Irvington, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Irvington is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

The township had the ninth-highest property tax rate in New Jersey in 2020, with an equalized rate of 4.890% in 2020, compared to 2.824% in the county as a whole and a statewide average of 2.279%.

History Clinton Township, which included what is now Irvington, Maplewood and parts of Newark and South Orange, was created on April 14, 1834. The area was known as Camptown until the mid-1800s. In 1850, after Stephen Foster published his ballad, Camptown Races, residents were concerned that the activities described in the song would be associated with their community. The town was renamed, Irvingtown, in honor of Washington Irving.

Irvington was incorporated as an independent village on March 27, 1874, from portions of Clinton Township. What remained of Clinton Township was absorbed into Newark on March 5, 1902. On March 2, 1898, Irvington was incorporated as a Town, replacing Irvington Village. In 1982, the town was one of four Essex County municipalities to pass a referendum to become a township, joining 11 municipalities that had already made the change, of what would ultimately be more than a dozen Essex County municipalities to reclassify themselves as townships in order take advantage of federal revenue sharing policies that allocated townships a greater share of government aid to municipalities on a per capita basis.

From 1887 to 1965, Irvington was home to Olympic Park, a 40-acre (16 ha) amusement park that straddled the border of Irvington and Maplewood, with the main entrance on Chancellor Avenue and a side entrance on 40th Street. After the park closed, the merry-go-round was sold and transported to Disney World, in Orlando, FL. The book, Smile: A Picture History of Olympic Park, 1887–1965 written by Alan A. Siegel was published in 1983 by Rutgers University Press.

The 1967 Newark riots hastened an exodus of families from that city, many of them moving a few short blocks into neighboring Irvington. Until 1965, Irvington was almost exclusively white. By 1980, the town was nearly 40% black; by 1990 it was 70%.

On July 1, 1980, Fred Bost, was sworn in as East Ward Councilman, making him the first black person to serve on the Town Council. At age 24, Michael G. Steele became the first black elected to public office in Irvington when he won a seat on the school board on March 25, 1980, then became the township's first black mayor ten years later, when he was elected in 1990 and served for four years, followed by Sarah Brockington Bost in 1994. In 1994 Steele returned to the Board of Education to pursue his career as the district's certified School Business Administrator, serving over 22 years. The current Mayor is Tony Vauss.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 2.92 square miles (7.55 km²), including 2.91 square miles (7.55 km²) of land and <0.01 square miles (0.01 km²) of water (0.07%).

The Elizabeth River runs through the city passing Civic Square and Clinton Cemetery. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Irving Place.

The township is bordered by Maplewood to the west and Newark to the east, both in Essex County, and Hillside to the south and Union to the south-west, both in Union County, New Jersey.

Economy Portions of the township are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), one of 32 zones covering 37 municipalities statewide. Irvington was selected in 1996 as one of a group of seven zones added to participate in the program. In addition to other benefits to encourage employment and investment within the UEZ, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the 6+5⁄8% rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants. Established in May 1996, the township's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in May 2027.

In July 2015, the central business district surrounding the Irvington Bus Terminal on Springfield Avenue was designated as one of 33 transit villages statewide, qualifying it for incentives for revitalization.

Local government Irvington is governed within the Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, under the Mayor-Council form of municipal government, one of 71 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form. The governing body comprises the Mayor and the seven-member Township Council, whose members are elected to staggered four-year terms of office on a non-partisan basis in municipal elections held on the second Tuesday in May in even-numbered years. The mayor and the three at-large seats are elected together and two years later the four ward seats are up for vote together. The council selects a president, first vice president and second vice president from among its members at a reorganization meeting held after each election. The council is the legislative body of the township and needs a ⅔ majority to make changes to the budget submitted by the mayor. The mayor is the township's chief executive and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations and submitting a budget, but is not eligible to vote on the council and is not required to attend its meetings.

Education The Irvington Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide that were established pursuant to the decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Abbott v. Burke which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority. As of the 2019–20 school year, the district, comprised of 12 schools, had an enrollment of 8,020 students and 530.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 15.1:1. Schools in the district (with 2019–20 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Augusta Preschool Academy (with 341 students; in Pre-K), Berkeley Terrace School (387; Pre-K–5), Chancellor Avenue School (527; K–5), Florence Avenue School (672; K–5), Grove Street School (428; Pre-K–5), Madison Avenue School (410; Pre-K–5), Thurgood G. Marshall School (398; Pre-K–5), Mount Vernon Avenue School (542; K–5), University Elementary School (403; K–5), Union Avenue Middle School (778; 6–8), University Middle School (403; 6–8) and Irvington High School (1,558; 9–12). The district's high school was the 309th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2012 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 287th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the township had a total of 69.44 miles (111.75 km) of roadways, of which 55.98 miles (90.09 km) were maintained by the municipality, 10.69 miles (17.20 km) by Essex County, 2.60 miles (4.18 km) by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and 0.17 miles (0.27 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

The Garden State Parkway is the most significant highway in Irvington, passing through the centre of the township; it is accessible from exits 143 and 144. Interstate 78 also passes through very briefly along the south-eastern border at Exit 54. The most significant local roadway passing through Irvington is County Road 509.

Public transportation The Irvington Bus Terminal, which underwent renovation in the early 2000s, is one of NJ Transit's (NJT) busiest facilities and regional transit hubs. Irvington is served by NJ Transit bus routes 107 to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan; the 1, 13, 25, 27, 37, 39, 42, 70, 90 and 94 to Newark; and local service on the 26, 96. The 375 and the 107X also serves Irvington Bus Terminal as express routes.

Scheduled airline service is available at Newark Liberty International Airport in neighboring Newark and Elizabeth.