Hopewell, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Hopewell is a borough in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Centrally located within the Raritan Valley region, this historical settlement (and it's neighboring township of the same name) is an exurban commuter suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area as defined by the United States Census Bureau. Hopewell was incorporated as by the New Jersey Legislature on April 14, 1891, from portions of Hopewell Township, based on the results of a referendum held on March 21, 1891. Additional portions of Hopewell Township were annexed in 1915 and the borough was reincorporated in 1924.

History The Lenape Native Americans were the original inhabitants of the area that would later become Hopewell. The first Colonial influence in Hopewell by European settlers was the purchase of a 30,000-acre (120 km²) tract of land by Daniel Coxe a Royal British governor of West Jersey, in the latter half of the 17th century. All land in Hopewell can be traced back to this purchase. In 1691 Coxe, transferred his land to a company called The West Jersey Society of England, who intended to sell the land. The society appointed an agent, Thomas Revell, to preside over the land and sell it to prospective buyers. Revell then attracted settlers from New England, Long Island, and New Jersey falsely claiming that the land was fertile, and tame. However, the families that arrived in Hopewell only found vast stretches of wilderness. The first settler in Hopewell Valley was Thomas Tindall who on November 10, 1699, bought a 300-acre (1.2 km²) tract of land from The West Jersey Society of England through Revell, for "ten pounds per hundred acres". Other early settlers in Hopewell are said to be the Stouts, who immigrated from Holmdel to Hopewell in 1706, including Jonathan Stout, who had hunted in the area together with the Lenape. Perhaps the first conflict between colonists in Hopewell was the dispute between Revell and the early inhabitants of Hopewell, who realized that their deeds were worthless due to Revell's false claims. Fifty settlers then organized a class action lawsuit against Revell and the West Jersey Society. A lengthy trial was held in Burlington and the court ultimately ruled against the settlers, who were forced to repurchase their land or relocate. Many settlers weren't able to repay and moved north into North Jersey and New York.

On April 23, 1715, the settlers who stayed in Hopewell, most notably the Stout family, organized the Old School Baptist Church, and what is now known as Hopewell was then referred to as "Baptist Meetinghouse". One of the most valued members of the meeting house was Declaration of Independence signer John Hart who in 1740 purchased 193 acres (0.78 km²) of land in the north of current day Hopewell, and in 1747 as a sign of Hart's devotion to the Church, donated a plot of his land to the Baptists. The next year the Baptists made good use of this land and in 1748 erected their Old School Baptist Church meeting house on West Broad Street. The meeting house brought in Baptists from miles around to Hopewell and encouraged Hopewell's early growth.

Numerous lumber mills were established in and around Hopewell at this time to process the lumber that was generated from the clearing of forests for farms.

In 1756, Isaac Eaton the first pastor of the Old School Baptist Church established the Hopewell Academy. One of his students, James Manning, would go on to establish Brown University in 1765.

Frog war The first railroad to reach Hopewell was the Mercer and Somerset Railway, which was backed by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was created largely to protect the monopoly the Pennsylvania Railroad had on New Jersey, by cutting off the first separately owned railroad in New Jersey, the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad, by being built in the way of it. It was completed in 1874. The Delaware and Bound Brook reached Hopewell in 1876, but the railroad had to cross the Mercer and Somerset's track just to the north-west of Hopewell. A dispute occurred at the crossing, known as a frog, and escalated into each company parking locomotives over the crossing to prevent the other company from moving trains over it. Eventually, militia had to be called in to keep the peace, and the Delaware and Bound Brook prevailed. Soon after the Frog War the Mercer and Somerset was liquidated having failed at its purpose. Some of the abandoned right of way for the Mercer and Somerset in Hopewell became Model Avenue. The Delaware and Bound Brook was leased by the Philadelphia and Reading in 1879 for 999 years and has become the CSX Trenton Line and is still in use today. The Frog is also what gives Hopewell Elementary school its mascot, "Freddy the Frog" in honor of the Hopewell frog war.

The Hopewell Herald The main source of news for Hopewell Township prior to the 1960s was the Hopewell Herald, which was owned, operated, and published by the Savidge family of Hopewell.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 0.72 square miles (1.87 km²), all of which was land.

The borough is an independent municipality surrounded entirely by Hopewell Township, making it part one of 21 pairs of "doughnut towns" in the state, where one municipality entirely surrounds another.

Demographics The 2010 United States census counted 1,922 people, 778 households, and 532 families in the borough. The population density was 2,735.2 per square mile (1,056.1/km²). There were 817 housing units at an average density of 1,162.7 per square mile (448.9/km²). The racial makeup was 95.06% (1,827) White, 1.51% (29) Black or African American, 0.10% (2) Native American, 0.68% (13) Asian, 0.05% (1) Pacific Islander, 1.51% (29) from other races, and 1.09% (21) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.69% (71) of the population.

Of the 778 households, 33.5% had children under the age of 18; 54.6% were married couples living together; 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present and 31.6% were non-families. Of all households, 25.4% were made up of individuals and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.00.

24.0% of the population were under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 22.2% from 25 to 44, 36.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.8 years. For every 100 females, the population had 91.8 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 87.7 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $105,417 (with a margin of error of +/− $8,866) and the median family income was $125,066 (+/− $15,420). Males had a median income of $91,375 (+/− $14,302) versus $55,357 (+/− $11,473) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $50,910 (+/− $5,465). About none of families and 0.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Local government Hopewell is governed under the borough form of New Jersey municipal government, which is used in 218 municipalities (of the 564) statewide, making it the most common form of government in New Jersey. The governing body is comprised of the mayor and the borough council, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis as part of the November general election. The mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office. The borough council is comprised of six members elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats coming up for election each year in a three-year cycle. The borough form of government used by Hopewell is a "weak mayor / strong council" government in which council members act as the legislative body with the mayor presiding at meetings and voting only in the event of a tie. The mayor can veto ordinances subject to an override by a two-thirds majority vote of the council. The mayor makes committee and liaison assignments for council members, and most appointments are made by the mayor with the advice and consent of the council. All legislative powers of the Borough of Hopewell are exercised by the borough council in the form of a resolution, ordinance or proclamation.

As of 2023, the mayor of Hopewell is Democrat Paul Anzano, whose term expires December 31, 2023. Members of the borough council are Council President Charles Schuyler "Sky" Morehouse (R, 2023), Ryan Kennedy (D, 2023), David Mackie (D, 2025), Samara McAuliffe (D, 2024), Debra Stuhler (D, 2024) and Krista Weaver (D, 2025).

Public library The Hopewell Public Library was founded March 14, 1914, and was originally located at Broad and Mercer Streets in an old harness shop. The Hopewell Post Office had replaced the old bank building in 1915 and the Hopewell Public Library moved to its current location in the old Hopewell National Bank building in 1965.

In 2014, the library began looking for a new space, citing the lack of a parking lot and non-ADA compliant steps an issue with serving the general public. The library estimated that it needed to raise $1.2 million to cover the cost of the new building.

Education Public school students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade attend the Hopewell Valley Regional School District. The comprehensive regional public school district serves students from Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township and Pennington Borough. As of the 2019–20 school year, the district, comprised of six schools, had an enrollment of 3,467 students and 351.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.9:1. Schools in the district (with 2019–20 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Bear Tavern Elementary School with 397 students in grades Pre-K–5, Hopewell Elementary School with 400 students in grades Pre-K–5, Stony Brook Elementary School with 378 students in grades K–5, Toll Gate Grammar School with 306 students in grades K–5, Timberlane Middle School with 820 students in grades 6–8 and Hopewell Valley Central High School with 1,097 students in grades 9–12. Elementary school students from Hopewell Borough attend Hopewell Elementary School. The district's board of education is composed of nine members allocated to each of the three municipalities based on population, with Hopewell assigned a single seat.

Eighth grade students from all of Mercer County are eligible to apply to attend the high school programs offered by the Mercer County Technical Schools, a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career and technical education at its Health Sciences Academy, STEM Academy and Academy of Culinary Arts, with no tuition charged to students for attendance.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the borough had a total of 9.35 miles (15.05 km) of roadways, of which 7.56 miles (12.17 km) were maintained by the municipality and 1.79 miles (2.88 km) by Mercer County.

Hopewell has four major roads that travel through it. • County Route 518 enters Hopewell from due west having come from Lambertville and then turns slightly northward, joining West Broad Street. Route 518 then runs through Hopewell and exits Hopewell in the East and heads towards Rocky Hill. • Pennington Hopewell Road (County Route 654) enters Hopewell from roughly the south-west, and immediately becomes West Broad Street when it enters Hopewell. It connects Hopewell with Pennington to the south. • Princeton Avenue, County Route 569 starts at Broad Street and continues south and becomes Hopewell-Princeton Road, and connects Hopewell with Princeton. • Greenwood Avenue runs north out of Hopewell and connects Hopewell with East Amwell Township.

Route 31 is accessible via Route 518 and Route 654.

Transport: Rail NJ Transit is planning to restore passenger commuter rail service to Hopewell on the West Trenton Line. NJ Transit plans to use the existing one-track right of way that CSX owns through Hopewell, the former four-track Reading Company Trenton Line. The proposed plan includes double tracking most of the CSX line to increase capacity and construction of a new rail station on Somerset Street. The use of the historic Hopewell Station is not under consideration in this current proposal. The line would connect Hopewell with New York City, as well as Philadelphia via a SEPTA connection in West Trenton and restore service to Hopewell, which ended in 1982.

Ecology According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Hopewell Borough would have a dominant vegetation type of Appalachian Oak (104) with a dominant vegetation form of Eastern Hardwood Forest (25).