South Orange, New Jersey
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Map of South Orange Village in Essex County |
South Orange is a
Village in
Essex County,
New Jersey,
United States. As of the
United States 2000 Census, the village population was 16,964.
Seton Hall University is located in South Orange.
Of 566 municipalities statewide, South Orange is one of only four villages in New Jersey, joining
Loch Arbour,
Ridgefield Park and
Ridgewood.
In 1904, the Village of South Orange was created by an act of the
New Jersey Legislature. In November, 1977, South Orange voters passed a new Charter for South Orange and changed its name to
The Township of South Orange Village.
South Orange is located at (40.747650, -74.258811).
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 7.4
km² (2.9
mi²). 7.4 km² (2.8 mi²) of it is land and aside from the East branch of
Rahway River, none of it is covered by water. One exception is a small man-made duck pond located near South Orange Middle School.
The East branch of the
Rahway River flows through the entire length of the village. Most of the year it is a trickle but can be heavy at times. In the past it would occasionally overflow its banks and flood low-lying parts of town.
United States Army Corps of Engineers flood control projects remediated that in the mid 1970s. Still, even including swimming pools, water probably accounts for less than .1% of the town's surface area.
The western part of the town sits on the slope of South Mountain (elevation <660 feet (201 m)), leveling into a small valley near the central business district. The wealthy Newstead neighborhood sits highest on the slope, adjacent to the
South Mountain Reservation. The Montrose neighborhood with its large Victorian houses is in the northeast quadrant.
Seton Hall University is located in the southeast quadrant near the border of
Newark.
As of the
census of 2000, there were 16,964 people, 5,522 households, and 3,766 families residing in the township. The
population density was 2,298.2/km² (5,945.3/mi²). There were 5,671 housing units at an average density of 768.3/km² (1,987.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the township was 60.41%
White, 31.30%
African American, 0.09%
Native American, 3.89%
Asian, 0.03%
Pacific Islander, 1.57% from
other races, and 2.71% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 4.93% of the population.
There were 5,522 households out of which 33.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.2% were
married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.8% were non-families. 25.2% of all households 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 2.69 and the average family size was 3.26.
In the village the population was spread out with 22.3% under the age of 18, 17.5% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 92.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.1 males.
The median income for a household in the township was $83,611, and the median income for a family was $107,641. Males had a median income of $61,809 versus $42,238 for females. The
per capita income for the township was $41,035. About 1.9% of families and 5.3% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 2.6% of those under age 18 and 5.4% of those age 65 or over.
What is now South Orange was part of a territory purchased from the Lenape tribe in 1666 by Robert Treat, who founded
Newark that year on the banks of the
Passaic River. The first English settlement in the Chestnut Hills dates to 1677 when brothers Joseph and Thomas Brown began clearing land for a farm home near the junction of two old trails that are now South Orange Avenue and Ridgewood Road. The Browns were followed by the Wheeler and Riggs families who were granted land in 1680 "by Rahway River near the stone house" referring evidently to the Brown dwelling. The Riggs and Wheeler properties extended east of the river through the central portion of modern South Orange. Another colonial house now known as the Stone House stands on the north side of South Orange Avenue at Grove Park. A house at that location called Pierson's House was used as a landmark in a deed of 1767.
[Beatrice P Herman. The Trail to Upland Plantations, n.p.: Worrall, 1976]The Chestnut Hills settlement was called South Orange starting about 1795. A deed of 1800 locates a property as being in "the Township of Newark, in the Parish of Orange, at a place called South Orange".
Orange had been named after the ruler of England,
William of Orange. Gordon's Gazeteer of circa 1830 describes the settlement as having "about 30 dwellings, a tavern and store, a paper mill and Presbyterian church".
[Naoma Welk. South Orange, Charleston SC: Arcadia, 2002]A country resort called the Orange Mountain House was established in 1847 just north of town. Guests could enjoy the "water cure" from natural spring water and walk in the grounds that extended up the slope of South Mountain. The main house was right on Ridgewood Road. The hotel burned down in 1890. The only remnants today are the names of Mountain Station and the Mountain House Road leading west from it to the site of the hotel.
[Beatrice P Herman, The Trail to Upland Plantations, Worrall, 1976]South Orange could be reached by the
Morris and Essex Railroad which opened in 1837 between Newark and
Morristown. As of 1869, the M&E became part of the main line of the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad which ran from
Hoboken to
Buffalo with through trains to
Chicago.
[Thomas T Taber III. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad / In the Nineteenth Century, Muncy PA: T Taber, 1977]The
Montrose neighborhood was developed after the Civil War. Its large houses on generous lots attracted wealthy families from
Newark and
New York City during the decades from 1870 to 1900. The
Orange Lawn Tennis Club was founded in 1880 at a location in Montrose, and in 1886 it was the location of the first US national
tennis championships. The club moved to larger grounds on Ridgewood Road in 1916. Major tournament events were held at the club throughout the grass court era, and even into the mid-1980s professional events would occasionally be held there.
What is now the Baird Community House was up until about 1920 the clubhouse for a golf course that encompassed what is now Meadowlands Park. In fact, until regrading was performed during the 1970s, the ouline of one of the course's sandtraps was still visible near the base of Flood's Hill, a spot that has historically been one of the favorite sleighriding spots in
Essex County.
The construction of Village Hall in 1894 and the "old" library building in 1896 indicate how the village was growing by that date
[Beatrice P Herman, The Trail to Upland Plantations, Worrall, 1976].
Horsecar service from Newark started in 1865, running via South Orange Avenue to the station. Electric
trolley cars began running the line in 1893, and by about 1900 a branch of this line also ran down Valley Street into Maplewood. Another trolley line, dubbed the "Swamp Line", ran from the center of South Orange, along Meadowbrook Lane, and into West Orange. The only remnant of the Swamp Line's operation that exists today is the small hut that sits adjacent to the Duck Pond
[Edward Hamm, Jr. The Public Service Trolley Lines in New Jersey, Polo IL: Transportation Trails, 1991]. The DL&W rebuilt the railroad through town in 1914-1916, raising the tracks above street level and opening new station buildings at South Orange and Mountain Station. In September 1930, a frail
Thomas Edison (he would die about a year later) inaugurated
electric train service on the M&E between Hoboken and South Orange, with further extensions of service to Morristown and Dover being initiated over the coming months
[Thomas T Taber III. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad / In the Twentieth Century, Muncy PA: T Taber, 1977].
Good transportation and a booming economy caused South Orange and neighboring towns to begin a major transformation in the 1920s into
bedroom communities for Newark and New York City. Large houses were built in the blocks around the Orange Lawn Tennis club, while in other areas, especially south of South Orange Avenue, more modest
foursquare houses were put up for the growing
American middle class. The only large area not developed by 1930 was the high ground west of Wyoming Avenue.
There were at one time two rock
quarries within the village supplying
trap rock for construction. Kernan's operated as late as the 1980s at the top of Tillou Road. The town's other larger businesses were lumber and coal yards clustered around the railroad station that supplied them. The town's business district is still located in the blocks just east of the station.
The old Morris and Essex Railroad is still operated today by
N Transit. A new service directly into
Manhattan's
Penn Station, called Midtown Direct, was initiated 1996 and has since caused a surge in real estate prices as the commute time to midtown dropped from about 50 minutes to 30, a service which also eliminated the need for passengers to transfer to
PATH trains at Hoboken. As a result, demand for commuter parking permits in lots adjoining the train and bus stations is quite high.
The town is one of only a few in New Jersey to retain
gas light street illumination (others include
Riverton,
Palmyra,
Glen Ridge and some parts of
Orange). The gaslight has long been the symbol of South Orange (together with the distinctive Village Hall). Many of the major roads in town do have modern
mercury vapor streetlights (built into gaslight frames), but most of the residential sections of the town are still gaslit. A proposal to replace all the gaslights in town with electric streetlights was explored as both a cost-saving and security measure during the 1970s. And although the changeover to electric was rejected at the time, the light output of the lamps was subsequently increased to address the concern that the streets of South Orange were too dimly lit. Be that as it may, there have been claims that South Orange has more operating gaslights than any other town in the United States.
Architecture is extremely varied. Most of the town is single-family wood framed houses, but there are a few apartment buildings from various eras as well as townhouse-style condominiums of mostly more recent vintage. Houses cover a range that includes every common style of the midatlantic US states since the late nineteenth century, and in sizes that range from brick English Cottages to giant
Mansard-roofed mansions.
Tudor,
Victorian, Colonial, Ranch, Modern, and many others are all to be found. Most municipal government structures date from the 1920s, with a few being of more modern construction.
Many residents commute to
New York City, but others work locally or in other parts of New Jersey. South Orange has a central business district with restaurants, banks, and other retail and professional services. There are a few small office buildings, but no large-scale enterprise other than
Seton Hall University.
South Orange provides the usual facilities for a municipality of this size; fire, police, a library of about 70,000 volumes, a municipal pool, a recreation center, parks, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, trash and yard waste removal provided by contractors, community access cable TV, and so on. As noted above, the school board is shared with adjacent Maplewood.
Local government
South Orange is governed by a six member board of trustees and a village president (equivalent to a mayor), all unpaid positions. Local political parties are formed on an ad-hoc basis, generally focused on key issues of local concern; national political parties do not participate in township elections.
The Village President of South Orange is
William R. Calabrese. Members of the Board of Trustees are
Eric DeVaris,
Stacey Jennings,
Terriann Moore-Abrams,
Allan J. Rosen, Ph.D.,
Mark Rosner and
Arthur Taylor[Village Government, accessed July 7, 2006].
Federal, state and county representation
South Orange is split between the Eighth and Tenth Congressional Districts and is part of New Jersey's 27th Legislative District.
Politics
On the national level, South Orange leans strongly toward the Democratic Party. In 2004, Democrat John Kerry received 77 percent of the vote here, defeating Republican George W. Bush, who received approximately 22 percent.
The township shares a common school system, the
South Orange-Maplewood School District, with the adjacent town of
Maplewood. The district has a single
high school,
Columbia High School, located in Maplewood (but nearly on the town border), and one
middle school and several
elementary schools in each town.
Other schools in the district (with 2003-04 school enrollment data from the
National Center for Education Statistics) are:
Elementary Schools (K-5)*
Clinton Elementary School (K-5, 470 students) - Maplewood
*
Jefferson Elementary School (3-5, 412 students) - Maplewood
*
Marshall Elementary School (K-2, 394 students) - South Orange
*
Seth Boyden Elementary School (K-5, 496 students) - Maplewood
*
South Mountain Elementary School /
Annex (K-5, 514 students) - South Orange
*
Tuscan Elementary School (K-5, 584 students) - Maplewood
Middle Schools (6-8)*
Maplewood Middle School (725 students) - Maplewood
*
South Orange Middle School (778 students) - South Orange
Higher EducationSeton Hall University is located in South Orange. The University was founded in 1856 by the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark and named after
Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint. South Orange has a college feel with this
Division I university located along the east side of South Orange Avenue, the community's main boulevard. The school serves approximately 9,700 students.
*The town has a municipal swimming pool open to all residents. Residents may purchase a Photo I.D. badge for an annual fee of $15, which provides access to the South Orange Community Pool and full access to other community facilities and programs
[Department of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, accessed July 15, 2006]; non-residents may use the pool for a small fee on a per visit basis. In most area towns, municipal pool memberships are restricted or costly, but the pool in South Orange was built on land willed to the town for common use. The original pool, built in the 1920s, was reportedly the first free community pool to be built in the United States. It was replaced by an Olympic-size pool in 1972.
*The town was the first in the nation to have an affinity credit card, the idea of the municipal affinity credit card being originated by village president William Calabrese.
*Unusually, when the town was wired for telephones and electricity in the early 20th century, the wiring was mostly placed underground rather than on utility poles. This is aesthetically pleasing, but makes maintenance more difficult, especially since concrete conduit did not exist at the time. Having to dig up all the streets resulted in South Orange being the last town in the area to receive
cable television.
*The former telephone company system of identifying
exchanges is still evidenced by the 761, 762, and 763 prefixes used for most lines in South Orange and Maplewood, which would have originally been referred to as SO1, SO2, and SO3.
*South Orange and Maplewood share one of the largest online communities in the nation, featuring a very active message board at
www.maplewoodonline.com.
*South Orange's full official name is the "Township of South Orange Village." This name was originally adopted in lieu of the Village of South Orange because it allowed South Orange to receive more federal aid that was directed to
Townships during the 1970s as many federal authorities were unfamiliar with the New Jersey municipal system, in which a township is not formally different from any other municipal designation. Other towns in New Jersey also adopted similar strategies, notably the
Township of the Borough of Verona.
*South Orange was the first municipality in New Jersey to recognize
Civil unions for homosexual couples. Exactly one hour after unions became legal in South Orange, they were recognized in neighboring Maplewood.
*The shared school system creates something of a common local identity between the towns, which is also partly the result of demographic similarities.
*
The News-Record weekly newspaper reports on both South Orange and Maplewood, and there are other shared institutions as well.
*Teenagers from Columbia High School were the first to play the game of
Ultimate Frisbee.
* New York Yankee greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played at least one exhibition game during the 1920s for the South Orange baseball team at Cameron Field. Reportedly, the game was attended by more than 12,000 fans and featured a tape-measure home run by Gehrig, which was noted to have travelled over the railroad tracks before hitting a house on Vose Avenue, approximately 600 feet away, where an apartment house stands presently.
Various celebrities have resided in South Orange or Maplewood; see the
Columbia High School page for a list of famous alumni. Other South Orange residents include:
*
Kelly Bishop, actress
*
Zach Braff, actor on the TV series
Scrubs and director of the movie
Garden State*Local resident Christopher Colasanti was a victim of the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
*
Lauryn Hill, musician, solo and with the
The Fugees*
Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956), sex researcher, who moved to the town in 1904.
*
Kevin Spacey, actor
*
Dionne Warwick, singer
*
The Township of South Orange Village*
South Orange-Maplewood School District*
National Center for Education Statistics data for the South Orange-Maplewood School District*
The South Orange Public Library*
Main Street South Orange Inc. (Not-for-profit community-based downtown improvement organization)
*
South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race (Community organization providing information about town for prospective buyers and organizing events for current residents)
*
Orange Lawn Tennis Club
