Montgomery Township is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in southern Somerset County, in the central part of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. It is located in the

New York Metropolitan Area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 23,690, an increase of 1,436 (+6.5%) from the 2010 census count of 22,254, which in turn reflected an increase of 4,773 (+27.3%) from the 17,481 counted in the 2000 census. Montgomery Township 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 The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and ...

, from what remained of Western precinct. Portions of the township were taken to form Princeton Borough (February 11, 1813, in Mercer County, consolidated to form

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

as of January 1, 2013), Princeton Township (April 9, 1838, also now consolidated into Princeton) and Rocky Hill (December 18, 1889).Snyder, John P
''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968''
Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 224. Accessed May 30, 2024. The township has been one of the state's highest-income communities. Based on data from the

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...

for 2013–2017, Montgomery Township residents had a

median household income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...

of $180,660, ranked 2nd in the state among municipalities with more than 10,000 residents, more than double the statewide median of $76,475.

History

Before European settlement began, the area now known as Montgomery Township was inhabited for approximately 20,000 years by

Lenni Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern Del ...

tribal groups. The current Native American population of Montgomery Township is just under 0.1% of the total population. The first European landowners in what was to become Montgomery Township, such as Johannas Van Home and Peter Sonmans, were speculators who did not live on the land, but sold large parts of what they owned to companies that subdivided it into farm-sized plots for those who did intend to settle. Many speculators and early settlers were of Dutch descent from the

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

area (especially Long Island), which, after the British ousted the Dutch (1664), was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York (the future James II). The Township was originally known as the Western Precinct of Somerset County (i.e. west of the Millstone River). Before the creation of Mercer County in 1838, the southern border extended to Nassau Street in Princeton. In 1798 the Western Precinct was organized as Montgomery Township, named for General

Richard Montgomery Richard Montgomery (2 December 1738 – 31 December 1775) was an Irish-born American military officer who first served in the British Army. He later became a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and ...

, who fell fighting for the patriot cause in the Battle of Quebec at the start of the Revolution (1775).History
Montgomery Township. Accessed September 7, 2015. "Once a part of Leni Lenape Indian lands, later as a rural farmland during the colonial times and intertwined in the annals of Revolutionary War History, this 32.26 square miles of land called Montgomery Township was named after General Brigadier Richard Montgomery.... Rocky Hill, which was the first village in the township, is now a separately incorporated borough, whose children attend Montgomery Township schools." Most of the land is flat and fertile, running westward from the Millstone River to Province Line, which divides Somerset from Hunterdon County and once marked the division between East and West Jersey. Farms of were common, some owners keeping a few slaves to work the land and serve in the household. The aim of the early settlers was to produce as many of the necessities of life as they could: subsistence farming, in other words. Each farm had a vegetable garden, orchard, pasturage and fields for grain, as well as a stand of timber to be selectively cut for fuel. What became known as the Harlingen Tract (1710) included part of Sourland Mountain. Each farm on the flatland was assigned a separate strip of woodland that ran up to the Hunterdon border, all crossing Rock Brook. At points along the stream mills were built either to saw lumber or to grind grain. Other early mill sites were at Rocky Hill on the Millstone River, Bridgepoint on Pike Brook and on Bedens Brook near Blawenburg. Settlement began in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. When churches, schools, general stores, blacksmith shops and hotel/taverns were built, they tended to cluster at intersections or other important points. For example, the intersection where the Carrier Clinic now stands used to be called Plainville or Posttown, having in the nineteenth century a post office, store, school house, blacksmith and wheelwright shops, as well as a hotel/tavern where the circuit judge presided. Most people walked to where they wanted to go. Schools were generally spaced no further than apart in order that no child would have to go more than to reach the nearest school. Churches marked the most important centers. The Dutch Church's earliest congregations first gathered in farm houses. The first church building at Harlingen dates to around 1750 and was called the Church at Sourland. The church at Neshanic in Hillsborough Township was established in 1752. In the early years these two churches shared a single pastor, and up to about 1800 they conducted their services in the Dutch language. One such pastor was Martinus Van Harlingen, who gave his name to the village, to the church that now bears his name, and to the local Historical Society. The Blawenburg church, an offshoot of the one at Harlingen, dates to 1830 and was erected in three days. During the Revolution, the Township was the scene of marches by both British and patriot forces and of clashes between them. In the century that followed the movement of goods and people was accelerated by increasingly swifter forms of transportation. First was the building of the Georgetown and Franklin Turnpike between Lambertville and

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

(1820–1822: Route 518). Next came the digging of the Delaware and Raritan Canal along the east side of the Millstone River (1834). Railroad construction followed with the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad (later the Reading), which established depots at Skillman, Harlingen and Belle Mead (1875). In the early years of the twentieth century, the arrival of the automobile, of electricity and of the telephone brought further growth and change. In consequence, and over time, the one or two room schoolhouse was supplanted by the central school, post offices were consolidated and most of the hotels/taverns disappeared. The crossroad hamlets that once offered basic services of general store, blacksmith shops and the like disappeared also, many leaving only their names to mark a road or an area: Skillman, Bridgepoint and Dutchtown are examples. The paving and realignment of roads, and the building of new ones, came toward the end of the transportation revolution. A new major north–south highway, Route 206, was created in 1927. Before that time Montgomery and Mount Lucas Roads were parts of the chief north–south route through the center of the Township. Farming continued despite many changes in the economy and in agricultural practices. In the late nineteenth century subsistence farming was giving way to specialized operations, such as dairying, poultry farming, and fruit orchards. As the twentieth century drew to a close even these ventures no longer offered the farmer an easy existence, given the rapidly appreciating value of the land, over against the low prices of products produced on it. As farms became less and less profitable, the land was converted to other uses. For example, in 1898 the facility for the treatment of epileptics was built on farmland between Blawenburg and Skillman. Since the Second World War, housing developments, shopping centers and business parks have sprung up, leaving as remnants of the long tradition of agriculture in Montgomery roadside stands, riding stables and the like. As rapid growth throughout the

area has spread suburban sprawl across the Township, the push to limit runaway development and to acquire open space has become an urgent concern of the community. In the last decade of the twentieth century, Montgomery's population nearly doubled, making it the fastest growing township in the county.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the township had a total area of 32.47 square miles (84.11 km²), including 32.30 square miles (83.66 km²) of land and 0.17 square miles (0.45 km²) of water (0.54%). Belle Mead (with a 2010 Census population of 216), Blawenburg (280), Harlingen (297), and Skillman (242) are unincorporated communities and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

s (CDPs) located within Montgomery Township.New Jersey: 2010 - Population and Housing Unit Counts - 2010 Census of Population and Housing (CPH-2-32)

, August 2012. Accessed February 13, 2013. Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Amwell, Bridgepoint, Dutchtown, Fairview, Plainville, Rocky Hill, Stoutsburg, and

Zion Zion (; ) is a placename in the Tanakh, often used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole. The name is found in 2 Samuel (), one of the books of the Tanakh dated to approximately the mid-6th century BCE. It o ...

. The township borders Franklin Township, Hillsborough Township, and Rocky Hill in Somerset County, East Amwell Township in

Hunterdon County Hunterdon County is a County (United States), county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the county was the state's List of counties in New Jersey, 4th-least populous ...

; and both Hopewell Township and

in Mercer County. Township residents are served by three post offices located wholly within the township's borders: Belle Mead with ZIP code 08502, Skillman with ZIP code 08558 and Blawenburg with ZIP code 08504. A portion of the southern section of the township is serviced by the

post office with ZIP code 08540.

Ecology

According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Montgomery would have an Appalachian

Oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

(''104'') vegetation type with an Eastern

Hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

Forest (''25'') vegetation form.U.S. Potential Natural Vegetation, Original Kuchler Types, v2.0 (Spatially Adjusted to Correct Geometric Distortions)
Data Basin. Accessed November 5, 2020.

Demographics

2010 census

The 2010 United States census counted 22,254 people, 7,635 households, and 6,077 families in the township. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 688.8 per square mile (265.9/km²). There were 7,902 housing units at an average density of 244.6 per square mile (94.4/km²). The racial makeup was 67.66% (15,057)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.84% (633) Black or African American, 0.09% (19) Native American, 25.61% (5,700) Asian, 0.01% (2)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1.34% (298) from other races, and 2.45% (545) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.57% (1,017) of the population. Of the 7,635 households, 48.5% had children under the age of 18; 70.9% were married couples living together; 6.7% had a female householder with no husband present and 20.4% were non-families. Of all households, 17.7% were made up of individuals and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.31. 30.8% of the population were under the age of 18, 5.0% from 18 to 24, 22.3% from 25 to 44, 32.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.8 years. For every 100 females, the population had 94.2 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 89.1 males. The Census Bureau's 2006–2010

showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars)

was $146,100 (with a margin of error of +/− $16,235) and the median family income was $167,889 (+/− $10,202). Males had a median income of $110,549 (+/− $4,286) versus $80,268 (+/− $15,872) for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the borough was $62,642 (+/− $4,981). About 1.4% of families and 2.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 1.7% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census

As of the 2000 United States census there were 17,481 people, 5,803 households, and 4,781 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 6,130 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 84.55%

, 2.07%

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

, 0.09% Native American, and 11.52%

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 2.21% of the population.Census 2000 Profiles of Demographic / Social / Economic / Housing Characteristics for Montgomery township, Somerset County, New Jersey
,

. Accessed February 13, 2013.DP-1: Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000 - Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF 1) 100-Percent Data for Montgomery township, Somerset County, New Jersey
,

. Accessed February 13, 2013. There were 5,803 households, out of which 51.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 75.5% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 5.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.6% were non-families. 14.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.99 and the average family size was 3.33. In the township the population was spread out, with 32.9% under the age of 18, 3.9% from 18 to 24, 31.9% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 6.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 93.8 males. The median income for a household in the township was $118,850, and the median income for a family was $129,150. 70.20% of the residents had a college education or better, and 89.8% are white collar. Males had a median income of $86,687 versus $55,441 for females. The

for the township was $48,699. About 1.4% of families and 1.5% of the population were below the

, including 1.2% of those under age 18 and 1.3% of those age 65 or over.

Parks and recreation

Skillman Village

In 2007, the Township of Montgomery purchased a parcel of land once known as the North Princeton Developmental Center from the State of New Jersey, located in Montgomery adjoining Skillman Road and Burnt Hill Road. In addition, the Township acquired from the State the adjacent wastewater treatment facility on , behind the State-owned Skillman Dairy Farm. The NPDC property, originally established in 1898 as the " New Jersey State Village for Epileptics," operated as a self-contained community that consisted of hospitals, housing, maintenance areas, schools, a power plant, a wastewater treatment facility and an on-site landfill. Later, it became the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute. Most recently, and until 1998, the property was the New Jersey Department of Human Services' psychiatric care facility "North Princeton Developmental Center". For years there were over 100 buildings on the Property, mostly in substandard, unsafe, unsanitary, dilapidated and/or obsolescent condition. Ninety-two of these buildings were abated and demolished summer 2007. The remaining handful of buildings have been boarded up in anticipation of possible reuse as part of redevelopment. Efforts are ongoing to remediate environmental conditions at the site and repair or demolish the dam and restore the lake. The property's environmental contamination must be remediated and brought into compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The original plan for the land was development. The Township prepared a redevelopment plan and solicited redevelopment proposals for a "Town Square" concept which would have created hundreds of new residential and commercial units. However, no developers submitted bids. Throughout the rest of 2008 and all of the next few years, the debate over Skillman Village changed. The local Republican team led by Kacey Dyer and Mark Caliguire proposed selling all of the land to Somerset County to create a passive-use park. In October 2010, Somerset County agreed to purchase the land for a passive-use park for $14.1 million.

Skillman Park

Skillman Park covers of open space in the Skillman section of Montgomery Township that is owned by Somerset County and maintained by the Somerset County Parks Department. In April 2015 a ribbon cutting ceremony was held by County officials to celebrate the park's opening.

Government

Local government

Montgomery Township is governed under the

Township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

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 Township Committee is comprised of five members, who are elected directly by the voters

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...

in partisan elections to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either one or two seats coming up for election each year as part of the November general election in a three-year cycle.''2012 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book'',

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, March 2013, p. 103. At an annual reorganization meeting, the Township Committee selects which of its members will serve as Mayor and Deputy Mayor for that year. , the members of the Montgomery Township Committee are

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Neena Singh ( D, term on committee ends 2027, term as mayor ends December 31, 2025),

Deputy Mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor and assistant mayor) is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many local governments. Duties and functions Many elected deputy mayors are members of the loca ...

Vincent P. Barragan (D, term on committee ends 2025; term as deputy mayor ends 2025), Dennis Ahn (D, 2027), Mike Martin (D, 2025) and Patricia Taylor Todd (D, 2026).Elected Officials
Montgomery Township. Accessed March 30, 2024.''2023 Directory of County & Municipal Offices''

Somerset County, New Jersey Somerset County is a county located in the north-central part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 census, the county was the state's 13th-most-populous county, In June 2022, the Township Committee appointed Vincent Barragan to fill the seat expiring in December 2022 that had been held by Kent Huang until he resigned from office the previous month. In February 2025, the Township Committee appointed Mike Martin to fill the seat expiring in December 2025 that had been held by Devra Keenan until she resigned from office the previous month. When she took office in January 2019, Sadaf Jaffer became the first South Asian woman to hold a mayoral position in New Jersey.

Municipal court

The Montgomery Township Municipal Court is held in neighboring Hillsborough Township in the courtroom within the Hillsborough Township Municipal Complex, as part of a

shared services Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the ...

agreement between the two townships. The court hears all motor vehicle, disorderly persons offenses, weights/measures complaints, fish and game violations, local ordinance violations and citizen complaints.

Emergency services

Montgomery Township is served by two primary all-volunteer fire companies, and an all volunteer rescue squad which provide the township with round the clock protection. * Station 45 Fire – Montgomery Township Fire District #1 covering Belle Mead and northern half of township. * Station 46 Fire – Montgomery Township Fire District #2 covering Blawenburg and the southern half of township. * Squad 47 EMS – Montgomery EMS * *Station 53 Fire – Rocky Hill Fire Department ''*Montgomery Township District #2 and Rocky Hill Fire Department established an agreement for mutual aid first-due coverage into both of their respective response areas (portion of district #2) to provide better and more efficient fire protection to the residents of Rocky Hill and Montgomery.'' ''Select areas such as District #2's portion of Route 206 (its businesses, residences, and other buildings), County Route 518, and the Blue Spring Road developments and housing is also served by the Rocky Hill Fire Department (Station 53).''

Federal, state, and county representation

Montgomery Township is located in the 12th Congressional District2022 Redistricting Plan

New Jersey Redistricting Commission The New Jersey Redistricting Commission is a constitutional body of the government of New Jersey tasked with redrawing the state's Congressional election districts after each decade's census. Like Arizona, Idaho, Hawaii, Montana, and Washington ...

, December 8, 2022. and is part of New Jersey's 16th state legislative districtMunicipalities Sorted by 2011-2020 Legislative District

New Jersey Department of State The secretary of state of New Jersey oversees the Department of State, which is one of the original state offices. The Secretary is responsible for overseeing New Jersey State Council on the Arts, artistic, cultural, and New Jersey Historical Com ...

. Accessed February 1, 2020.''2019 New Jersey Citizen's Guide to Government''
New Jersey

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonpartisan American nonprofit political organization. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include Voter registration, registering voters, providing voter information, boosting voter turnout and adv ...

. Accessed October 30, 2019.

Politics

As of March 2011, there were a total of 14,253 registered voters in Montgomery Township, of which 3,884 (27.3% vs. 26.0% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 3,297 (23.1% vs. 25.7%) were registered as Republicans and 7,068 (49.6% vs. 48.2%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 4 voters registered as

Libertarians Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

or Greens.Voter Registration Summary - Somerset

Division of Elections, March 23, 2011. Accessed February 13, 2013. Among the township's 2010 Census population, 64.0% (vs. 60.4% in Somerset County) were registered to vote, including 92.6% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 80.4% countywide). In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

received 52.3% of the vote (5,549 cast), ahead of Republican

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

with 46.2% (4,904 votes), and other candidates with 1.4% (151 votes), among the 10,673 ballots cast by the township's 15,384 registered voters (69 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 69.4%. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 6,082 votes (55.3% vs. 52.1% countywide), ahead of Republican

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

with 4,731 votes (43.0% vs. 46.1%) and other candidates with 123 votes (1.1% vs. 1.1%), among the 11,002 ballots cast by the township's 13,849 registered voters, for a turnout of 79.4% (vs. 78.7% in Somerset County). In the 2004 presidential election, Republican

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

received 5,086 votes (50.0% vs. 51.5% countywide), ahead of Democrat

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...

with 4,950 votes (48.7% vs. 47.2%) and other candidates with 97 votes (1.0% vs. 0.9%), among the 10,171 ballots cast by the township's 11,980 registered voters, for a turnout of 84.9% (vs. 81.7% in the whole county). In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican

Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician and former United States Attorney, federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party (United States) ...

received 66.3% of the vote (4,080 cast), ahead of Democrat

Barbara Buono Barbara A. Buono (born July 28, 1953) is an American politician who served in the New Jersey Senate from 2002 to 2014, where she represented the 18th Legislative District. She served from 2010 to 2012 as the Majority Leader in the Senate, succ ...

with 31.5% (1,937 votes), and other candidates with 2.2% (136 votes), among the 6,226 ballots cast by the township's 15,614 registered voters (73 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 39.9%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 3,999 votes (53.7% vs. 55.8% countywide), ahead of Democrat

Jon Corzine Jon Stevens Corzine ( ; born January 1, 1947) is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006, and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran f ...

with 2,818 votes (37.9% vs. 34.1%), Independent Chris Daggett with 531 votes (7.1% vs. 8.7%) and other candidates with 61 votes (0.8% vs. 0.7%), among the 7,444 ballots cast by the township's 13,992 registered voters, yielding a 53.2% turnout (vs. 52.5% in the county).

Education

The Montgomery Township School District is a comprehensive

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...

, comprised of five school facilities, that serves students in

pre-kindergarten Pre-kindergarten (also called pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...

through

twelfth grade Twelfth Grade (also known as Grade 12, Senior Year, Standard 12, 12th Standard, 12th Class, or Class 12th or Class 12) is the twelfth and final Educational stage, year of Formal education, formal or compulsory education. It is typically the final ...

from both Montgomery Township and Rocky Hill. As of the 2022–23 school year, the district, comprised of five schools, had an enrollment of 4,611 students and 403.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a

student–teacher ratio The student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio refers to the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers or staff in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that ...

of 11.4:1.District information for Montgomery Township School District

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the principal federal agency responsible for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data on education in the United States. Established under , it operates within the Institute of Education S ...

. Accessed February 1, 2024. Schools in the district (with 2022–23 enrollment data from the

) are Orchard Hill Elementary School with 813 students in grades PreK-2, Village Elementary School with 628 students in grades 3-4, Montgomery Lower Middle School with 738 students in grades 5-6, Montgomery Upper Middle School with 790 students in grades 7-8 and Montgomery High School with 1,603 students in grades 9-12. With the addition of the Montgomery High School in 2005, students were transferred from the old high school, now the upper middle school, to the current one located on Route 601. In late 2008 the high school added a solar panel field to save on energy costs. The new Montgomery High School has an indoor pool as well as a brand new outdoor turf. Montgomery Township was one of the fastest growing school districts in New Jersey. In September 1992, the K–12 enrollment was 1,590 compared to 4,924 in September 2005. This represents a tripling of enrollment in 13 years. However, since the 2005–2006 school year, enrollment has been flat due to a dramatic slowing of residential development in town. Montgomery Township High School was the 33rd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in ''

New Jersey Monthly ''New Jersey Monthly'' is an American monthly magazine featuring issues of possible interest to residents of New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United St ...

'' magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Education 2014: The State of Our Schools" after being ranked 61st in 2012 out of 328 schools listed and 10th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. Rocky Hill had been a non-operating school district whose school children attended the Montgomery Township schools as part of a

sending/receiving relationship A sending/receiving relationship is one in which a public school district sends some or all of its students to attend the schools of another district. This is often done to achieve costs savings in smaller districts or continues after districts hav ...

. It has since been consolidated into the Montgomery district.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Roads and highways

, the township had a total of of roadways, of which were maintained by the municipality, by Somerset County and by the

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transport ...

. U.S. Route 206 (with CR 533 overlapping it for a brief stretch) is the main road that goes through Montgomery. The other main county road that goes through is CR 518. Limited access roads are accessible outside the municipality, such as

Interstate 287 Interstate 287 (I-287) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving northern New Jersey and the counties of Rockland County, New York ...

in bordering Franklin Township and Interstate 295 in bordering Hopewell Township.

Public transportation

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. I ...

provides local bus service on the 605 route. Princeton Airport is located in the township.

Healthcare

Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center is a 355-bed regional

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

and

academic medical center The Academic Medical Center (Dutch: ''Academisch Medisch Centrum''), or AMC, was the university hospital affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. After merging with the VU University Medical Center, it now operates as the Amsterdam Universi ...

located in nearby Plainsboro Township. The hospital services the greater

region in

central New Jersey Central Jersey, or Central New Jersey, is the middle region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation Central Jersey is a distinct administrative division, administrative toponymy, toponym. While New Jersey is often divided into North Je ...

. It is owned by the Penn Medicine Health System and is the only such hospital in the state of New Jersey. Other nearby regional hospitals and healthcare networks that are accessible to the township include the Somerville division and the

division of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), along with Saint Peter's University Hospital, also in New Brunswick.

Notable people

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Montgomery Township include: * Wade Baldwin IV (born 1996),

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for the

Memphis Grizzlies The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division of the ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Ben Bernanke Ben Shalom Bernanke ( ; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Federal Reserve, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Insti ...

(born 1953), former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, former resident and member of the Montgomery Township Board of Education * Ira Black (1941–2006),

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

and

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

researcher who served as the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey * Yvonne Brill (1924–2013), rocket scientist * Mike Ford (born 1992),

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

who played for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

Louis Gambaccini Louis J. Gambaccini (May 6, 1931 – August 19, 2018) was an American government official who spent his career in the area of transportation. He was a graduate of the University of Connecticut and received a masters in public administration from ...

(1931–2018), government official who spent his career in the area of

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

. * Brandon Grosso (born 2000), race car driver in the

ARCA Menards Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car racing, stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into ...

* Sadaf Jaffer (born 1983), politician who was Mayor of Montgomery Township and represents the 16th Legislative District in the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

* John P. Lewis (1921–2010), academic and presidential advisor who was a strong advocate of aid to help build developing countries as a matter of foreign policy *

John Milhiser John Milhiser (born November 29, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. He first garnered attention for his work as a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch group Serious Lunch, before achieving further notice for his brief stint as a c ...

(born 1981), actor and comedian who has been a cast member on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' for the 2013–2014 season * John Sheridan (1942–2014), former New Jersey Transportation Commissioner, lived in Skillman *

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

(1878–1968), wrote the

muckraking The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...

fictional hit piece, ''

The Jungle ''The Jungle'' is a novel by American author and muckraking-journalist Upton Sinclair, known for his efforts to expose corruption in government and business in the early 20th century. In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks gathering information ...

'' in 1906, while living on Province Line Road * Mimi LaFollette Summerskill (1917–2008), educator, author, political activist and vineyard owner *

Tom Verducci Thomas Verducci (born October 23, 1960) is an American sportswriter who writes for ''Sports Illustrated'' and its online magazine SI.com. He writes primarily about baseball. He is also a reporter and commentator for Fox Major League Baseball a ...

(born 1960), sportswriter for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' * Arlene White Lawrence (1916–1990), bishop and the third president and general superintendent of the Pillar of Fire Church * Tom Wilson (born 1967), Republican Party leader who served as the chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee from 2004 to 2009Goodnough, Abby
"So What Will He Do After November?"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', September 28, 1997. Accessed February 2, 2015. "A Republican Resume: Age: 30; Town: Montgomery Township"

References

External links

Montgomery Township websiteThe Montgomery News website, the hometown newspaper
{{Raritan River 1798 establishments in New Jersey Populated places established in 1798 Township form of New Jersey government Townships in New Jersey Townships in Somerset County, New Jersey