New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in and the seat of government of Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[23] A regional commercial hub for central New Jersey, the city is both a college town (the home of Rutgers University, the state's largest university) and a commuter town for residents commuting to New York City within the New York metropolitan area.[24] New Brunswick is on the Northeast Corridor rail line, 27 miles (43 km) southwest of Manhattan. The city is located on the southern banks of the Raritan River in the heart of the Raritan Valley region.
This article is about the city in New Jersey. For the Canadian province, see New Brunswick. For other uses, see New Brunswick (disambiguation).
New Brunswick, New Jersey
December 30, 1730
September 1, 1784
Braunschweig, Germany, or King George II of Great Britain
City Council
5.75 sq mi (14.90 km2)
5.23 sq mi (13.55 km2)
0.52 sq mi (1.35 km2) 9.06%
264th of 565 in state
14th of 25 in county[1]
62 ft (19 m)
55,266
55,998
32nd of 565 in state
6th of 25 in county[15]
10,561.1/sq mi (4,077.7/km2)
As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 55,266,[11][12] an increase of 85 (+0.2%) from the 2010 census count of 55,181,[25][26] which in turn reflected an increase of 6,608 (+13.6%) from the 48,573 counted in the 2000 census.[27] The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 55,998 in 2022,[11] ranking the city the 712th-most-populous in the country.[13] Due to the concentration of medical facilities in the area, including Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and medical school, and Saint Peter's University Hospital, New Brunswick is known as both the Hub City and the Healthcare City.[28][29] The corporate headquarters and production facilities of several global pharmaceutical companies are situated in the city, including Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. New Brunswick has evolved into a major center for the sciences, arts, and cultural activities. Downtown New Brunswick is developing a growing skyline, filling in with new high-rise towers.
New Brunswick is noted for its ethnic diversity. At one time, one-quarter of the Hungarian population of New Jersey resided in the city, and in the 1930s one out of three city residents was Hungarian.[30] The Hungarian community continues as a cohesive community, with the 3,200 Hungarian residents accounting for 8% of the population of New Brunswick in 1992.[31] Growing Asian and Hispanic communities have developed around French Street near Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
History[edit]
Etymology[edit]
The area around present-day New Brunswick was first inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans, whose Minisink Trail intersected the Raritan River and followed a route that would be taken by later colonial roads.[32] The first European settlement at the site of New Brunswick was made in 1681. The settlement here was called Prigmore's Swamp (1681–1697), then known as Inian's Ferry (1691–1714).[33] In 1714, the settlement was given the name New Brunswick, after the city of Braunschweig (Brunswick in Low German), in the state of Lower Saxony, now located in Germany. Braunschweig was an influential and powerful city in the Hanseatic League and was an administrative seat for the Duchy of Hanover. Shortly after the first settlement of New Brunswick in colonial New Jersey, George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Elector of Hanover, became King George I of Great Britain. Alternatively, the city gets its name from King George II of Great Britain, the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.[34][35]
Colonial and Early American periods[edit]
Centrally located between New York City and Philadelphia along an early thoroughfare known as the King's Highway and situated along the Raritan River, New Brunswick became an important hub for Colonial travelers and traders. New Brunswick was incorporated as a town in 1736 and chartered as a city in 1784.[36] It was incorporated into a town in 1798 as part of the Township Act of 1798. It was occupied by the British in the winter of 1776–1777 during the Revolutionary War.[37]
The Declaration of Independence received one of its first public readings, by Colonel John Neilson in New Brunswick on July 9, 1776, in the days following its promulgation by the Continental Congress.[38][39][40] A bronze statue marking the event was dedicated on July 9, 2017, in Monument Square, in front of the Heldrich Hotel.[41]
The Trustees of Queen's College (now Rutgers University), founded in 1766, voted by a margin of ten to seven in 1771 to locate the young college in New Brunswick, selecting the city over Hackensack, in Bergen County, New Jersey.[42] Classes began in 1771 with one instructor, one sophomore, Matthew Leydt, and several freshmen at a tavern called the 'Sign of the Red Lion' on the corner of Albany and Neilson Streets (now the grounds of the Johnson & Johnson corporate headquarters); Leydt would become the university's first graduate in 1774 when he was the only member of the graduating class.[43] The Sign of the Red Lion was purchased on behalf of Queens College in 1771, and later sold to the estate of Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh in 1791.[44] Classes were held through the American Revolution in various taverns and boarding houses, and at a building known as College Hall on George Street, until Old Queens was completed and opened in 1811.[45][46] It remains the oldest building on the Rutgers University campus.[47] The Queen's College Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School) was established also in 1766, and shared facilities with the college until 1830, when it located in a building (now known as Alexander Johnston Hall) across College Avenue from Old Queens.[48] After Rutgers University became the state university of New Jersey in 1945,[49] the Trustees of Rutgers divested itself of Rutgers Preparatory School, which relocated in 1957 to an estate purchased from Colgate-Palmolive in Franklin Township in neighboring Somerset County.[50]
The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, founded in 1784 in New York, moved to New Brunswick in 1810, sharing its quarters with the fledgling Queen's College. (Queen's closed from 1810 to 1825 due to financial problems, and reopened in 1825 as Rutgers College.)[51] The Seminary, due to overcrowding and differences over the mission of Rutgers College as a secular institution, moved to a tract of land covering 7 acres (2.8 ha) located less than 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) to the west, which it still occupies, although the land is now in the middle of Rutgers University's College Avenue Campus.[52]
New Brunswick was formed by royal charter on December 30, 1730, within other townships in Middlesex and Somerset counties and was reformed by royal charter with the same boundaries on February 12, 1763, at which time it was divided into north and south wards. New Brunswick was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on September 1, 1784.[36]
Economy[edit]
Healthcare industry[edit]
City Hall has promoted the nickname "The Health Care City" to reflect the importance of the healthcare industry to its economy.[175] The city is home to the world headquarters of Johnson & Johnson, along with several medical teaching and research institutions.[176] Described as the first magnet secondary school program teaching directly affiliated with a teaching hospital and a medical school, New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School is a public high school, that operates as part of the New Brunswick Public Schools, focused on health sciences.[177]
Urban Enterprise Zone[edit]
Portions of the city are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), one of 32 zones covering 37 municipalities statewide. New Brunswick was selected in 2004 as one of two zones added to participate in the program.[178] In addition to other benefits to encourage employment and investment within the Zone, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the 6+5⁄8% rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants.[179] Established in December 2004, the city's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in December 2024.[180][181]
Arts and culture[edit]
Theatre[edit]
The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center opened 2019. Three neighboring professional venues, Crossroads Theatre designed by Parsons+Fernandez-Casteleiro Architects from New York. In 1999, the Crossroads Theatre won the prestigious Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Crossroads is the first African American theater to receive this honor in the 33-year history of this special award category.[182] George Street Playhouse (founded in 1974)[183] and the State Theatre (constructed in 1921 for vaudeville and silent films)[184] also form the heart of the local theatre scene. Crossroad Theatre houses American Repertory Ballet and the Princeton Ballet School.[185] Rutgers University has student-run companies such as Cabaret Theatre, The Livingston Theatre Company, and College Avenue Players which perform everything from musicals to dramatic plays to sketch comedy.
Education[edit]
Public schools[edit]
The New Brunswick Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.[288] The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide that were established pursuant to the decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Abbott v. Burke[289] which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.[290][291] The district's nine-member Board of Education is elected at large, with three members up for election on a staggered basis each April to serve three-year terms of office; until 2012, the members of the Board of Education were appointed by the city's mayor.[292]
As of the 2022–23 school year, the district, comprised of 12 schools, had an enrollment of 9,690 students and 777.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.5:1.[293] Schools in the district (with 2022–23 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[294]) are
Lincoln Elementary School[295] (578; K-4),
Livingston Elementary School[296] (342; K-5),
Lord Stirling Elementary School[297] (490; PreK-5),
McKinley Community Elementary School[298] (640; PreK-8),
A. Chester Redshaw Elementary School[299] (784; PreK-5),
Paul Robeson Community School For The Arts[300] (665; K-8),
Roosevelt Elementary School[301] (609; K-5),
Blanquita B. Valenti Community School[302] (opened 2023-24: 569 in grades 4-8),
Woodrow Wilson Elementary School[303] (373; PreK-8),
New Brunswick Middle School[304] (1,259; 6-8) and
New Brunswick High School[305] (2,477; 9-12).[306][307][308][309]
The community is also served by the Greater Brunswick Charter School, a K–8 charter school serving students from New Brunswick, Edison, Highland Park and Milltown.[310] As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 399 students and 32.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.3:1.[311]
Eighth grade students from all of Middlesex County are eligible to apply to attend the high school programs offered by the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools, a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career and technical education at Middlesex County Academy in Edison, the Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences in Woodbridge Township and at its East Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Piscataway technical high schools, with no tuition charged to students for attendance.[312][313]
John B. Drury House, Victorian style
Roosevelt Intermediate School, Neo-Classical Revival style
Ukrainian Catholic Church, Richardsonian Romanesque style
The Livingston Avenue Historic District is a historic district located along Livingston Avenue between Hale and Morris Streets. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 16, 1996, for its significance in architecture, social history, and urban history from 1870 to 1929.[317][318]
New Brunswick's sister cities are:[481][482]