Hanover Township, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Hanover Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. The township comprises the unincorporated communities of Whippany and Cedar Knolls.

Located just north of the historic town of Morristown (separated by a thin strip of Morris Township) and adjacent to the regional Morristown Municipal Airport, Hanover Township offers many public attractions including the Whippany Railway Museum, the Frelinghuysen Arboretum and the Morris County Library. Patriots' Path, a wilderness walkway and bike trail that stretches for 26 miles (42 km), also passes through the township along the Whippany River.

History Hanover Township is the site of the first European settlement in north-west New Jersey. New Englanders established a settlement along the Whippany River in 1685 near the current location of the old Whippany Cemetery on Route 10.

Once the Province of West Jersey purchased the land from the local Lenape Native Americans, the original County of Morris was created and comprised all of what is now Morris, Sussex and Warren Counties. The counties were partitioned into townships. Morris' original township was 'Whippenny' which itself comprised all of what is now Morris County.

The name "Hanover" was taken from the House of Hanover in Germany. This namesake was given to the Township of Hanover on December 7, 1720, as a sign of respect to George I of Great Britain who was of the House of Hanover and who ruled over the American colonies in the eighteenth century. Its size has been considerably decreased as the population of the area has increased since the creation of Hanover Township in 1720 and its incorporation on March 25, 1740, with the formation of Morris County. Originally encompassing all of Morris County and parts of Sussex and Warren County, Hanover Township became too unwieldy for a single local government to maintain. The Township was subdivided into smaller municipalities that could provide more responsive local control despite placing greater demands on the local tax base to support new facilities for each.

Portions of the township were taken to form Mendham Township on March 29, 1749. Hanover Township was established by the Township Act of 1798 of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. Additional portions of the township were taken to form Chatham Township (February 12, 1806), Rockaway Township (April 8, 1844), Boonton Town (March 16, 1866), Mountain Lakes (April 29, 1924), Morris Plains (April 15, 1926), East Hanover Township and Parsippany-Troy Hills Township (which both split off on May 9, 1928).

During the Revolutionary War, George Washington and his troops often camped in, and marched through, Hanover Township.

The name Whippany is adapted from the Native American word Whippanong which means “place of the arrow wood".

The old settlements of Monroe and Malapardis were consumed by development and what remains are two communities—Whippany and Cedar Knolls—which are roughly separated by Interstate 287.

The Malapardis area of Cedar Knolls is primarily located around Malapardis Road. A section of Malapardis, even though it is in Hanover Township's borders, has a Morris Plains mailing zip code. Another section of Cedar Knolls is called Trailwood which has a section of its land in a Morris Plains ZIP code, the area closest to American Way.

The Monroe area of Whippany is located around Whippany Road and Cedar Knolls Road, marked by a building in the intersection named Monroe Hall.

Until the post-World War II suburbanization of New Jersey, Hanover Township was a sparsely populated industrial town known for its iron works and paper mills. This industry was driven by the ever-present power of the Whippany River. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the Township became thoroughly suburban.

Lucent Technologies had a large facility in Whippany. The first demonstration of long distance television transmission in the United States took place in 1927, with a transmission that went via wire from Washington, D.C., to New York, and from Whippany to New York using radio.

The Seeing Eye, the first guide dog school for the blind in the United States, was located in Whippany between 1931 and 1966, before moving to its current campus in nearby Morris Township.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 10.75 square miles (27.83 km²), including 10.52 square miles (27.23 km²) of land and 0.23 square miles (0.59 km²) of water (2.14%).

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Balls Mills, Black Meadows, Cedar Knolls, Eden Mill, Horse Hill, Jefferson, Lee Meadows, Malapardis, Monroe and Whippany.

Hanove Township borders the Morris County municipalities of East Hanover Township, Florham Park, Morris Plains, Morris Township and Parsippany-Troy Hills Township.

Arts and culture The township is home to the Whippany-based Hanover Wind Symphony, which was established in 1985.

Sport Home of the 2017 Junior Pee Wee Division Youth Football National Champions sponsored by the NFL Hall of Fame.

Parks and recreation Municipal parks and recreational facilities include: • Bee Meadow Park / Brickyard Field • Bee Meadow Pool • Blackbrook Park • Central Park • Malapardis Park • Monroe Hall and Park • Township Community Center • New York Red Bulls training facility.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the township had a total of 77.54 miles (124.79 km) of roadways, of which 62.47 miles (100.54 km) were maintained by the municipality, 7.46 miles (12.01 km) by Morris County and 7.61 miles (12.25 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Interstate 287, Route 10 and Route 24 pass through the Township. Interstate 80, U.S. Route 46 and U.S. Route 202 are nearby.

Transport: Public NJ Transit offers local bus service on the 871, 872 and 874 routes, with service between the township and Newark on the 73 route. Until 2010, service in the borough was offered on the MCM8 route, until subsidies offered to the local provider were eliminated by NJ Transit as part of budget cuts.

The Whippany Line of the Morristown and Erie Railway, a small freight line, traverses the township. Established in 1895, the line runs from Morristown and runs through East Hanover Township and Hanover Township to Roseland.

Transport: Air Morristown Municipal Airport is a general aviation facility located within Hanover Township, though it is owned by the town of Morristown.

Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark / Elizabeth is the closest airport with scheduled passenger service. It is approximately 20 minutes away via Route 24 and Interstate 78.

Media Radio stations WMTR and WDHA have studios and offices located in the Cedar Knolls section of the township.

Economy Major employers in Hanover Township include: • In Whippany: Bayer, Suburban Propane, Omnicare, Halo Pharma, Drew Marine, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. • In Cedar Knolls: Edgewell Personal Care and ShopRite