Middletown, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Middletown Township is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It is the most-populous municipality in the county and the state's 16th largest municipality by population. Middletown is one of the oldest sites of European settlement in New Jersey.

Middletown is a bedroom community of New York City, located alongside of the Raritan Bay within the Raritan Valley region in the New York metropolitan area. Due to its affluence, low crime, access to cultural activities, public school system, proximity to the Jersey Shore and Raritan Bayshore, and central commuting location, Middletown was ranked in the Top 100 in CNNMoney.com's Best Places to Live. Time magazine listed Middletown on its list of "Best Places to Live 2014".

In 2016, SafeWise named Middletown Township as the fifth-safest city in America to raise a child; the township was the highest ranked of the 12 communities in New Jersey included on the list.

History Small communities of the Lenape Navesink tribe were common throughout the area when the first known European landing in what would become Middletown Township occurred in 1609. Sea captain and explorer Henry Hudson, in search of the mythical Northwest Passage in the service of the Dutch West India Company, anchored along the shores of Sandy Hook Bay in 1609, describing the area "a very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see". While a patroonship was granted by the company in 1651 the land wasn't officially settled. Today's Shoal Harbor Museum and Old Spy House includes portions of a house constructed by Thomas Whitlock, one of the area's first European settlers (and a Reformed Baptist at Middletown) who arrived here as early as 1664, around the time of the English takeover of New Netherland as a prelude of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Long-standing tradition had Penelope Stout, one of the first settlers, hiding in a tree from hostile Native Americans.

Shortly after the Dutch surrender of the New Netherland to the English in 1664 a large tract of land known as the Navesink Patent or Monmouth Tract was granted to Baptist and Quaker settlers from Long Island, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, which soon thereafter became the townships of Middletown and Shrewsbury, and shortly thereafter that into the township of Freehold.

During the American Revolutionary War, Middletown and much of the rest of Eastern Monmouth County was held by the British. After the Battle of Monmouth, the British retreat from Freehold Township carried them down King's Highway through Middletown to their embarkation points at Sandy Hook in the bay, heading back to New York City.

Middletown Township was originally formed on October 31, 1693, and was incorporated as a township by the Township Act of 1798 of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. Portions of the township were taken to form Atlantic Township (February 8, 1847, now Colts Neck Township), Raritan Township (February 25, 1848, now Hazlet), Atlantic Highlands (February 28, 1887), Highlands (March 22, 1900) and Keansburg (March 22, 1917).

Upon the completion of a railroad junction in 1875, the town grew more rapidly, eventually changing from a group of small and loosely connected fishing and agricultural villages into a fast-growing suburb at the turn of the 20th century. If Middletown ever had a recognizable town centre or town square, it was lost in that rapid growth soon after World War II.

During the September 11 attacks in 2001, Middletown lost 37 of its residents at the World Trade Center, which was the second-most 9/11 deaths of any municipality, behind New York City itself. The World Trade Center Memorial Gardens were opened to the public on September 11, 2003, the second anniversary of the attacks.

The Waterfront site of Naval Weapons Station Earle is located in Leonardo on Sandy Hook Bay, and is used to load ammunition onto ships on a finger pier that stretches for 2.9 miles (4.7 km), making it the world's second-longest such pier.

The "Evil Clown of Middletown" is a towering sign along Route 35 painted to resemble a circus clown, that currently advertises a liquor store. The sign is a remnant of an old supermarket that used to be at that location called "Food Circus". The clown and recent successful attempts from residents to save it from demolition have been featured in the pages of Weird NJ magazine, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and in the Kevin Smith-directed film Clerks II.

The Indian Trails 15K road race is held each year in April to benefit the Monmouth Conservation Foundation and includes a 5K walk/run event for fun. The race, run on a combination on paved and dirt roads, includes many relatively steep hills and has been described as "the most challenging race in the state".

The Middletown Township Historical Society is a non-profit formed in 1968 to preserve and promote the history of Middletown, NJ.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 58.72 square miles (152.09 km²), including 40.95 square miles (106.06 km²) of land and 17.78 square miles (46.04 km²) of water (30.27%).

Belford (2010 Census population of 1,768), Fairview (3,806), Leonardo (2,757), Lincroft (6,135), Navesink (2,020), North Middletown (3,295) and Port Monmouth (3,818) are all places and unincorporated communities located within Middletown Township.

Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Browns Dock, Chapel Hill, East Keansburg, Everett, Fort Hancock, Harmony, Headdons Corner, Hendrickson Corners, Highland Park, Highlands Beach, Highlands of Navesink, Holland, Leonardville, Locust, Locust Point, Monmouth Hills, New Monmouth, Normandie, Oak Hill, Philips Mills, Red Hill, River Plaza, Stone Church, Tiltons Corner, Town Brook, Waterwitch Park and Wilmont Park.

The Sandy Hook peninsula is also within Middletown Township, though it is not connected to the rest of the township by land. However, one could sail along Raritan Bay from the mainland to Sandy Hook and remain within Middletown Township.

The township borders the Monmouth County communities of Atlantic Highlands, Colts Neck Township, Fair Haven, Hazlet Township, Highlands, Holmdel Township, Keansburg, Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright and Tinton Falls.

Poricy Creek (Poricy Park, Oak Hill Road) is locally well known for its deposits of Cretaceous marine fossils, including belemnites.

Public transportation NJ Transit's provides rail service at the Middletown station which runs between New York City's Pennsylvania Station and Bay Head on the North Jersey Coast Line. NJ Transit is a major commuter rail system, with track-sharing agreements with Amtrak, Metro-North Railroad, Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, and Conrail Shared Assets. Ferry service is available through the SeaStreak service in neighboring Highlands. SeaStreak offers ferry service to New York City with trips to Pier 11 (on the East River at Wall Street) and East 35th Street in Manhattan. The ferry service also offers seasonal travel, such as to the public beaches on Sandy Hook, baseball games at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, trips to Broadway matinees, Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, college football games at West Point, fall foliage in the Hudson Valley, and to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, among other excursions.

Healthcare Hackensack Meridian Health has two hospitals in the area. Bayshore Medical Center in neighboring Holmdel and Riverview Medical Center in neighboring Red Bank. These are local hospitals for the Raritan Bayshore region and handles all but trauma cases. The closest major university hospitals to the area that handle trauma care are, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in nearby Neptune and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in nearby New Brunswick.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, founded in New York City in 1884, is the oldest cancer treatment and research centre in the world. The cancer centre has a regional centre for Monmouth County located in Middletown. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of Monmouth is the first centre outside of the main centre in Manhattan to offer outpatient surgery.