Mount Holly, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 The township of Mount Holly is the county seat of Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, and an eastern suburb of Philadelphia. Mount Holly gives its name to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office for the Philadelphia metropolitan area, though the office is actually located in adjacent Westampton.

What is now Mount Holly was originally formed as Northampton in 1688. Northampton was incorporated in 1798. Portions of the township were taken to form Little Egg Harbor Township, Washington Township, Pemberton borough, Coaxen Township (now known as Southampton Township), Pemberton Township, Westampton Township and Lumberton Township. The township was renamed Mount Holly in 1931. The township was named for hills covered with holly trees. Some areas of today's Mount Holly were previously known as Bridgetown.

Mount Holly gives its name to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office for the Philadelphia metropolitan area, though the office is actually located in adjacent Westampton.

History: Colonial era The first European settlement in what is now Mount Holly began in 1677 when Walter Reeves acquired land from the Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans living in the area. He constructed a dam on Rancocas Creek to channel water through a raceway to power a gristmill and sawmill. Edward Gaskill and his sons dug the mill race on their property between 1720 and 1723. After the mills were established, more settlers were attracted to the area and built houses and commercial buildings on High, Church, White, Mill, and Pine streets, including the Shinn Curtis Log House (1712). By 1800, over 250 dwellings had been built.

Today no mills remain on the raceway, which still flows in its original course from the Rancocas just above the dam. The raceway proved a way for herring to make their way above the dam and was the scene of an annual fish run in the spring, which provided fresh herring for salting and eating. The former mill land has been preserved as the Mill Dam Park. It marks the importance of mills to the early settlements.

Revolutionary War On December 17, 1776, Colonel Samuel Griffin of the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River with 600 men, mostly untrained men and boys with little equipment, who marched to Mount Holly where they set up a few 3-pounder artillery pieces on Iron Works Hill. Hessian commanders von Block and Carl von Donop were told that there were 3,000 American troops at Mount Holly.

By December 23, 1776, 2,000 Hessians were moved from Bordentown and positioned at The Mount in Mount Holly, where they engaged in a three-day-long artillery exchange, known as the Battle of Iron Works Hill or Battle of Mount Holly, with the Americans on Iron Works Hill. The Americans slipped away that night.

After George Washington crossed the Delaware River on December 25, 1776, the fact that thousands of Hessian troops had been drawn to Mount Holly aided in the Continental Army's success in the Battle of Trenton the next day, a surprising American victory that helped turn the Army's fading morale after the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fort Washington just weeks before and the ignominious retreat through New Jersey.

History: 19th century The 1793 state legislature approved the relocation of the Burlington County seat from Burlington City to Mount Holly, which was approved by voters in a 1796 referendum.[page needed] Several important municipal buildings were constructed, including the courthouse in 1796 and the county prison built circa 1819. The Burlington County Prison was designed by Robert Mills, a nationally known architect who designed the Washington Monument. The town has numerous 18th and 19th-century buildings, most of which are included in the Mount Holly Historic District. Commercial buildings were constructed primarily along High Street.

In 1849, the Burlington and Mount Holly Railroad was established, connecting communities along the Delaware River to Philadelphia, the major city of the area. The railroad supported industrialization along its route. The Camden and Mount Holly Railroad constructed a station 20 years later near the intersection of Washington and King streets.

History: 20th century A trolley station was built in 1904 for passengers making connections to Burlington City and Moorestown. New municipal buildings were constructed during the 20th century, including the Town Hall on Washington Street (1930) and the U.S. Post Office (1935) located across the street (1935), both federally funded and constructed as Works Progress Administration projects under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

In the late 1950s, Mount Holly began to have economic difficulties due to industrial restructuring and the loss of working-class jobs. In the post-World War II period, numerous blue collar, family wage jobs disappeared as the community's traditional employers, the mills and dye factories, were shut down. At first, these job losses were offset in part by gains at the nearby military bases, Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base, especially during the Vietnam War. In 1970, the residential vacancy rate in Mount Holly was 4.3%.

By 1980, however, the vacancy rate had climbed to 8.7% as a result of the nearby military installations' downsizing after the end of the Vietnam War. During this same period, 1970–1980, shopping malls proliferated in the suburban Philadelphia area, and retail business in Mount Holly suffered.

Historic district The Mount Holly Historic District is a 260-acre (110 ha) historic district encompassing downtown Mount Holly. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 20, 1973, for its significance in architecture, education, landscape architecture, politics/government, and transportation. The district includes 39 contributing buildings. The individually listed Old Schoolhouse, also known as the Brainerd School, was built in 1759 and contributes to the district. The Burlington County Prison is also listed individually and was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The Burlington County Courthouse was designed by architect Samuel Lewis and constructed by Michael Rush in 1796.

Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 2.87 square miles (7.43 km²), including 2.82 square miles (7.31 km²) of land and 0.05 square miles (0.12 km²) of water (1.60%). The township borders the Burlington County municipalities of Eastampton Township, Hainesport Township, Lumberton, and Westampton. Clermont is an unincorporated community located within Mount Holly Township.

Economy Portions of the township are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), one of 32 zones covering 37 municipalities statewide. Mount Holly was selected in 1994 as one of a group of 10 zones added to participate in the program and one of four of those chosen based on a competition. 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 March 1995, the city's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in March 2026. The Township Council appoints a board of directors that oversees the operations of the Urban Enterprise Zone, which is managed by Joshua Brown, the township's Economic Development Director.

Local government Mount Holly Township operates within the Faulkner Act (formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law) under the Council-Manager (plan 12) form of municipal government, enacted by council-initiated action as of July 1, 1990. This form is used in 42 (of the 564) municipalities statewide. The township council is comprised of five members who are elected at-large in a partisan vote to serve four-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either two or three seats up for election in even-numbered years as part of the November general election. At a reorganization meeting after each election, the council selects a mayor and a deputy mayor from among its members. In November 2011, voters passed a referendum shifting from non-partisan municipal elections in May to partisan elections in November.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the township had a total of 38.43 miles (61.85 km) of roadways, of which 29.11 miles (46.85 km) were maintained by the municipality, 8.45 miles (13.60 km) by Burlington County and 0.87 miles (1.40 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

The only state highway serving Mount Holly is Route 38, which crosses from west to east at the township's southern end. Major county roads that pass through Mount Holly include County Route 537 and County Route 541.

Mount Holly is accessible at exit 5 of the New Jersey Turnpike in neighboring Westampton and exit 47 of Interstate 295 via CR 541 in Burlington Township.

Public transportation NJ Transit provides bus service to Philadelphia on routes 317 (from Asbury Park) and 409/417/418 (from Trenton), with local service available on the 413 route between Camden and Burlington.

Points of interest • Burlington County Courthouse, 1796 • Mount Holly Cemetery • Shinn Curtis Log House, constructed out of hand-hewn logs, the house was built in 1712; the original log house was uncovered in 1967. A larger house that had been built around it was demolished, revealing the early house beneath, which has been restored. • Burlington County Prison, opened in 1819, it was the oldest continually operated prison in the country when it closed in 1965 after more than 150 years of service. • First Presbyterian Church • St. Andrew's Episcopal Church • Friends Meeting House • Brainerd Schoolhouse is a one-room schoolhouse that was constructed in 1759 and operated as a school for nearly 100 years. In 1951, the school was transferred from the Female Benevolent Society, which had owned and operated the site for 136 years, to the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. • Relief Fire Company No. 1, home of the oldest continuously operating volunteer fire company in the United States. • Thomas Budd House is the township's third-oldest house, dating to 1744. • Stephen Girard House was the home of Girard, who moved to Mount Holly shortly after his marriage in 1777 and purchased the partially completed house, as recorded in 1779. • John Woolman Memorial was constructed in the late 1700s on a portion of an orchard that had belonged to Woolman.