Orange, New Jersey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The City of Orange Township is a City in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 32,868. Orange is often joined with neighboring East Orange, South Orange and West Orange and referred to as part of "the Oranges."
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[edit] Geography
Orange is located at (40.768300, -74.236031)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 5.7 km² (2.2 mi²), all land.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 32,868 people, 11,885 households, and 7,642 families residing in the township. The population density was 5,742.3/km² (14,903.7/mi²). There were 12,665 housing units at an average density of 2,212.7/km² (5,742.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the township was 13.20% White, 75.10% African American, 0.34% Native American, 1.26% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 5.21% from other races, and 4.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.47% of the population.
There were 11,885 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.7% were married couples living together, 26.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. 30.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.38.
In the township the population was spread out with 27.7% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 86.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.1 males.
The median income for a household in the township was $35,759, and the median income for a family was $40,852. Males had a median income of $33,442 versus $29,520 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $16,861. About 15.4% of families and 18.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.6% of those under age 18 and 16.7% of those age 65 or over.
Although still a small percentage of total residents, Orange and East Orange have the largest concentrations of Guyanese Americans in the country. In the 2000 Census, 2.9% of Orange residents identified as being of Guyanese ancestry. While Queens and Brooklyn had larger populations in terms of raw numbers, Orange and East Orange (with 2.5%) had the highest percentages of people of Guyanese ancestry as a portion of the total population of all places in the United States.[1]
[edit] Government
[edit] Local government
Orange is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) form of municipal government, with a directly-elected mayor and a City Council consisting of four ward representatives and three at-large representatives.
The Mayor of Orange is Mims Hackett, Jr., who also represents the district in the Assembly.
Members of the City Council are:
- Maria C. Vandermeer, President
- Coram J. Rimes, Vice-President
- Tency A. Eason, North Ward
- Vivian M. Gaunt, Councilwoman-at-Large
- Donald Page, Councilman-at-Large
- William R. Lewis, South Ward Councilman
- Barbara Peters, East Ward Councilwoman
[edit] Federal, state and county representation
Orange is in the Tenth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 27th Legislative District.[2]
New Jersey's Tenth Congressional District, covering portions of Essex County, Hudson County, and Union County, is represented by Donald M. Payne (D, Newark). New Jersey is represented in the Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D, Hoboken).
The 27th legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Richard Codey (D, West Orange) and in the Assembly by Mims Hackett (D, Orange) and John F. McKeon (D, West Orange). The Governor of New Jersey is Jon Corzine (D, Hoboken).
Essex County's County Executive is Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. The executive, along with the Board of Chosen Freeholders administer all county business. Essex County's Freeholders are Freeholder President Johnny Jones, Freeholder Vice President Patricia Sebold, Freeholder-At-Large Blonnie R. Watson, Freeholder-At-Large Donald M. Payne, Jr., Freeholder District 1 Samuel Gonzalez, Freeholder District 2 D. Bilal Beasley, Freeholder District 3 Carol Y. Clark, Freeholder District 4 Linda Lordi Cavanaugh and Freeholder District 5 Ralph R. Caputo.
[edit] Politics
On the national level, Orange leans strongly toward the Democratic Party. In 2004, Democrat John Kerry received 90 percent of the vote here, defeating Republican George W. Bush, who received around 9 percent.
[edit] History
Orange had its origins in Connecticut's New Haven Colony. In 1666, barely three decades after settling there, 30 of New Haven's families took the perilous journey by water to found "a town on the Passayak" River. They arrived on territory now encompassing Newark, the Oranges, and several other municipalities. The area was situated in the northeast portion of a land grant conveyed by King Charles II of England to his brother James, Duke of York. In 1664, James conveyed the land to two proprietors, Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Since Carteret had been Royal Governor of the Isle of Jersey, the territory became known as "New Jersey."
Orange was initially a part of the city of Newark, and remained such until November 27, 1806, when the territory now encompassing all of the Oranges was detached. On April 13, 1807, the first government was elected, but not until March 13, 1860, was Orange officially incorporated as a city. Immediately, the new city began fragmenting into smaller communities, primarily because of local disputes about the costs of establishing paid police, fire, and street departments. South Orange was organized on January 26, 1861, Fairmount (later to become part of West Orange) on March 11, 1862, East Orange on March 4, 1863, and West Orange (including Fairmount) on March 14, 1863.
Orange lay on the Mount Pleasant Turnpike, the main road from Newark to Morristown, and ultimately to Easton, Pennsylvania. The town became a busy thoroughfare for travelers, and hotels abounded. Initially, the stagecoach was the primary method of transportation. Omnibuses of the Eclipse and the Morris & Newark Lines serviced Orange. The Morris and Essex Railroad arrived in Orange in November 1836, its first cars drawn by horses. On October 2, 1837, the first steam locomotive appeared, and the horses were, with minor exception, relegated to pasture. The "M&E" later became a vital part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) and survives today as New Jersey Transit's busy Morristown Line. Trolley cars appeared much later, with the Orange and Newark Horse Car Railroad Company running its first car up Main Street in May 1862. The Orange Crosstown Line, eventually extending from Morris Street, Orange, to Bloomfield, was started in June 1888. (The first electric trolley in the State of New Jersey operated over a section of this line.) Eventually all of the trolleys, and the buses that replaced them, became part of the sprawling Public Service Coordinated Transport System.
Orange was an industrial city from the outset. Early settlers found a profuse growth of hemlock trees, an ideal supply of tannic acid for the tanning industry, and boot and shoemaking factories soon flourished.
Hat making was the essential industry, and can be traced to 1792. By 1892, 21 firms were engaged in that trade, employing over 3,700 people in plants valued at nearly $1.1 million. Nearly 4.8 million hats left Orange that year alone, bound for all four corners of the globe. By 1921, however, only five firms were left, and by 1960, all had departed for places such as Norwalk and Danbury, Connecticut.
Beer was a major revenue producer in Orange beginning in the early 1900s when the three Winter Brothers of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arrived in the city and built the first brewery. The Orange Brewery was constructed in 1901 at a reported cost of $350,000. The production of beer ceased with prohibition in 1920, and after the repeal of the Volstead Act in 1933, the brewery was sold to John F. Trommers of Philadelphia. Trommers brewed beer under that label until 1950, when the concern was again sold to Liebmann Breweries, Incorporated, which bottled Rheingold Beer. Eventually, after several additional owners, the plant was closed for good in 1977.
Other notable firms located in Orange were the Monroe Calculating Company, manufacturers of the patented adding machines of the same name, and the Bates Manufacturing Company, producers of office accessories such as staplers and stampers. The United States Radium Company was a notorious resident of Orange. This firm refined ore and extracted radium used to make luminous paint for dials and hands of watches and other indicators. It was only years later that the terrible carcinogenic effects of this material became known, and the polluted site of the factory became a thorn in the side of the city.
Orange has produced such notables as baseball's Monte Irvin and Heavyweight Boxer Tony Galento. Actor William Bendix lived and worked here for a short while. It was once the barmaking capital of the United States, as several brothers founded the "No-Name Hat Company," before one of them moved on to make fedoras in Philadelphia under the family name, "Stetson." Presidents, presidential candidates, and governors visited. Orange threw the biggest party of all on its 100th anniversary and another when it turned 150.
Once a multiethnic, economically diverse city, Orange suffered indirectly from the 1967 riots in Newark (even though Newark and Orange do not share a border) and directly from the construction of Interstate 280 through the heart of the downtown area, triggering middle-class "white flight" from aging industrial towns to the new automobile suburbs being built in western Essex County and elsewhere. By the end of the 1970's, Orange had many of the urban ills normally associated with larger cities.
In 1982, citizens voted overwhelmingly to change the designation of Orange from a city to a township, thereby making it eligible for National Revenue Sharing funds. In 1985, the State of New Jersey named Orange as a State Urban Enterprise Zone, creating tax breaks and investment incentives.
Source: City of Orange Township History
[edit] Education
Orange Board of Education, an Abbott District, serves Orange. The district has eight elementary schools serving grades K-6: Central School, Cleveland Street School, Forest Street School, Heywood Avenue School, Lincoln Avenue School, Main Street School, Oakwood Avenue School and Park Avenue School. All of Orange is served by Orange Middle School for grades 7&8, and by Orange High School for grades 9-12.
[edit] Transportation
The Orange and Highland Avenue stations provide New Jersey Transit train service along the Morris & Essex Lines (formerly Erie Lackawanna Railway). Service is available via the Kearny Connection to Secaucus Junction and Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan and to Hoboken Terminal. Passengers can transfer at Newark Broad Street or Summit to reach the other destination if necessary.
[edit] Noted residents
- Samuel P. Bush, industrialist and patriarch of the Bush political family
- Al Harrington, professional basketball player currently playing for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks
- Mark E. Kelly, astronaut. He first went into space as the pilot for STS-108 Endeavour (December 5–17, 2001), and returned to space with STS-121 in 2006 as the pilot. His twin brother, Scott J. Kelly, is also in the Astronaut Corps.
- George McClellan, American Civil War general and later Governor of New Jersey, died here in 1885.
- Roy Scheider, actor, was born here in 1932.
- Kieran Shields, police officer, killed in a foot pursuit August 7th, 2006.
[edit] See also
Radium Girls, the name given to a group of women who were harmed, and ultimately died, from radiation exposure at a factory in Orange.
[edit] References
- ^ Guyanese Communities, at Epodunk, accessed August 21, 2006
- ^ League of Women Voters: 2006 New Jersey Citizen's Guide to Government, p. 62, accessed August 30, 2006
[edit] External links
- Orange Township website
- Orange Board of Education
- Orange Board of Education's 2004-2005 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
- National Center for Education Statistics data for the Orange Board of Education
- Township of Orange Bicentennial
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
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Municipalities of Essex County, New Jersey (County Seat: Newark) |
|---|---|
| Boroughs | Caldwell | Essex Fells | Glen Ridge | North Caldwell | Roseland |
| Cities | East Orange | Newark |
| Towns | |
| Townships | Belleville | Bloomfield | Cedar Grove | City of Orange | Fairfield | Irvington | Livingston | Maplewood | Millburn | Montclair | Nutley | South Orange Village | Verona | West Caldwell | West Orange |
| Neighborhoods | Broadway | Downtown Newark | Fairmount | Forest Hill | Ironbound | Llewellyn Park | Roseville | Seventh Avenue | Short Hills | Springfield/Belmont | University Heights | Vailsburg | Weequahic |
