Brick, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Brick Township is a township situated on the Jersey Shore within Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city retained its position as the state's 13th-most-populous municipality. A majority of Brick Township is located on the mainland. Ocean Beaches I, II, and III are situated on the Barnegat Peninsula, a long, narrow barrier peninsula that separates Barnegat Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The mainland and beach area of the town are not geographically adjacent. Brick Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 15, 1850, from portions of both Dover Township (now Toms River Township) and Howell Township. The township was named after Joseph Brick, the owner of Bergen Iron Works located on the Metedeconk River. Portions of the township were taken to form Point Pleasant Beach (May 18, 1886), Bay Head (June 15, 1886), Lakewood Township (March 23, 1892), Mantoloking (April 10, 1911) and Point Pleasant (April 21, 1920). In 1963, voters rejected a referendum that would have changed the township's name to "Laurelton".

After hovering for years in the top five, in 2006, the township earned the title of "America's Safest City", out of 371 cities included nationwide in the 13th annual Morgan Quitno survey. Since the year 2000, Brick Township has been the safest "city" (population over 75,000) in New Jersey. In 2003 and 2004, Brick Township was ranked as the second safest city in the United States, after Newton, Massachusetts. In 2005, Brick Township had dropped down to the fifth safest "city" (population over 75,000) in the United States, before it rebounded to the top in 2006.

History The Havens Homestead Museum is dedicated to the Havens family that originally settled in the Laurelton/Burrsville section of Brick. The museum is the original Havens home which lies on a small plot of farmland. The museum has a gift shop and runs tours of the property daily.

Brick Township has also been in the news for a claimed autism epidemic, in which 40 children out of over 6,000 surveyed were found to be autistic, though Brick's autism rate is statistically near the national average. Many of the children found to be autistic were born in Northern New Jersey and other parts of the country. There is no evidence that the levels of autism are linked to any specific environmental factor in Brick. Parents of children diagnosed with autism have moved to the township in order to make use of the special education programs offered by the school district.

Brick has been affected by the heroin epidemic. According to the state's statistics, in 2012 Brick was ranked sixth in the state with 550 reported incidents of heroin or opiate abuse, behind Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Atlantic City and Camden. In 2017, Brick improved to 438 reported heroin abuse cases, ranked ninth in the state.

On July 11, 2004, Brick Memorial High School student, Brittney Gregory went missing. The news of her disappearance went on national news. Her body was found in a shallow grave, after a woman led the police to the area, just off. Suspect Jack Fuller Jr., a drug addict and acquaintance to Gregory’s father admitted to killing Gregory. Fuller stated that he was giving her a ride to her boyfriend’s house. Fuller began smoking crack in the car and Gregory became upset. Fuller punched Gregory several times and when she died, he buried her.

During the December 2010 North American blizzard, Brick Township received 30 inches (760 mm) of snow, the highest accumulation recorded in the state. In October 2012, parts of Brick were devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Barrier island and other waterfront properties were particularly hard hit. Homes and such buildings as the Shore Acres Yacht Club sustained major damage; some buildings had to be demolished.

Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 32.22 square miles (83.44 km²), including 25.61 square miles (66.34 km²) of land and 6.61 square miles (17.11 km²) of water (20.50%).

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Adamston, Arrowhead Village, Breton Woods, Burrsville, Cedar Bridge, CedarCroft, Cedarwood Park, Cherry Quay, Greenbriar, Havens Cove, Havens Point, Herbertsville, Herring Island, Lanes Mills, Laurelton, Mandalay Park, Metedeconk, Metedeconk Neck, Osbornville, Playground Beach, Riviera Beach, Seaweed Point, Shore Acres, Sloop Point, Swan Point, Wardell's Neck, West Mantoloking and West Osbornville.

The communities of Herbertsville and Parkway Pines are located close to exit 91 of the Garden State Parkway, near the Monmouth County border, and are geographically distant from the rest of the township. Bayberry Court and Maypink Lane are two streets that are not accessible from any other Brick roads, and are served by the United States Postal Service as ZIP Code 07731 with Howell Township.

The township borders Bay Head, Lakewood Township, Mantoloking, Point Pleasant and Toms River Township in Ocean County; and the Monmouth County municipalities of Brielle, Howell Township and Wall Township.

Demographics The 2010 United States census counted 75,072 people, 29,842 households, and 20,173 families in the township. The population density was 2,919.4 per square mile (1,127.2/km²). There were 33,677 housing units at an average density of 1,309.6 per square mile (505.6/km²). The racial makeup was 93.05% (69,856) White, 2.00% (1,502) Black or African American, 0.14% (104) Native American, 1.56% (1,173) Asian, 0.04% (27) Pacific Islander, 1.80% (1,350) from other races, and 1.41% (1,060) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.06% (5,301) of the population.

Of the 29,842 households, 27.3% had children under the age of 18; 52.6% were married couples living together; 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present and 32.4% were non-families. Of all households, 27.2% were made up of individuals and 13.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.05.

20.7% of the population were under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 23.8% from 25 to 44, 29.9% from 45 to 64, and 17.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.6 years. For every 100 females, the population had 91.0 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 87.6 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $65,129 (with a margin of error of +/− $2,969) and the median family income was $81,868 (+/− $2,081). Males had a median income of $60,769 (+/− $1,755) versus $41,361 (+/− $1,655) for females. The per capita income for the township was $33,258 (+/− $891). About 4.1% of families and 5.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.1% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.

Sport The Brick Pop Warner Little Scholars Mustangs finished the 2006 season with a perfect 9–0 record and won the Jersey Shore B Division.

In 2003, and from 2006 to 2009, the Pop Warner Brick Mustang cheerleaders competed against other teams from across the nation in Disney World. In 2003, the junior peewee Mustang cheer squad won the national title.

Brick is home of the Ocean Ice Palace, built in 1960, which hosts the Brick Hockey Club. The ice rink is also home to the Brick Stars, a special needs hockey team who has home games and practices.

Parks and recreation Brick Township Reservoir, with parts located in both Brick and Wall Township, covers 80 acres (32 ha) and is encircled by a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) trail. Fishing is permitted on the reservoir. The reservoir can hold up to 1,000,000,000 US gallons (3.8×109 L; 830,000,000 imp gal) of water, which is pumped in from the Metedeconk River. The township also maintains nearly a dozen community parks, a multi-sports facility at the Drum Point Sports Complex and three oceanfront beaches as well as Windward Beach Park on the Metedeconk River.

Education The Brick Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of 12 schools, had an enrollment of 8,414 students and 689.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.2:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Herbertsville Preschool (147; PreK), Warren H. Wolf Preschool (277; PreK; created for 2014-15 school year from Primary Learning Center), Drum Point Elementary School (479; K-5), Lanes Mill Elementary School (560; K-5), Midstreams Elementary School (548; K-5), Osborneville Elementary School (402; K-5), Veterans Memorial Elementary School (647; K-5), Emma Havens Young Elementary School (732; K-5), Lake Riviera Middle School (861; 6-8), Veterans Memorial Middle School (965; 6-8), Brick Memorial High School (1,410; 9-12) and Brick Township High School (1,314; 9-12).

Nonsectarian private schools include Cuddle Care Early Childhood Center and Ocean Early Childhood Center.

St. Dominic Elementary School is a Roman Catholic private school overseen by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton, and St. Paul's Christian School, a Methodist private school, serve students in nursery through eighth grade.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the township had a total of 318.77 miles (513.01 km) of roadways, of which 256.23 miles (412.36 km) were maintained by the municipality, 46.64 miles (75.06 km) by Ocean County and 12.61 miles (20.29 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and 3.29 miles (5.29 km) by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

The Garden State Parkway is the most prominent highway passing through Brick. It traverses the western part of the municipality with three interchanges: Exits 91, 90, and 89. Three state routes also pass through: Route 70 Route 88, and Route 35. The major county routes that pass through are CR 528, and CR 549 (as well as its spur).

The Laurelton Circle was located near the centre of Brick Township. The traffic circle was at the junction of Route 70, Route 88 and Princeton Avenue. It was converted to a traffic light regulated intersection in 1986, due to an increase in traffic and accidents. To reduce the need for left turns, a short portion of eastbound Route 88 was re-routed onto Princeton Avenue. Some other movements are controlled by jughandles and a two-way connection in the north-west corner.

Transport: Public NJ Transit offers bus service between the township and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on the 137 route, to Camden on the 317 and to Newark on the 67. Bus service is available from the Garden State Parkway to the Financial District in Lower Manhattan via the Academy Bus Line. Brick Township Park & Ride is located in the township off of the Garden State Parkway at exit 91. It is an express route to New York City during peak rush-hour. Ocean Ride service is provided on route 3, 3A and 4.

Media WBGD 91.9FM (Brick Green Dragons) went on the air in 1974, originally located at Brick Township High School. The station was later moved to Brick Memorial High School. The radio station was the brainchild of a teacher named Robert Boesch who taught electronics at Brick Township High School in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The station was a student-run operation and received its FCC license from the FCC for Educational Broadcasting.

One of the most notable broadcasts was the first ever state high school football championship game played between Brick Township High School and Camden High School in December 1974. The Brick Green Dragons defeated Camden by a score of 21–20 on the last play of the game to win the title.

In 2007, during routine roof maintenance and repair work, the broadcast tower was cut off the roof, and was never replaced or repaired. In 2010 WBGD's license was retired.

The Asbury Park Press provides daily news coverage of the township, as does WOBM-FM radio. The government of the township provides material and commentary to The Brick Times, which is one of seven weekly papers from Micromedia Publications.

Ecology According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Brick Township would have two classifications; both a dominant vegetation type of Northeastern Oak/Pine (110) with a dominant vegetation form of Southern Mixed Forest (26) just inland from the bays and rivers, and a dominant vegetation type of Northern Cordgrass (73) with a dominant vegetation form of Coastal Prairie (20) on the barrier island and near the bays and rivers.