (43.2% vs. 42.9%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 13 voters registered as Libertarians or Greens. Among the town's 2010 Census population, 68.2% (vs. 53.3% in Union County) were registered to vote, including 97.5% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 70.6% countywide).

In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 8,080 votes (50.9% vs. 66.0% countywide), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 7,555 votes (47.6% vs. 32.3%) and other candidates with 147 votes (0.9% vs. 0.8%), among the 15,866 ballots cast by the town's 21,797 registered voters, for a turnout of 72.8% (vs. 68.8% in Union County). In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 9,345 votes (54.5% vs. 63.1% countywide), ahead of Republican John McCain with 7,541 votes (44.0% vs. 35.2%) and other candidates with 154 votes (0.9% vs. 0.9%), among the 17,141 ballots cast by the town's 21,251 registered voters, for a turnout of 80.7% (vs. 74.7% in Union County). In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 8,442 votes (50.6% vs. 58.3% countywide), ahead of Republican George W. Bush with 8,037 votes (48.2% vs. 40.3%) and other candidates with 110 votes (0.7% vs. 0.7%), among the 16,683 ballots cast by the town's 20,441 registered voters, for a turnout of 81.6% (vs. 72.3% in the whole county).

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 64.1% of the vote (6,303 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 34.5% (3,394 votes), and other candidates with 1.3% (131 votes), among the 10,053 ballots cast by the town's 21,513 registered voters (225 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 46.7%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 6,070 votes (51.0% vs. 41.7% countywide), ahead of Democrat Jon Corzine with 4,776 votes (40.2% vs. 50.6%), Independent Chris Daggett with 900 votes (7.6% vs. 5.9%) and other candidates with 58 votes (0.5% vs. 0.8%), among the 11,893 ballots cast by the town's 20,982 registered voters, yielding a 56.7% turnout (vs. 46.5% in the county).

Education
Public school students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grades attend the Westfield Public Schools. As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprised of 10 schools, had an enrollment of 6,304 students and 500.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.6:1. The district has a central kindergarten, six neighborhood elementary schools (grades 1–5), two middle schools (grades 6–8) divided by a "North Side / South Side" boundary, and one high school (grades 9–12). The schools in the district (with 2018–19 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics ) are Lincoln Early Childhood Center (with 310 students; in grades Pre-K–K), Franklin Elementary School (580; 1–5 – North), Jefferson Elementary School (442; 1–5 – South), McKinley Elementary School (341; 1–5 – South), Tamaques Elementary School (401; 1–5 – South), Washington Elementary School (309; 1–5 – North), Wilson Elementary School (355; 1–5 – North), Roosevelt Intermediate School (777; 6–8 – North), Thomas Alva Edison Intermediate School (844; 6–8 – South) and Westfield High School (1,865; 9–12).

For high school, public school students from Westfield and all of Union County are eligible to apply to attend the Union County Vocational Technical Schools, which include Union County Magnet High School, Union County Academy for Information Technology, Union County Academy for Allied Health Sciences, Union County Vocational Technical High School and Union County Academy for Performing Arts.

Holy Trinity School is a Middle States-accredited Catholic school run by the three parishes of Holy Trinity and St. Helen's in Westfield along with Our Lady of Lourdes in Mountainside, which offers education from pre-kindergarten to 8th grade and operates under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.

Roads and highways
, the town had a total of 108.63 mi of roadways, of which 96.69 mi were maintained by the municipality, 9.94 mi by Union County and 2.00 mi by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

The main road serving Westfield is Route 28, which runs for about two miles alongside the commuter railroad that marks the boundary between the town's North and South Sides. Westfield can also be accessed by Exits 135 and 137 of the nearby Garden State Parkway, or by the Lawrence, Mountain, or Springfield Avenue exits of U.S. Route 22.

Public transportation
NJ Transit (NJT) provides passenger rail service from the Westfield train station. Commuter rail service is offered on the Raritan Valley Line to Newark Penn Station with connecting service to New York Penn Station. Westfield riders are able to make a one-seat ride (no transfer necessary) into NY Penn Station during weekday off-peak hours, which was made possible by upgrades of the NJT train equipment to operate into New York City. Westfield's position and schedule on the Raritan Valley Line make it desirable for commuters, as several times in the morning and evening rush hours a non-stop service operates to/from Newark Penn Station. On these non-stop services, the one-way journey time to/from NY Penn Station is 50 minutes, or 20 minutes to/from Newark Penn Station.

The NJ Transit 113 bus route provides one-seat service to New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal seven days per week from the town center, taking approximately one hour to NYC, with additional service available along Route 22 on the northern edge of the town (NJT bus routes 114 and 117), taking approximately 45 minutes. The 59 route provides local bus service between Plainfield and Newark.

Newark Liberty International Airport is approximately 20 minutes away, most conveniently reached via Route 22 or NJT trains. Linden Airport, a general aviation facility, is in nearby Linden, New Jersey.

Services
Residential telephone service is provided by Verizon Communications. Westfield cable television is supplied by Comcast, which also delivers Westfield Community Television (channel 36), News 12 New Jersey (channel 62), and Scotch Plains Local Access Channel (channel 34) Verizon FiOS is also offered in Westfield, which gives the option of digital cable, high-speed internet and telephone service. Power is supplied through the Public Service Electric and Gas Company. Gas is supplied by Elizabethtown Gas and water by American Water of New Jersey. Recycling is collected curbside by private haulers contracted by the Department of Public Works on a biweekly basis, while trash is collected by private haulers hired by residents.

Media
Westfield is served by the locally published weekly newspaper, The Westfield Leader. The Record-Press had served the community until it ended publication in 2008. Westfield is also served by multi-community newspapers including the Courier News, a daily newspaper based in Bridgewater Township, and The Star-Ledger based in Newark. Westfield Patch is an online news source dedicated strictly to local Westfield news that is updated around the clock by a small staff of paid editors and volunteer contributors. Likewise, TAPInto Westfield is an online news source dedicated to local Westfield news.

Westfield + Cranford Local is a monthly magazine covering the two towns that launched in the early 2020s.

Westfield Community Television (WCT)
The local community access channel 36 operates out of the Municipal Building on Broad Street in Westfield on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and half of every Sunday. WCT provides limited community-related programming, coverage of town council meetings, and operates the WCT Bulletin Board. WCT shares time on channel 36 with Blue Devil Television, which originates from Westfield High School and produces nearly 200 original productions each academic year.

Culture
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Metropolis of New Jersey is headquartered in Westfield.

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

 * Marc Acito (born 1966), playwright, novelist and humorist
 * Charles Addams (1912–1988), cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, most famous for his cartoons of The Addams Family
 * Kim Alsop (born c. 1933), former head coach of the Samford Bulldogs football team
 * Steve Angeli, American football quarterback for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
 * Charles E. Apgar (1865–1950), business executive and amateur radio operator best known for making early recordings of German radio transmissions at the start of World War I
 * Virginia Apgar (1909–1974), creator of the Apgar score for assessing health of newborns
 * Billy Ard (born 1959), former NFL guard for the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers
 * H. W. Ambruster (1879–1961), football coach, chemical engineer, actor and lecturer
 * Omar Ashmawy, staff director and chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics
 * Richard Bagger (born 1960), former mayor, who served as chief of staff for Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie
 * Robert L. Barchi (born 1946), twentieth president of Rutgers University, 2012-2020
 * Cheryl Barnes, singer and actress best known for her role in Miloš Forman's 1979 film adaptation of Hair, where she played the mother of Hud's little son
 * Carolyn Beebe (1873–1950), pianist who was a founder of the New York Chamber Music Society
 * Bryan Beller (born 1971), bass guitarist known for his work with Mike Keneally, Steve Vai, Dethklok, James LaBrie of Dream Theater and Dweezil Zappa
 * Jon Bramnick (born 1953), member of the New Jersey General Assembly who has represented the 21st Legislative District since 2003
 * Brock Brower (1931–2014), novelist, magazine journalist and TV writer
 * Dave Brown (born 1970), NFL quarterback who played for the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals
 * Steve Brozak (born 1961), Managing Partner and President of WBB Securities, LLC, a Democratic congressional candidate in the 2004 election cycle and the Chairman and CEO of StormBio, Inc.
 * Robert N. Buck (1914–2007), aviator and author who broke 14 junior airspeed records in the 1930s, started his flying career at the Westfield Airport
 * Alan Bunce (1900–1965), radio and television actor
 * Devin Caherly (born 2001, class of 2019), social media personality
 * Chris Campbell (born 1954), wrestler who won a bronze medalist in Freestyle wrestling at the 1992 Summer Olympics
 * Gil Chapman (born 1953), running back and return specialist for the University of Michigan and New Orleans Saints
 * Steve Cheek (born 1977), NFL punter, 2001–2005 (San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers)
 * Michael Chertoff (born 1953), United States Secretary of Homeland Security and former United States district court Judge
 * John Chironna (1928–2010), head coach of the Rhode Island Rams football team in 1961 and 1962
 * Chris Christie (born 1962), Governor of New Jersey, who lived in Westfield for a year while his home in Mendham was under construction
 * Bob Clotworthy (1931–2018), diver who competed in the 3 m springboard at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics and won a bronze and a gold medal, respectively
 * Grover Connell (1918–2018), rice trader and longtime member of the Forbes 400
 * Pat Cosquer (born 1975), college squash coach
 * John Cuneo (born 1957), illustrator, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Sports Illustrated and The Atlantic
 * Nicholas Delpopolo (born 1989), judoka who has represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics
 * Robert S. Dietz (1914–1995), marine geologist, geophysicist and oceanographer who conducted pioneering research concerning seafloor spreading
 * Tamecka Dixon (born 1975), former USA national team and WNBA player who played for the Los Angeles Sparks, Houston Comets and Indiana Fever
 * Alexander Wilson Drake (1843–1916), artist, collector and critic
 * Sara Driver (born 1955), independent filmmaker
 * Michael DuHaime (born 1974), Republican strategist and public affairs executive
 * Geoff Edwards (1931–2014), actor and game show host
 * Edward Einhorn (born 1970), children's author, director and playwright
 * Mike Emanuel (born 1967), Washington correspondent for Fox News
 * Gail Falkenberg (born 1947), professional tennis player, who may be the oldest tournament tennis player of all time, having competed in ITF Women's World Tennis Tour tournaments as recently as 2021, at age 74
 * Thomas Farley, pediatrician who served as the commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Health
 * Kevin Feige (born 1973), film producer and President of Marvel Studios
 * Michael Fennelly (born 1949), rock guitarist, singer and songwriter who performed with The Millennium and Crabby Appleton
 * Gerald Foster (1900–1987), painter who competed in the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics
 * William Chapman Foster (1897–1984), businessman and high-ranking government official who negotiated multiple arms control treaties
 * Nona Garson (born 1958), equestrian who competed in team jumping and individual jumping at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney
 * GH057ayame (gamer tag of Eric Hewitt), retired professional Major League Gaming gamer who works for 343 Industries working on future Halo games
 * Gina Glantz (born c. 1943), political strategist, campaign manager, field director and consultant
 * John Duval Gluck (1878–1951), philanthropist, customs broker and con artist who is best known for popularizing the practice of sending and answering letters to Santa Claus in New York City
 * Dan Graham (born 1942), artist, writer, and curator
 * Joseph Greenspan (born 1992), soccer player for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC of the United Soccer League
 * Robert Greifeld (born 1957), CEO of NASDAQ-OMX
 * Matt Gutman (born 1977), ABC News correspondent
 * Harry Hanan (1916–1982), cartoonist of the syndicated comic strip Louie
 * Kenneth Hand (1899–1988), politician and judge who served in the New Jersey Senate
 * Walt Hansgen (1919–1966), race car driver
 * Chuck Hardwick (born 1941), politician and business leader who served as Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly and was a candidate for Governor of New Jersey
 * Langston Hughes (1902–1967), poet
 * Clark Hulings (1922–2011), realist artist
 * Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), folklorist
 * Scott Jacobs (born 1958), painter known for his photorealistic work of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, who became the company's first official licensed artist in 1993
 * Robert Kaplow (born 1954), teacher and novelist whose coming-of-age novel was made into a film titled Me and Orson Welles
 * Thomas Kean Jr. (born 1968), New Jersey State Senator and son of former Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean
 * Mary Jo Keenen, actress who appeared on Nurses
 * Kevin Kelly (born 1952), founder of Wired magazine
 * Robert Kirsch (born 1966), state court judge from New Jersey who is a nominee to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
 * Martin Kunert (born 1970), film director and TV writer/producer of Voices of Iraq, MTV's Fear and Campfire Tales
 * Christian J. Lambertsen (1917–2011), "the father of the Frogmen"
 * Marilyn Lange (born 1952), Playboy Playmate for May 1974 and Playmate of the Year for 1975
 * Margaret Carver Leighton (1896–1987), children's author
 * Ira Lewis (1932–2015), actor and playwright, whose works included Chinese Coffee
 * John List (1925–2008), murderer convicted in the deaths of his wife, mother and three children. Known as the "Boogeyman of Westfield"
 * Matt Loughlin, sportscaster who is the radio play-by-play voice of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League on WFAN
 * Andrew McCarthy (born 1962), actor who appeared in Weekend at Bernie's and is currently starring in The Family
 * Sy Montgomery (born 1958), naturalist, author and scriptwriter
 * Patrick Morrisey (born 1967), elected as Attorney General of West Virginia in 2012
 * Rebecca Morse (born 1992), ice hockey defender, currently playing for the Metropolitan Riveters of the National Women's Hockey League
 * Laura Overdeck, entrepreneur and philanthropist who is the founder and president of Bedtime Math
 * Bill Palatucci (born 1958), attorney who is a member of the Republican National Committee and the New Jersey Apportionment Commission, and led the selection of staff for the presidential transition of Donald Trump
 * John S. Penn (1926–2013), politician who represented the 16th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1984 to 1994
 * Randolph Perkins (1871–1936), mayor of Westfield from 1903 to 1905, and represented New Jersey's 6th congressional district from 1921 to 1936
 * Dave Perkowski (born 1947), former competition swimmer who represented the United States in the 100-meter breaststroke event at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City
 * Arthur N. Pierson (1867–1957), businessman and politician who served as Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly and President of the New Jersey Senate
 * Anne Revere (1903-1990), actress who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for National Velvet and a Tony Award for her performance in Lillian Hellman's play Toys in the Attic in 1960.
 * Paul Robeson (1898–1976), athlete, actor, singer, political activist, NFL guard from 1920 to 1922 for the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers
 * Andrew K. Ruotolo (1952–1995), politician who served as the Union County, New Jersey, prosecutor
 * John Rzeznik (born 1965), lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls
 * Bret Schundler (born 1959), former Mayor of Jersey City and former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate
 * Amos Scudder (1779–1856), architect and builder
 * Ephraim Scudder (1819–1872), builder
 * John Scudder (1815–1869), builder
 * Coleen Sexton (born 1979), actress who made her Broadway debut at age 20 in Jekyll & Hyde in 2000
 * Matthew Sklar (born 1973), Tony Award and Emmy Award-nominated composer of Broadway musicals The Prom, Elf the Musical, and The Wedding Singer
 * Jessica St. Clair (born 1976), actress and improvisational comedian
 * Dan Soucek (born 1969), North Carolina State Senator
 * Jeff Torborg (born 1941), MLB player and manager
 * P. Roy Vagelos (born 1929), former Chairman and CEO of Merck & Co.
 * Jeffrey A. Warsh (born 1960), former member of the New Jersey General Assembly and Executive Director of NJ Transit
 * Dave Weinstein (born 1988), appointed by Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie in 2016 to serve as the state's Chief Technology Officer
 * Roger Welch (born 1946), conceptual artist
 * Harrison A. Williams (1919–2001), U.S. Senator who was forced to resign in the face of expulsion due to his involvement in the Abscam case
 * Malinda Williams (born 1975), actress
 * Alfred M. Wolin (born 1932), former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
 * Glen Everett Woolfenden (1930–2007), ornithologist, known for his long-term study of the Florida scrub jay population at Archbold Biological Station near Lake Placid, Florida
 * Harold "Butch" Woolfolk (born 1960), NFL running back from 1982 to 1988 who played for the New York Giants, Houston Oilers and Detroit Lions
 * Dan Yemin, punk rock guitarist

Trivia
As recently as 2017, the Broaddus family living in Westfield received letters from a supposed stalker who referred to himself as "The Watcher," causing a national sensation. The Broaddus family's experience, along with the 1971 John List family murders that also occurred in Westfield, were later adapted into the 2022 Netflix series The Watcher.

title: Westfield, New Jersey


text:
Winfield Township, New Jersey

Winfield Township (also called Winfield Park) is a township in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 1,423, its lowest decennial census and a decrease of 48 (−3.3%) from the 2010 census count of 1,471, which in turn reflected a decline of 43 (−2.8%) from the 1,514 counted in the 2000 census. The township is the sixth-smallest municipality in the state. Winfield and Linden share the same ZIP Code.

Winfield Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on August 6, 1941, from portions of Clark and Linden, passing over the Governor's veto.

History
The Winfield Park Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Project (Project No. 28071) is a 700-unit development of 254 buildings that were originally planned and developed by and built for the defense workers of the Kearny, New Jersey, shipyards. This was the last of eight projects undertaken by the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division of the Federal Works Agency under the leadership of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook. In earlier stages, Winfield Park was known as the Rahway River Park Project. John T. Rowland served as the project's architect. Winfield Park is located almost immediately off of exit 136 of the Garden State Parkway; the municipalities of Cranford, Linden and Clark surround Winfield Township, a governmental entity established to enclose the Winfield Park Project. The Township is bordered on three sides by the Rahway River and Rahway River Park (which adds substantially to the park-like setting envisioned by the planners). Units range in size and type from single-family homes to two-story (plus basement) two- and three-bedroom apartments, better known today as Townhouses; to one-story (plus basement) two-bedroom apartments; and one-bedroom apartments, better known to residents as "bachelors." Within the town are located an elementary school, two-store shopping center and Senior Citizen Hall, Community Center, Mutual Housing Office, and Garage, Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Squad Building, and Municipal Building/Police Office.

The defense workers of the Kearny Shipyards had advocated early in 1940 for housing to be developed in the northern New Jersey area. These workers were early and vocal supporters of the National Housing for Defense Act of 1940, also known as the Lanham Act, and the mutual housing program. In January, 1941, a report on the housing requirements of the northern New Jersey area indicated that 1000 units were needed. The Defense Housing Coordinator approved the construction of a 300-unit project in the Newark/ Harrison area and a 700-unit project "to be built as a project itself sponsored by a responsible committee of the defense workers who will live in them." The housing committee had seven working policies that it had developed and that it wanted to apply to the workers' housing, all of which they believed conformed with the original intentions of the Lanham Act of 1940 ("The housing is to be wherever feasible of a permanent nature, and after the emergency has passed these homes are to be disposed of, and in that way the Government is to recoup the initial investment... and they will be available for permanent homes." The cost per unit was set at, and not permitted to exceed $3000.00.) and fit well within the mutual housing program.

1. Management of all community affairs, including relations with local government, should be in the hands of the residents of the new project. 2. Each unit should be assessable for its portion of local taxes, and every effort needs to be made "that both houses and householders should be easily and naturally assimilated into the normal scheme of the locality." 3. The Federal Works Agency (FWA) would provide all streets, sewers, parks, and all other facilities for the project. 4. All dwellings built for civilian defense workers should be sold as a group to local housing corporation as soon as they are completed. 5. All stockholders in the project are, and should be considered as, householders. 6. All management and operating procedures must be carried out under the direction of the local corporation, and not under the direction of the federal government. 7. Housing Corporation must enter into a contract of sale, rather than a rental agreement, with each householder.

Although the committee was completely convinced of the quality of the mutual ownership program itself, they did insist on improvements in the quality of the units over those that had been first designed and built for the Audubon Park project. They especially insisted on the construction of full basements for their new homes.

Choosing the site
The first major job that faced the development committee was finding and selecting a suitable site for a 700-unit housing project in northern New Jersey. The United States Housing Authority provided two site selection experts, and the New Jersey State Planning Commission assisted in the site selection process. The final location had to be relatively inexpensive to purchase, near major utility networks for water, gas, electric, and sewer connections, and be in a financially stable host community with underutilized public facilities and services. Major urban areas in northern New Jersey were eliminated early because no plots of land were large enough for the project. The marshy rural areas near the shipyards were also found unacceptable early on. Quickly the committee began focusing its attention on the surrounding suburban communities, which were very popular among its work constituency. Suburban communities lacked financial stability because they lacked the industrial base necessary to keep residential property taxes low. The people of these prospective host communities were also frightened that the new project would be a direct liability rather than an asset for their towns.

Early resistance from potential host communities over financial impact concerns meant that the committee had two choices: to stop the project and wait for the problems to be resolved or push ahead, utilizing the powers granted in the Lanham Act powers to overrule local resistance, but creating a great deal of friction that could potentially affect the project's future success. The housing need was so great, though, that the only viable choice was the second one, and they pushed forward to find a site. Consciously attempting to avoid conflict, the committee tried to assure potential host communities that projects built within the mutual ownership program would pay real taxes and not make payments in place of taxes as outlined in the Lanham Act of 1940. They also petitioned the United States Congress to provide additional funds to host communities that would allow them to expand public services and facilities without imposing additional local taxes. But the financial concerns of the residents only served to exacerbate other local fears about the new project. Many defense workers took these other fears very personally.

"Realizing that such an influx of families would engulf them (host community) in a tidal wave of financial difficulty, the municipal government of the various towns considered, stirred up a tremendous opposition to the project and the people to live in it with untrue and unjust charges such as decreased realty values, 'tax exempt properties,' 'lower class of people,' and so forth, which are all obviously false. We are a class of people who are gainfully employed, we are law abiding, decent, and respectable, and we are Americans."

Seven potential host communities were eventually identified and researched. The committee named Union Township, New Jersey as their final choice, but under intense community and [political pressure] this decision was reversed, and Clark, New Jersey was selected as the final site of the project. Colonel Lawrence Westbrook, Special Assistant in the Federal Works Agency with responsibility for the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division, wrote the following letter to Union Township opponents of the project, clearly showing his frustration.

"Your letter to Congressmen McLean protesting the location of a proposed defense housing project in Union Township has been referred to this office. This is to advise you that a decision has been made to locate the project in Clark Township. It is desired to make it entirely clear, however, that in reaching this decision this office in no manner agrees that the numerous protests received from various persons and organizations in Union Township were based upon valid premises. We feel certain that if you and the other protesters had been acquainted with all of the facts in the situation, you would not have filed your protest. On the contrary, it is believed that you would have urged the Government to locate the project in your township. Since the project will be undertaken in your immediate neighborhood, you will have ample opportunity to determine whether or not the disadvantages to the community, as claimed by your Mayor, were based upon sound facts."

Clark Township's municipal government had been very desirous of the siting of the project in their township. It had extended an invitation to the Federal Works Agency after the Union Township protests had erupted. However, the reaction of Clark's residents to the project indicates that the Township Committee did not have a good understanding of the actual desires of their constituents.

Clark Township protests
The residents of Clark—in 1940, a rural community of 350 homes and 1,250 registered voters—were first informed of their municipality's selection as the final site of the 700-unit mutual housing project at a town meeting on April 1, 1941. During the meeting, a letter from John Carmody, Federal Works Administrator, was read to the residents, in which he said:

"I am glad to say that a decision has been reached to construct this project in your township, and I want to take this occasion to thank you and your associates on the Township Committee for your intelligent and patriotic attitude."

But the residents of Clark were not moved by Mr. Carmody's supportive words. One local paper reported that

"Joseph Aaron, who came up from his winter home in Florida to attend the session, demanded the ousting of the Township Committee. Several spirited sallies of this type marked the meeting, the largest gathering of its kind ever held in the township."

The residents of the Township demanded that they be provided with answers to the following questions:

1. Why was the siting of the project in the Township handled so secretly? 2. What guarantees could be given that this project would be permanent in nature? 3. Would Clark have to pick up the cost of maintaining the project after the emergency ends? 4. Who would pay for new schools, equipment, streets, sewers, fire and police protection? 5. Would the Federal Works Agency guarantee in writing that the project will never become a burden to Clark?

Federal Works Agency Special Counsel Colvin, rather than trying to calm the residents' fears, reminded one and all that the FWA had been empowered by Lanham Act to place a defense housing project anywhere it deemed necessary appropriate, without discussions with residents. During his remarks, he made only brief mention of new public works being provided by the Federal Works Agency, or Title II of the Lanham Act (then being discussed in the US Congress to provide $150 million for the construction and provision of public services and facilities in host communities of defense housing projects). A worker from the Kearny Shipyards also spoke and assured the residents that their new neighbors would be "good people" and that employment at the yards would be stable for at least the "next 10 to 15 years". Not satisfied by any of this information and feeling betrayed by their own leaders, the residents demanded that an immediate vote be taken against the project. This request was denied. In response, the residents announced the formation of an opposition group, headed by Mr. Arthur de Laski, with the stated goals of seeking the impeachment of all municipal officials and stopping the mutual housing project.

The residents of Clark opposed to Winfield, believed that its sitting within their community would double local taxes. Opposition leaders created elaborate models to show how the additional needs for general services, election, fire and police protection, streets, lighting, water, sanitation, and school costs would quickly double the municipal budget from a yearly total of $33,929 to $66,563. The residents also expressed concern that the project would add approximately 1500 new registered voters to the community: original residents would now be substantially outnumbered in local elections. Additionally, local real estate interests were fearful that the project would flood the local housing market, severely deflating prices after the emergency because of postwar abandonment. Most planned units would not be single-family homes, which many believed would lead to a less stable community and a deterioration of the real estate market. The Union County Parks Department expressed concern about the construction of Winfield— Rahway River Park surrounded the project on three sides—since their own planning program had called for the development of this particularly desirable tract of land with expensive single family homes. The residents continued to be concerned that their new neighbors would be of a lower class of people (although they had been promised that they would be primarily middle-class and would all be white thanks to housing officials not permitting racial integration in most public housing projects of the time), and were annoyed these potential new neighbors would be getting subsidies at their expense.

Lawrence Westbrook believed that Charles Palmer, the Defense Housing Coordinator, had encouraged and supported the formation of the Clark Township opposition group to accomplish his own hidden agenda of centralizing control over the Defense Housing initiative in his hands. Westbrook testified before Congress that Palmer's brother-in-law, who lived in northern New Jersey, had secretly led a delegation from Clark to visit Palmer and discuss their concerns about the construction of Winfield Park. Westbrook believed that Palmer, during this meeting, had provided this group with information and advice on how to successfully fight the project.

By late May 1941, the Clark opposition group had successfully organized in advance of municipal elections and replaced all township leaders responsible for bringing the Winfield Park project to Clark. Attention now turned to stop the mutual housing project, or at least transferring most of its costs and impact to someone else. Opposition leaders carefully studied the publicity surrounding the earlier construction of the Audubon Park Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Project just outside Camden, New Jersey. The community, in that case, had followed an unsuccessful attempt to stop the project with building codes and local ordinances. All of these attempted blocks to construction were overturned by courts sympathetic to the powers given to the [FWA] by the Lanham Act. The Clark opposition developed a new and innovative opposition strategy. They would attempt to have the entire Winfield Park Mutual Housing project declared as a separate municipality by the New Jersey State Legislature. As a separate municipality, all costs for public services and facilities would be the responsibility of the residents of Winfield Park and not the residents of Clark. With Winfield Park Township established as a separate municipality, opponents believed the project would be killed because the federal government and potential residents would shy away from the overwhelming expenses and confusing legalities of this new governmental structure. Immediately Westbrook and other project supporters reacted to this strategy by declaring that the opposition was attempting the sabotage the entire national defense program. In defiance, Westbrook declared that he was sure the project would not only survive this attack but would outlive its surrounding communities.

The creation of Winfield Township
On June 30, 1941—six days after the construction of Winfield Park had begun—Union County Assemblyman Pascoe presented a bill to the New Jersey General Assembly establishing Winfield Township, New Jersey (originally, the bill called for the establishment of Lindark, New Jersey). After presenting the bill, Pascoe asked for and received a suspension of the rules so that the vote on the bill could follow its first reading. The bill passed the assembly 35 to 20 and was sent immediately on to the New Jersey Senate, which also suspended its rules and voted the bill through 14 to 0 on July 14, 1941. On July 21, 1941, Governor Charles Edison vetoed the bill returning it to the legislature with a letter chastising the members for approving a bill that he believed was counter to the needs of the national defense program. In his view, it was discriminatory towards defense workers; it did not consider the important passage of Title II of the Lanham Act by Congress on June 28, 1941 (another indication that money was only a partial driving force for opposition against Winfield); it created an unprecedented "Federal Island" in the State of New Jersey; it failed to consider that the State's constitution would not permit Winfield's new residents to elect local government officials until they had resided in the town for at least one year. It ignored that the bill's passage violated the New Jersey Constitution's specific guidelines concerning public announcements and opening hearings before a bill could be passed. Governor Edison's letter was read before the Legislature on July 28, 1941. At the reading's conclusion, there was no debate; Assemblyman Pascoe once again asked for a suspension of the rules, and the veto was immediately overturned by a vote of 33 to 24. The bill was immediately sent to the Senate, which suspended its rules on the same afternoon and overturned the Governor's veto by a vote of 11 to 5. Thus on July 28, 1941, Winfield Township, New Jersey, was established. Forty Clark Township opposition leaders were present in Trenton, New Jersey on July 28, 1941, and celebrated Winfield's establishment in the halls of Capital building.

Winfield Township is a unique municipality in the United States. No other defense housing project had been established as a separate municipality. This unique status also created a number of unique problems. As the Elizabeth Daily Journal reported:

"Now Uncle Sam owns a town. Uncle Sam cannot tax himself or vote for himself. The occupants of houses cannot be taxed like a regular homeowner and he has promised them low monthly charges, but with all the benefits of living in town."

The construction of Winfield continued unabated and the establishment of Winfield Township resulted in the unforeseen effect of permitting the project's residents to control their own future. In an article entitled "County Clerk Places Winfield On His List," a local newspaper reported:

"Winfield has attained a modicum of recognition in these days of rebuffs and snubs among the powers. On all lists of municipalities required for records of official business in the office of County Clerk Henry G. Nulton, it now appears with its rebellious neighbors, Clark and Linden, the other towns. The fact that it is at the bottom of the list, insisted Abraham Grosman, in charge of revising the list, is that it alphabetically falls there, wrestling the last position from Westfield."

Winfield's official history, written in 1976, even begins with the following:

"Winfield, Winfield Park, Winfield Township, is a big title for the 'baby of Union County.' Most of us use the plain 'Winfield' address simply because it is the quickest to write. People still say, 'Where's that?' However, after thirty-five years of the same question, we are accustomed to the remark. Sometimes the remarks given to our town, when a person knows where Winfield is, are far harder to swallow than when he is ignorant of its location. Some milder titles are, 'barracks', or 'oh, those places.' We are so tiny, that even state and county cartographers sometimes forget to put us on their maps. Sure, we feel a bit miffed at times, but we then look across our 'Green Acres' and realize our blessing."

But this local community pressure also had the positive effect of forcing Winfield's residents to work together more closely and form a more tightly knit community than could ever have been anticipated in the original site plan.

Construction
The construction of Winfield Park began on June 23, 1941, and was contracted through the MacEvoy Company of Newark, New Jersey, a company that built sections of the Newark subway, the Wanaque Reservoir, and was then working on developing reinforced concrete oil tankers (a project that failed spectacularly, and remnants of which can be still be seen off the coastline of Cape May, New Jersey). The entire Winfield project—254 buildings on 110 acres—eventually required 7500 gallons of paint; 2500 rolls of wallpaper; 5500000 board feet of lumber; and would employ 1,223 construction workers for five months.

From the start, work did not proceed well. Labor Union disputes stopped construction at least once. The construction work completed by the MacEvoy Company was exceptionally poor—so poor that it attracted the attention of the Truman Committee investigating abuses with the National Defense Program. The investigation would eventually uncover the facts that the Winfield Park project lacked complete architectural or engineering plans and that financial records—at least the few that could be found—were criminally maintained. The project's construction was so badly botched that in many of the new buildings, residents discovered that nails had been hammered through water pipes, chimneys still contained the wooden forms used for their construction, roofs leaked, water pipes had never been soldered, floors were buckled, the paintwork was molding, sewer lines and pumps rarely worked, and many roads, sidewalks, and curbs had never been completed. On average, thirty-seven items needed to be repaired and/or replaced in each unit to make it habitable. To accomplish this repair work, the federal government spent an additional $100,000.00 and hired a new contractor, even after the project had officially been declared complete by Westbrook. The final cost for Winfield Park, including Federal Works Agency provided public works, came to $4,392,075.55 or $6,274.00/ unit; the Lanham Act specified a limit of $3,500.00. Continuing investigations uncovered that MacEvoy Company had manipulated bids and committed extensive fraud. MacEvoy rented and sold equipment and supplies to itself at an inflated cost, provided insurance to the government for its own work, employed the son-in-law of one of the government inspectors on the project, and generally milked the Winfield Park Project for everything that it could. Much of this is outlined in a Life Magazine article from the November 30, 1942 issue.

Community life
The construction difficulties outlined above had a major impact on the early days of Winfield Township. On November 30, 1941, the first 145 families (popularly referred to by township residents today as the "pioneers") arrived in their new town. A planned parade from Newark, New Jersey never materialized, and the families found themselves moving into barely completed, temporarily assigned units located at the edge of the project to make the units more easily accessible across the mud flats that were supposed to be the town's roads, curbs, and sidewalks. Most units were not yet connected to utilities and, in some cases, would not be for several months, even as winter approached. Early residents vividly remember huddling around car radios, the only radios available because of lack of electricity, to hear the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. No fire protection was provided, but the government hired a few guards and provided bicycles for "law enforcement". The school was not yet under construction, and all school-age children were sent to three different school districts. As expected, Winfield's neighbors were not warm to the new residents and were even heard to make rude comments as the township's residents trudged into their communities, in their mud-covered boots, to make food purchases. Transportation to the Kearny Shipyards was difficult if not impossible when the bus provided by the government broke down. Although one would think things could not be worse, there was an outbreak of polio in Winfield, and the entire town was quarantined. But even with these difficulties, there would soon be far more applicants than available units. Quickly the township's population increased, and the new residents were employed not only by the Kearny shipyards but also by Merck & Company, National Pneumatic Company, Lawrence Engineering, and Research Company, American Type Founders Co., American Gas Accumulator, Singer Manufacturing, and many other manufacturers.

The cooperative nature of the town as a mutual housing project, the difficult physical environment of the town during its early days, and the animosity exhibited toward the new residents by their neighbors all served to bind the community together, creating a very strong and vigorous community life. Volunteer Police and Fire departments were quickly established by the residents, as was a volunteer Ambulance Squad and cooperative food store. Community leaders actively sought to discover Winfield's residents' special skills and interests. They utilized this information to organize and promote an astonishing number of clubs and social groups for a community of this size. Cooperative child care was provided in a building built by the community itself. Other community construction projects included a community center and shopping center. The great community event of the early days of Winfield Township was the opening of the town's grammar school on September 8, 1943. To increase the speed of repairs of structural deficiencies caused by the MacEvoy Company's poor workmanship, the residents of the Winfield participated in a rent strike against the federal government during the first year of occupancy; it was this strike that brought the attention of the Truman Committee to the Winfield Park project. A lasting problem caused by the township's unique status was the ill-defined relationship between the newly appointed Township Committee and the Mutual Housing Corporation. Both groups represented the same constituency; one (Mutual Housing) controlling all of the buildings and the other (Township Committee) with taxation authority; conflict and confusion were inevitable.

After the war

Winfield Park was the last of the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Projects to be built and occupied. Because it was opened just before the start of the United States' involvement in World War II, it was also one of the last housing projects of a permanent nature to be built for the defense housing program. The current residents of Winfield believe that their town was built as temporary housing and are very proud of how well the structures have held up over the past 68 years thanks to their repair efforts; clearly, this grew out of the poor workmanship of the original construction.

The Winfield Park Mutual Housing Corporation purchased the Winfield Park project from the federal government for $1,358,567.21 on December 28, 1950, and entered into a 45-year mortgage bearing a 3% interest rate, which was completed on July 1, 1984. By 1966, a Rutgers University economic study of the town reported that the town had "elements of a cooperative utopia, a feudal manor, and company town (with only one party and one company)." It continued on that:

"One of the apparent by-products of this situation (Town and Corporation being one and the same) is that the normal inter-party rivalry has been replaced by a running battle between the corporation and the township, both of which are elected by the same voters."

The 1966 study also made another observation about Winfield Park.

"One effect of outside resentment upon Winfield itself was to solidify sentiment among the inhabitants against their neighbors. If their neighbors didn't like Winfield, the feeling was definitely mutual. Another effect was to make the early Winfield settlers suspicious of all bureaucracy, including their own elected officers. In this respect, the trying experiences and disillusionment attending the early days of Winfield have made its citizens even more sensitive than usual to rumors respecting changes in the community structures."

This sensitivity was especially prevalent in the 1960s when residents began to realize that the town's property was worth far more than the structures built upon it. Although several experts have presented proposals to Winfield for more efficient and economical use of the property—ranging from selling the entire community and splitting the profits to moving every resident into a single high-rise building and then developing the remaining property for more profitable uses—residents have never considered any of these proposals very seriously. The residents have continually recommitted themselves to the mutual ownership concept.

In August 2001, the entire township celebrated its 60th anniversary with a community picnic and a parade led by Grand Marshal Leona Harriot Burke (1917–2007), who had moved from Kearny, New Jersey to Winfield Park on the first move-in day for new residents on December 1, 1941. Mrs. Burke had also served as the first president of the Winfield Park Volunteer Fire Department's Ladies Auxiliary.

Sociological research
The residents of Winfield Park were participants during the mid-1940s in a study of social interactions and patterns within public housing projects. This was one of the first studies undertaken by Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social Research under the leadership of sociologist Robert K. Merton. Merton would become one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century; he was known as the "Father of the focus group" and was the first sociologist to win a National Medal of Science (1994). During his career, Merton coined terms including "self-fulfilling prophecy" (in an article that dealt with Winfield) and "role model". Other sociologists involved in these studies included Paul Lazarsfeld, Patricia Salter West, and Marie Jahoda. Winfield Park was presented in several published articles by these researchers under the pseudonym "Craftown" and was presented as a homogeneous white middle-income public housing project. In these articles, "Craftown" was often compared and contrasted with "Hilltown," a racially integrated lower-income public housing project. An aspect of this research beyond interviewing every adult resident of the community was the decision to observe and provide detailed analysis and reports on community organizational meetings taking place during the summer and fall of 1945. In addition to the articles, there was also an unpublished manuscript on this research entitled Patterns of Social Life: Explorations in the Sociology and Social Psychology of Housing. When asked in 2002 why this manuscript had not been published, Merton described the period of its writing as being during the Red Scare of the post-war years and his fear, along with those of the other researchers, that the study could have negatively affected Winfield Park. Merton described the mutual housing projects as some of the closest examples of functioning socialist communities within the United States and as such, was one of the primary attractions for studying Winfield Park and its residents.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 0.18 square miles (0.47 km2), all of which was land.

The township is bordered to the north and east by Linden and to the south and west by Clark.

2010 census
The 2010 United States census counted 1,471 people, 706 households, and 382 families in the township. The population density was 8,320.1 per square mile (3,212.4/km2). There were 714 housing units at an average density of 4,038.5 per square mile (1,559.3/km2). The racial makeup was 96.40% (1,418) White, 0.95% (14) Black or African American, 0.00% (0) Native American, 0.14% (2) Asian, 0.07% (1) Pacific Islander, 1.09% (16) from other races, and 1.36% (20) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.39% (94) of the population.

Of the 706 households, 20.8% had children under the age of 18; 39.4% were married couples living together; 12.5% had a female householder with no husband present and 45.9% were non-families. Of all households, 39.5% were made up of individuals and 16.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.83.

17.3% of the population were under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44, 31.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.9 years. For every 100 females, the population had 86.9 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 81.8 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $55,323 (with a margin of error of +/− $6,372) and the median family income was $61,563 (+/− $8,257). Males had a median income of $54,034 (+/− $3,966) versus $38,333 (+/− $2,212) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $27,284 (+/− $1,840). About 7.3% of families and 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.5% of those under age 18 and 12.8% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census there were 1,514 people, 694 households, and 394 families residing in the township. The population density was 8,578.4 PD/sqmi. There were 697 housing units at an average density of 3,949.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the township was 96.96% White, 0.33% African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.13% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 0.66% from other races, and 1.65% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.44% of the population.

There were 694 households, of which 25.6% had children under 18 living with them, 40.9% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.1% were non-families. 38.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.6% had someone who was 65 years of age or older living alone. The average household size was 2.18, and the average family size was 2.92.

In the township the population was spread out, with 20.9% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 32.6% from 25 to 44, 24.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 84.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.1 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $37,000, and the median income for a family was $47,167. Males had a median income of $41,133 versus $30,139 for females. The per capita income for the township was $21,565. About 2.8% of families and 7.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.7% of those under age 18 and 7.3% of those age 65 or over.

Local government
Winfield Township is governed under the Township form of New Jersey municipal government, one of 141 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form, the second-most commonly used form of government in the state. The governing body is comprised of the Township Committee, whose three members are elected directly by the voters at-large in partisan elections to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with one seat coming up for election each year as part of the November general election in a three-year cycle. At an annual reorganization meeting, the Township Committee selects one of its members to serve as Mayor. The Mayor, in addition to voting as a member of the Township Committee, presides over the committee's meetings and carries out ceremonial duties.

, members of the Winfield Township Committee are Mayor Joseph P. Byrne (D, term on committee and as mayor ends December 31, 2024), Adam Koomer (D, 2026), and Robert Reilly (R, 2025).

In March 2016, Sue E. Wright was appointed to fill the term expiring in December 2017 that had been held by Oneida M. Braithwaite.

In 2018, the township had an average property tax bill of $3,574, the lowest in the county, compared to an average bill of $11,278 in Union County and $8,767 statewide.

Federal, state and county representation
Winfield Township is located in the 7th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 22nd state legislative district.

Politics
As of March 2011, there were a total of 1,030 registered voters in Winfield Township, of which 383 (37.2% vs. 41.8% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 180 (17.5% vs. 15.3%) were registered as Republicans and 467 (45.3% vs. 42.9%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were no voters registered to other parties. Among the township's 2010 Census population, 70.0% (vs. 53.3% in Union County) were registered to vote, including 84.7% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 70.6% countywide).

In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 426 votes (59.0% vs. 66.0% countywide), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 271 votes (37.5% vs. 32.3%) and other candidates with 13 votes (1.8% vs. 0.8%), among the 722 ballots cast by the township's 1,053 registered voters, for a turnout of 68.6% (vs. 68.8% in Union County). In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 406 votes (51.0% vs. 63.1% countywide), ahead of Republican John McCain with 371 votes (46.6% vs. 35.2%) and other candidates with 13 votes (1.6% vs. 0.9%), among the 796 ballots cast by the township's 1,063 registered voters, for a turnout of 74.9% (vs. 74.7% in Union County). In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 420 votes (51.3% vs. 58.3% countywide), ahead of Republican George W. Bush with 389 votes (47.6% vs. 40.3%) and other candidates with 6 votes (0.7% vs. 0.7%), among the 818 ballots cast by the township's 1,051 registered voters, for a turnout of 77.8% (vs. 72.3% in the whole county).

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 61.0% of the vote (282 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 37.0% (171 votes), and other candidates with 1.9% (9 votes), among the 477 ballots cast by the township's 1,048 registered voters (15 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 45.5%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 264 votes (51.9% vs. 41.7% countywide), ahead of Democrat Jon Corzine with 189 votes (37.1% vs. 50.6%), Independent Chris Daggett with 38 votes (7.5% vs. 5.9%) and other candidates with 8 votes (1.6% vs. 0.8%), among the 509 ballots cast by the township's 1,049 registered voters, yielding a 48.5% turnout (vs. 46.5% in the county).

Sports
Even though Winfield is a small community, they do have a sports program for their elementary school students. They play soccer, basketball, and baseball. They also have a year-round recreational sports program.

Education
The Winfield Township School District serves public school students in pre-kindergarten to eighth grade at Winfield School. As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprised of one school, had an enrollment of 139 students and 18.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 7.7:1. In the 2016–17 school year, Winfield had the 19th-smallest enrollment of any school district in the state, with 140 students. The school offers a class for students with special needs.

Public school students in ninth through twelfth grades attend David Brearley High School in Kenilworth, as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Kenilworth Public Schools. As of the 2018–19 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 757 students and 63.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.9:1. Before the current sending relationship had been established with Brearley, students had attended Rahway High School until a decision by the New Jersey Department of Education in March 2000 allowed for termination of the relationship.

Students in public school for grades 9–12 may also attend the schools of the Union County Vocational Technical Schools in Scotch Plains.

Roads and highways
, the township had a total of 3.10 mi of roadways, of which 3.00 mi were maintained by the municipality and 0.10 mi by Union County.

North Stiles Street (County Route 615) forms the northeastern edge of Winfield Township. In addition, a small piece of Raritan Road (County Route 607) forms the northern border of the township.

The Garden State Parkway, west of the Rahway River, just misses the municipality by about 100 yards and is accessible at Exit 136 on the Cranford / Clark border.

Public transportation
NJ Transit provides bus service between the township and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on the 112 route, with local service offered on the 56 and 57 routes.

Passenger rail service is provided by NJ Transit from the neighboring communities of Cranford on the Raritan Valley Line and from the Linden station on the Northeast Corridor.

Newark Liberty International Airport is approximately 12 minutes away in Newark / Elizabeth. Linden Airport, a general aviation facility, is in Linden.

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

 * Tom Dugan (born 1961), actor who starred in the music video Legs by ZZ Top
 * Dan Graham (born 1942), conceptual artist, art critic
 * Jeffrey Moran (born 1946), Ocean County Surrogate and former member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1986 to 2003, where he represented the 9th Legislative District

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

title: Winfield Township, New Jersey


text:
Allamuchy Township, New Jersey

Allamuchy Township is a township in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 5,335, an increase of 1,012 (+23.4%) from the 2010 census count of 4,323,  which in turn reflected an increase of 446 (+11.5%) from the 3,877 counted in the 2000 census.

Allamuchy Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 4, 1873, from portions of Independence Township. The township's name comes from the Native American word "Allamachetey", meaning "place within the hills".

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 20.27 square miles (52.51 km2), including 19.99 square miles (51.78 km2) of land and 0.28 square miles (0.73 km2) of water (1.39%). The townships southeastern border is formed by the Musconetcong River.

Allamuchy CDP (with a 2010 Census population of 78 ) and Panther Valley (2010 population of 3,327 ) are census-designated places and unincorporated communities located within the township. As of the 2000 United States Census, the two CDPs were consolidated as Allamuchy-Panther Valley, which had a 2000 Census population of 3,125.

Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Alphano, Long Bridge, Quaker Church, Saxton Falls and Warrenville.

Allamuchy Township borders the municipalities of Frelinghuysen Township, Hackettstown and Independence Township in Warren County; Mount Olive Township in Morris County; and both Byram Township and Green Township in Sussex County.

History
Prior to European settlement, what is now Allamuchy Township was inhabited for centuries by the Lenape Native Americans, until they were forced west by 1742. The Bird House Archaeological Site is located within the Township.

Quaker Settlement
Acting as a surveyor, John Reading laid out a tract of land for William Penn in 1715 that became the Quaker Settlement, the first non-Native Americans to live in Allamuchy. By 1752, the Society of Friends, or Quakers, established a community in the northeast corner of what is now Allamuchy Township. The settlement was chartered in Kingwood, NJ, and the first Quakers to arrive in Allamuchy brought with them the materials to build their homes. The land controlled by the Quaker Settlement spanned an area not just in Allamuchy, but what is now considered Green Township, NJ as well. This settlement was known as the "Hardwick Friends," because what is now Allamuchy Township was then a part of Hardwick Township.

In 1735, Quakers selected a plot of land for use as a burying ground with accompanying stone wall and first constructed a wood meeting house in 1752, replacing it in 1764 with a stone building. The Hardwick Meeting sided with a branch of the Society of Friends known as the Hicksites in 1827, an event that compelled many of the Settlement's residents to leave for other Quaker communities. On February 2, 1854, the last Quaker meeting took place in the Settlement; it was formally dissolved in 1855. The Friends' Burying Ground was used until 1918, when its stone wall was repaired and a small monument installed; it was later restored in 1940.

The location of the Quaker meeting house was later used as a public school. There, in Fall 1921, the Quaker Grove School served as an experimental research station for rural education by researchers Fannie W. Dunn and Maria A. Everett from Teachers College, Columbia University. The result of their fieldwork was the book, Four Years in a County School, which detailed their findings with regards to the single-teacher model, curriculum, and observations about rural education in general. In 1940, the Township consolidated its four public schools into a single location, the present-day Allamuchy Township School, and the Quaker Grove school reverted to private ownership.

Grand Estates
In the late 1700s, John Rutherfurd began construction of his vast home in Allamuchy. Lewis Morris Rutherfurd later occupied the estate, where he took the first telescopic photographs of the Moon from his home at Tranquility Farms in 1865. His son, Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, raised Holstein cattle, Dorset sheep, English pheasants and hunting dogs on the estate, which included a 1000 acres deer preserve. Under Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, the 47-room house was known as the Stuyvesant Mansion, and was decorated with imported and Duncan Phyfe furniture, Ming Dynasty pottery, and 15th and 16th century suits of armor. The Stuyvesant Mansion was last occupied in 1947 and its contents sold in 1951 and 1955. The Mansion was destroyed by fire in September 1959.

Winthrop Rutherfurd commissioned Whitney Warren, architect of Grand Central Terminal, in 1902 to design Rutherfurd Hall. Completed in 1906, the Hall served as a hunting lodge family residence where prominent guests could be entertained, most famously U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt who was a close friend of Winthrop's second wife Lucy.

The eponymous family later gave Rutherfurd Hall to the Catholic Church in 1959 after the completion of Interstate 80 brought more traffic and noise to the area. The Church changed the Hall's name to Villa Madonna and used it as a convent for an order of nuns for five decades before selling it the town to be used as a museum and community education facility. Now listed on the National Historic Register, Rutherfurd Hall first opened to the public in 2012.

The Panther Ledge Farms estate was owned by Clendenin J. Ryan, former secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and politician who later ran an unsuccessful campaign for New Jersey Governor in the 1953 election. Ryan's estate acquired this name due to a rock bluff on the property, where local legend holds as the location the last mountain lion was hunted in the state. Panther Ledge Farms featured a private zoo, pheasant hatchery, helicopter, greenhouse, bloodhound kennel, and a collection of paintings Ryan bought from William Randolph Hearst.

In 1972 a left-wing group called the Allamuchy Tribe, led by activists Rennie Davis and Jerry Rubin and funded by ex-Beatle John Lennon, met at the Peter Stuyvesant Farm in Allamuchy to organize protests against the 1972 Republican National Convention. FBI surveillance of the Allamuchy Tribe led to the bureau putting pressure on Lennon to divest from political activity by threatening to deport him.

Demographics
The township, and all of Warren County, is part of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area.

2010 census
The 2010 United States census counted 4,323 people, 1,953 households, and 1,213 families in the township. The population density was 211.3 /sqmi. There were 2,096 housing units at an average density of 102.5 /sqmi. The racial makeup was 93.45% (4,040) White, 1.78% (77) Black or African American, 0.14% (6) Native American, 2.73% (118) Asian, 0.02% (1) Pacific Islander, 0.39% (17) from other races, and 1.48% (64) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.49% (194) of the population.

Of the 1,953 households, 22.9% had children under the age of 18; 50.7% were married couples living together; 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present and 37.9% were non-families. Of all households, 31.4% were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.21 and the average family size was 2.80.

18.5% of the population were under the age of 18, 5.0% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 33.6% from 45 to 64, and 17.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45.8 years. For every 100 females, the population had 90.9 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 85.5 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $82,781 (with a margin of error of +/- $5,051) and the median family income was $104,601 (+/- $18,824). Males had a median income of $76,467 (+/- $14,328) versus $55,625 (+/- $6,142) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $49,834 (+/- $4,833). About 0.9% of families and 2.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.8% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census there were 3,877 people, 1,692 households, and 1,133 families residing in the township. The population density was 188.8 PD/sqmi. There were 1,774 housing units at an average density of 86.4 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the township was 95.49% White, 0.93% African American, 0.05% Native American, 1.86% Asian, 0.70% from other races, and 0.98% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.68% of the population.

There were 1,692 households out of which 23.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.7% were married couples living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.0% were non-families. 28.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.2% 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 2.80.

In the township the population was spread out with 19.0% under the age of 18, 4.4% from 18 to 24, 28.4% from 25 to 44, 31.9% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 86.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.6 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $70,107, and the median income for a family was $89,653. Males had a median income of $54,743 versus $41,782 for females. The per capita income for the township was $43,552. About 0.3% of families and 1.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.6% of those under age 18 and 3.2% of those age 65 or over.

Culture and tourism
Rutherfurd Hall is a cultural center and museum that provides educational and enrichment opportunities for the residents of Allamuchy, the surrounding communities, and the greater New York – New Jersey Highlands region at large. It conducts and hosts public programs including: 4th of July Fireworks, Hall of Haunts, Scouting, Teas & Talks, etiquette courses, lectures, concerts, specialty summer camps and weddings. A family seat for the decedents of Walter Rutherfurd and Senator John Rutherfurd, Rutherfurd Hall was designed by Whitney Warren and the Olmsted Brothers and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

The north end of Shades of Death Road, a dark tourism "haunted highway" known by readers of Weird NJ magazine for the legends and folklore inspired by its macabre name, runs through Allamuchy.

Local government
Allamuchy Township is governed under the Small Municipality form of government. The Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, allows municipalities to adopt a Small Municipality form of government only for municipalities with a population of under 12,000 at the time of adoption. The township is one of 18 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form of government. The governing body is comprised of the Mayor and the four-member Township Council, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis as part of the November general election. The Mayor is elected directly by the voters to a three-year term of office. Council members serve a term of three years, which are staggered so that two seats come up for election in the first two years of a three-year cycle and the mayoral seat is up for direct vote in the third year.

, the Mayor of Allamuchy Township is Republican Rosemary Tuohy, whose term of office ends December 31, 2024. Members of the Allamuchy Township Committee are Council President James H. Cote (R, 2023), Deborah Bonanno (R, 2022; appointed to serve an unexpired term), Ed Fabula (R, 2022) and Manuel P. "Manny" Quinoa (R, 2022).

In January 2022, Deborah Bonano was appointed from a list of three names nominated by the Republican municipal committee to fill the seat expiring in December 2023 that became vacant when Rosemary Tuohy stepped down to take office as mayor.

The seat expiring in December 2022 that had been held by Douglas A. Ochwat was filled by Ed Fabula.

In January 2016, the Township Committee selected former mayor Betty Schultheis from three candidates nominated by the Republican municipal committee to fill the seat expiring in December 2017 that had been held by Keith DeTombeur until he stepped down to take office as mayor; Schultheis will serve on an interim basis until the November 2016 election, when voters will select a candidate to serve the balance of the term of office.

Federal, state, and county representation
Allamuchy Township is located in the 7th congressional district and is part of New Jersey's 24th state legislative district.

Politics
As of March 2011, there was a total of 3,197 registered voters in Allamuchy Township, of whom 529 (16.5% vs. 21.5% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 1,253 (39.2% vs. 35.3%) were registered as Republicans, and 1,413 (44.2% vs. 43.1%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were two voters registered as either Libertarians or Greens. Among the township's 2010 Census population, 74.0% (vs. 62.3% in Warren County) were registered to vote, including 90.7% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 81.5% countywide).

In the 2012 presidential election, Republican Mitt Romney received 62.2% of the vote (1,489 cast), ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 36.3% (868 votes), and other candidates with 1.5% (35 votes), among the 2,431 ballots cast by the township's 3,328 registered voters (39 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 73.0%.

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 74.3% of the vote (1,045 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 24.3% (342 votes), and other candidates with 1.4% (20 votes), among the 1,433 ballots cast by the township's 3,426 registered voters (26 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 41.8%.

Education
Public school students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade are served by the Allamuchy Township School District. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of two schools, had an enrollment of 421 students and 32.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.8:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics ) are Mountain Villa School with 134 students in pre-Kindergarten through second grade and Allamuchy Township School with 287 students in third through eighth grade.

Students in public school for ninth through twelfth grades attend Hackettstown High School which serves students from Hackettstown, as well as students from the townships of Allamuchy, Independence and Liberty, as part of sending/receiving relationships with the Hackettstown School District. As of the 2020–21 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 864 students and 69.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.4:1.

Students from the township and from all of Warren County are eligible to attend Ridge and Valley Charter School in Blairstown (for grades K–8) or Warren County Technical School in Washington borough (for 9–12), with special education services provided by local districts supplemented throughout the county by the Warren County Special Services School District in Oxford Township (for Pre-K–12).

Roads and highways
, the township had a total of 36.90 mi of roadways, of which 10.59 mi were maintained by the municipality, 19.49 mi by Warren County and 6.82 mi by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Interstate 80 crosses Allamuchy Township, and is accessible at Exit 19, County Route 517.

Public transportation
Allamuchy Township was formerly served by the Allamuchy Train Station and Allamuchy Freight House until passenger service on the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway was ended in 1933. The Allamuchy Freight House is listed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places.

Morris Canal
Between 1831 and 1924, the Morris Canal connected the coal industry of the Lehigh Valley at Phillipsburg to New York Harbor via Newark and Jersey City. The Saxton Falls Dam Complex in Allamuchy along the Musconetcong River was selected for eligibility to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in 1993.

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

 * Alison Becker (born 1977), actress
 * Stephen Bienko (born 1979), entrepreneur behind the College Hunks Hauling Junk brand
 * Ada Lunardoni (1911–2003), artistic gymnast who competed in the gymnastics competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics
 * Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd (born 1891), lived in what is now Rutherfurd Hall where President Franklin D. Roosevelt paid at least one call on her "as a friend" before the existence of their lifelong romantic affair was publicly revealed
 * Winthrop Rutherfurd (born 1862), socialite and husband of Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd

title: Allamuchy Township, New Jersey


text:
Allamuchy-Panther Valley, New Jersey

Allamuchy-Panther Valley is an unincorporated community and former census-designated place located within Allamuchy Township, in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2000 United States Census, the CDP's population was 3,125.

The combined CDP existed through the 2000 Census. Effective with the 2010 United States Census, the CDP was split into its components, Allamuchy CDP (with a 2010 Census population of 78 ) and Panther Valley (2010 population of 3,327 ).

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had a total area of 15.0 km2. 14.8 km2 of land and 0.2 km2 of water (1.55%).

Demographics
As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 3,125 people, 1,430 households, and 922 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 210.9 /km2. There were 1,497 housing units at an average density of 101.0 /km2. The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.90% White, 0.96% African American, 0.03% Native American, 2.08% Asian, 0.51% from other races, and 0.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.37% of the population.

There were 1,430 households, out of which 20.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.1% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.5% were non-families. 30.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.70.

In the CDP the population was spread out, with 17.2% under the age of 18, 3.8% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 33.3% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.7 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $67,301, and the median income for a family was $89,303. Males had a median income of $54,732 versus $41,782 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $45,829. About 0.3% of families and 1.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.8% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those age 65 or over.

title: Allamuchy-Panther Valley, New Jersey