Belleville, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Belleville is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States.

History Originally known as "Second River" or "Washington", the inhabitants renamed the settlement "Belleville" in 1797. Belleville was originally incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 8, 1839, from portions of Bloomfield. Portions of the township were taken to create Woodside Township (March 24, 1869, now defunct) and Franklin Township (February 18, 1874, now known as Nutley).

In 1870, Belleville became the first city on the East Coast of the United States with a Chinatown. While much of the country (especially the Western states) had strong anti-Chinese sentiment, the town welcomed a group of Chinese workers from the West Coast who had been workers on building the Central Pacific Railroad. This group of people eventually formed the basis for Chinatowns in Newark and New York City.

In 1981, the town was one of seven Essex County municipalities to pass a referendum to become a township, joining four municipalities that had already made the change, of what would ultimately be more than a dozen Essex County municipalities to reclassify as townships in order take advantage of federal revenue sharing policies that allocated townships a greater share of government aid to municipalities on a per capita basis.

In 1994, Congress passed a resolution recognising Belleville as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 3.37 square miles (8.71 km²), including 3.30 square miles (8.54 km²) of land and 0.07 square miles (0.18 km²) of water (2.05%).

Silver Lake (2010 total population of 4,243) is an unincorporated community and place (CDP) defined by the United States Census Bureau as of the 2010 Census that is split between Belleville (with 3,769 of the CDP's residents) and Bloomfield (474 of the total).

Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Belwood, Big Tree and Soho.

The Second River forms much of the border between Belleville and Newark as it runs through Branch Brook Park.

The township of Belleville has given itself the nickname the Cherry Blossom Capital of America, with an annual display that is larger than the famed Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., site of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

The township borders the municipalities of Bloomfield, Newark and Nutley in Essex County; Lyndhurst and North Arlington in Bergen County; and Kearny in Hudson County.

Demographics The 2010 United States census counted 35,926 people, 13,395 households, and 9,001 families in the township. The population density was 10,755.7 per square mile (4,152.8/km²). There were 14,327 housing units at an average density of 4,289.3 per square mile (1,656.1/km²). The racial makeup was 60.55% (21,753) White, 9.12% (3,277) Black or African American, 0.35% (126) Native American, 12.00% (4,312) Asian, 0.05% (18) Pacific Islander, 13.97% (5,018) from other races, and 3.96% (1,422) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 39.34% (14,133) of the population.

Of the 13,395 households, 30.5% had children under the age of 18; 44.3% were married couples living together; 16.7% had a female householder with no husband present and 32.8% were non-families. Of all households, 27.0% were made up of individuals and 8.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.29.

21.7% of the population were under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 31.1% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.2 years. For every 100 females, the population had 93.1 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 89.0 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $60,127 (with a margin of error of +/− $2,658) and the median family income was $69,181 (+/− $4,525). Males had a median income of $46,656 (+/− $2,959) versus $42,237 (+/− $2,818) for females. The per capita income for the township was $27,668 (+/− $1,357). About 3.7% of families and 6.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and 6.6% of those age 65 or over.

Education The Belleville School District serves public school students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of 11 schools, had an enrollment of 4,548 students and 361.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.6:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Hornblower Early Childhood Center[00] (60 students; in PreK), School 3[01] (322; K-5), School 4[02] (466; PreK-5), School 5[03] (375; K-5), School 7[04] (404; PreK-5), School 8[05] (464; K-5), School 9[06] (124; K-5), School 10[07] (152; K-5), Belleville Middle School[08] (736; 6-8) and Belleville High School[09] (1,358; 9-12).

The Belleville Public Library and Information Center had a collection of 98,603 volumes.

** Roads and highways** As of May 2010, the township had a total of 67.17 miles (108.10 km) of roadways, of which 57.22 miles (92.09 km) were maintained by the municipality, 6.21 miles (9.99 km) by Essex County and 3.74 miles (6.02 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Route 7, Route 21 and County Route 506 all pass through Belleville.

The Belleville Turnpike Bridge (also known as the Rutgers Street Bridge) crosses the Passaic River, connecting Belleville to North Arlington. The bridge was formally renamed on July 4, 2013, as the "Lance Corporal Osbrany Montes de Oca Memorial Bridge" in memory of a United States Marine Corps soldier killed in February 2012 while serving in Afghanistan.

Transport: Public The Silver Lake station provides service to Newark Penn Station on the Newark Light Rail.

Until 1966, the Newark Branch of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad provided train service at stations at Belleville and Cleveland Street. The New York and Greenwood Lake Railway, later the Boonton Line, also served the township. The Newark Branch tracks are now used for freight only, operated by Norfolk Southern.

NJ Transit bus service is available to and from Newark on the 13, 27, 72, 74, 90, 92, 93 and 94 bus lines.

Places of interest • Clara Maass Medical Center is a 469-bed teaching hospital that is part of the Barnabas Health system, founded in 1868 as Newark German Hospital, and named for Clara Maass, a nurse who died after volunteering for medical experiments to study yellow fever • Reformed Dutch Church of Second River – The church's original building was constructed in 1697 and replaced in 1725. A new structure was erected in 1807 after a tornado destroyed the previous church building, and the current church dates to 1853. More than 60 Continental Army soldiers are buried in the cemetery that adjoins the church. • Christ Church Cemetery & Mausoleum – This cemetery was originally the first Episcopal Church in the area, established in 1746 by a land grant signed by King George II. The original burial ground still exists today, accompanied by a newer mausoleum.

1996 Torch Relay On June 18, 1996, the Olympic Torch Relay came through Belleville. The relay entered Belleville from Rutgers, made a left onto Washington Avenue, passing the Belleville Town Hall, a right onto Belleville Avenue and stayed on Belleville into the township of Bloomfield. The torch relay ended at Atlanta, Georgia for the 1996 Summer Olympics.