Dover, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Dover is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. Located on the Rockaway River, Dover is about 31 miles (50 km) west of New York City and about 23 miles (37 km) west of Newark, New Jersey.

Dover is a majority minority community, with nearly 70% of the population as of the 2010 census identifying themselves as Hispanic, up from 25% in 1980.

History Joseph Latham was deeded the land that includes present-day Dover in 1713, from portions of land that had been purchased from Native Americans by the Proprietors of West Jersey. On May 31, 1722, Latham and his wife Jane deeded 527 acres (2.13 km²) over to John Jackson of Flushing, New York. Jackson settled on the eastern portion of his land along Granny's Brook at the site of what would later become the Ross Ribbon Factory on Park Heights Avenue.

Iron ore at the time was so plentiful that it could be collected off the ground at the nearby Dickerson Mine in Mine Hill. At Jackson's Forge, ore would be processed into bars that would then be transported to Paterson and other industrial areas towards the east. The passage of the Iron Act by the British Parliament led to financial difficulties, leading Jackson into bankruptcy in 1753, with all of his property and belongings sold off at a Sheriff's sale. Quaker Hartshorne Fitz Randolph purchased Jackson's property and annexed to his own existing property, which would later become part of Randolph Township.

Dover was incorporated as a town on April 1, 1869, within Randolph Township and became fully independent as of March 5, 1896. The town charter was amended in 1875. On May 7, 1896, Dover was reincorporated as a city and regained its status as a town on March 21, 1899, after the referendum that approved the change was invalidated by a court ruling.

In its past, Dover has had extensive iron and mill works, machine shops, stove, furnace, and range works, boiler and bridge works, rolling mills, drill works, knitting and silk mills, and a large hosiery factory (MacGregors). During this period, Dover was a port on the Morris Canal while it was operational; the boat basin was located at what is today the JFK Commons Park.

Sources attribute the town's name to Dover, England or Dover, New Hampshire.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had a total area of 2.73 square miles (7.06 km²), including 2.68 square miles (6.93 km²) of land and 0.05 square miles (0.13 km²) of water (1.90%).

Points of interest • The Baker's Opera House is a historic theatre located on Blackwell Street and listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). • The Dover station is a historic train station listed on the NRHP. • The Blackwell Street Historic District, listed on the NRHP, contains 52 contributing buildings.

Parks and recreation • Hedden County Park, on Reservoir Avenue, is a 380-acre (1.5 km²) Morris County park, is partly located in Dover, with park entrances in Randolph. An active park, mostly in Randolph Township, with a picnic pavilion and tables, stone cooking grills for picnics in the woods, paddle boats in season, playgrounds, ball fields and hiking trails. • Hamilton Field is one of Dover's recreation centres, featuring a football field with bleachers, soccer fields, and a historic cinder track. This facility is restricted to school use and is not open to the public. • JFK Memorial Commons Park consists of a children's play park and the town Gazebo. JFK Park hosts the town's annual Christmas tree lighting, Easter egg hunt, Halloween parade, summer concerts and on occasions ceremonies following town parades. The park was constructed by filling in the basin for the old Morris Canal. The name was given following the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. • Crescent Field includes a new turf soccer field and is the hosting site for Dover's annual Colombian Festival. • Water Works Park consists of a baseball field, picnic area, and accessible banks of the Rockaway River. The Water Commission purchased the lane in 1902 and developed wells for much needed water to a growing community. In 1933, the land became a playground for picnicking and swimming in the nearby Rockaway River. • Hurd Park is a passive park with no playgrounds or ballfields. Ideal location for wedding and graduation photographs with its Greek style pavilion having fluted columns and a circular gazebo-like centre with a red-tiled roof and a scenic background. Donated to the town in 1911 by John Hurd, the park is also host to a 1922 World War I Spirit of the American Doughboy statue, one of a few found around the country. The park also displays a Civil War Memorial, a Spanish American War Memorial and a brick-walk memorial naming those on stone bricks who served in the Armed Forces. The park is also adjacent to Indian Falls, a scenic walk along the Jackson Brook to Hedden Park. • Triangle Park. In downtown Dover at the foot of Prospect Street, the small park is maintained by Dover's Renaissance Club and the home of Hudson Favell's "Story Poles". • Hooey Park is a small neighborhood park with a climbing playground for kids located in the Salem Village section of town. • Richards Avenue Park is a small park built on a vacant lot consisting of a small climbing playground for kids. • Bowlby Park and King Field located in North Dover was developed for Little League Baseball, soccer and high school girls softball games. • Mountain Park is located in South Dover on the old Munson Mine Tract and is being developed for hiking trails.

The borough borders the Morris County municipalities of Mine Hill Township, Randolph, Rockaway Township, Victory Gardens and Wharton.

Education The Dover School District serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of five schools, had an enrollment of 3,448 students and 244.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 14.1:1. Schools in the district (with 2021–22 enrollment from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Academy Street Elementary School with 470 students in grades K-6, East Dover Elementary School with 389 students in grades K-6, North Dover Elementary School with 658 students in grades PreK-6, Dover Middle School with 524 students in grades 7-8 and Dover High School with 1,094 students in grades 9-12.

The district serves students from Victory Gardens, which has been fully consolidated into the Dover School District since 2010. Students in grades 7–12 from Mine Hill Township attend the district's schools as part of a sending/receiving relationship.

Sacred Heart School was a Catholic school serving students in pre-school through eighth grade that operated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson. A successful fundraising effort in 2006 had kept the school open despite plans to close the school, but in 2009 the Paterson Diocese announced that declining enrollment and financial difficulties would lead to the school's closure at the conclusion of the 2008–2009 school year.

The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, a technical school founded in 1976 by cartoonist Joe Kubert and his wife Muriel and the only accredited school devoted to cartooning and graphic art, is located in Dover.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the town had a total of 42.84 miles (68.94 km) of roadways, of which 34.39 miles (55.35 km) were maintained by the municipality, 4.85 miles (7.81 km) by Morris County and 3.60 miles (5.79 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Highways directly serving Dover include U.S. Route 46, New Jersey Route 15 and County Route 513. Interstate 80 is accessible from several neighboring towns.

Public transportation Dover is served by NJ Transit bus routes 875 and 880, replacing service on the MCM2, MCM5, MCM7 and MCM10 routes until June 2010, when NJ Transit eliminated the subsidy as part of budget cuts.

NJ Transit Morristown Line and Montclair-Boonton Line trains stop at the Dover station. Trains operate to Hackettstown, Netcong, Boonton, Morristown, Montclair State University, Summit, the Oranges, Newark, Hoboken, New York City, and intermediate points.

Lakeland Bus Lines provides regular service to Sparta, Newton, Mount Olive, Rockaway, Boonton, Parsippany, Wayne, New York City, and intermediate points from their terminal on the Rockaway Township border. Service is also provided from Wednesday to Sunday between Dover and Atlantic City

The Morris County Department of Transportation also operates bus service along Route 46 to Netcong and Mount Olive Township.

Transport: Air Dover is located approximately 15 minutes west of Morristown Municipal Airport, and approximately 40 minutes west of Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark / Elizabeth.

Health care Dover is served by St. Clare's Dover General Hospital, located on Route 46, which is the local medical facility for Dover and other communities in western Morris County. Saint Clare's Denville Hospital is located 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Dover in Denville, and Morristown Medical Center is located 11 miles (18 km) east of Dover in Morristown. The Zufall Health Center, founded in 1990, is located on Warren Street and provides basic medical and dental services to low-income residents of Dover and neighboring communities.

Community The community of Dover is centered around a developed downtown area around Blackwell Street, featuring many eateries primarily owned and run by Hispanics of various countries, offering their ethnic food. Other culinary establishments include sushi, pizza, coffee shops, and popular Irish and Italian food.

Dover has been described as a walking town, as most parts of town are within about a 1/2 mile of the downtown area and most streets have sidewalks.