Somerville, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Somerville is a borough and the county seat of Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan Area, located about 33 miles (53 km) from Manhattan and 20 miles (32 km) from Staten Island. The borough has grown to become a commercial hub for central New Jersey and commuter town of New York City.

Somerville was originally formed as a town on March 25, 1863, within a portion of Bridgewater Township. Somerville was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 16, 1909, based on the results of a referendum held on May 4, 1909, at which point it was fully set off from Bridgewater Township. It is home of the oldest competitive bicycle race in the United States.

The borough is named for Somerset in England.

History Somerville was settled in colonial times primarily by the Dutch who purchased land from the English proprietors of the colony. The Dutch established their church near what is today Somerville and a Dutch Reformed minister or Domine lived at the Old Dutch Parsonage from about 1754. The early village grew up around a church, courthouse and a tavern built at a crossroads shortly after the American Revolution. The name "Somerville" was taken from four brothers of the Somerville family, Edward, John and James from Drishane and Castlehaven, County Cork, Ireland, who first founded the town in the 1750s. Somerville was originally a sparsely populated farming community, but rapidly grew after the completion of the railroad in the 1840s and development of water power along the Raritan River in the 1850s. Early industry included brick making from the plentiful red clay and shale on which Somerville is built. While much of the borough features distinctive Victorian architecture in several neighborhoods and along its Main Street, other periods are represented. National Register sites in Somerville include the white marble 1909 Somerville Court House and the wooden and stone colonial Wallace House (today a museum) where George Washington spent a winter during the American Revolutionary War. Near the Wallace House is the Old Dutch Parsonage, where Reverend Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, a founder and first president of Rutgers University, then called Queens College, lived. Register listed Victorian structures include the James Harper Smith Estate (privately owned), St. John's Episcopal Church and rectory, and the Fire Museum (a vintage fire house). Other notable, register eligible structures are the Victorian train station (privately owned) and the municipal building, the former Robert Mansion.

Originally the centre of local commerce, the borough has evolved into a destination for boutique retail and dining. Modern highways today surround and traverse Somerville, including U.S. Route 22, U.S. Route 202, U.S. Route 206 and Route 28 and is within 5 miles (8.0 km) of Interstate 287 and Interstate 78, making it an important hub in central New Jersey.

Tour of Somerville In 1940, the first competitive bicycle race, called the Tour of Somerville was established by bicycle shop owner, Fred Kugler, to showcase his son, Furman, who was a national cycling champion, and who won the initial men's competition. His daughter, Mildred won the women's. The 50-mile race is held annually and has since become the oldest competitive bicycle race in the U.S. It carries a purse of $10,000 for each winner of the women's and men's races.

Downtown today Main Street Somerville maintains most of its historical buildings, although many are now boutique specialty shops and second-hand shops. Somerville has quite a diverse and large selection of restaurants that draw people from the surrounding area. In many ways, Somerville remains Somerset County's downtown, and is the heart of its designated Regional Center. Several of the factories in Somerville were abandoned and replaced with modern office buildings or remodeled as apartments. Somerville today and historically has had an important African American community, a distinguished member of which was Paul Robeson. Another famous Somerville native was famed character actor Lee Van Cleef. One of the founders of modern American Dance, Ruth St. Denis, made her professional debut at Somerset Hall, once a vaudeville theatre and today a local restaurant. The mix of modern amenities and an interesting and diverse past make Main Street, Somerville a unique destination for dining, strolling and visiting.

Future redevelopment The shopping centre on the west side of the downtown area was demolished and a new shopping centre, town homes and other amenities will be built on the shopping centre land and on adjacent land in the former borough landfill to the south. Ground was broken for a new "world class" ShopRite supermarket in March 2011 and opened in November 2011. Borough planners envision a transit village style redevelopment centered around the Somerville train station.

Regulation concerns Numerous local and national media publications reported on how the state of New Jersey had eased regulations allowing for home baked goods to be made and sold from a home, but how Somerville in particular still suffers from, "… draconian ordinance that creates a contradiction between Somerville's zoning policies and New Jersey's home baking law…" making it difficult for a small business owner or entrepreneur to try and earn a living in this fashion in Somerville. In order to be able to make her cookies and sell them from her home kitchen was required "… to pay a $1,000 application fee and put $4,000 into a borough escrow account", in addition to notifying neighbors, placing a public notice advertisement and having a public hearing on the application.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 2.37 square miles (6.13 km²), including 2.34 square miles (6.06 km²) of land and 0.03 square miles (0.07 km²) of water (1.18%). The borough's territory is flat land. Somerville borders the Raritan River to the south and is crossed by Peters Brook, a tributary.

The borough borders Bridgewater Township, Hillsborough Township and Raritan.

Education The Somerville Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of three schools, had an enrollment of 2,198 students and 212.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.3:1. Schools in the district (with 2021–22 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Van Derveer Elementary School with 712 students in grades PreK-5, Somerville Middle School with 314 students in grades 6-8 and Somerville High School with 1,142 students in grades 9-12. Students from Branchburg Township attend the district's high school as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Branchburg Township School District. For many years, Branchburg has accounted for 60–65% of the high school's enrollment.

Immaculata High School is a private, coeducational, Roman Catholic high school, founded in 1962. The school enrolls approximately 850 students in grades 9 to 12. Immaculate Conception School is a Catholic private coeducational day school, founded in 1957, for students in grades Pre-K through 8. Both schools operate under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen.

Transport: Road As of May 2010, the borough had a total of 36.16 miles (58.19 km) of roadways, of which 30.96 miles (49.83 km) were maintained by the municipality, 1.90 miles (3.06 km) by Somerset County and 3.30 miles (5.31 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

U.S. Route 22 runs along the northern boundary of Somerville and offers connections to the state highway network. U.S. Route 202 and U.S. Route 206 runs along the western boundary of Somerville, via the Somerville Circle, and provides north–south connections to nearby towns.

Interstate 287 is in neighboring Bridgewater Township and is accessible via US Routes 22 and 202/206.

Public transportation The Somerville train station offers service on New Jersey Transit's Raritan Valley Line, with frequent service to Newark Penn Station, with connecting service to Penn Station New York in Midtown Manhattan.

The closest airport with scheduled service is Newark Liberty International Airport, located 26 miles (42 km) north (about 35 minutes drive) from Somerville.

Healthcare Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset is located in the borough, and provides healthcare for Greater Somerset. The hospital was originally founded as Somerset Hospital in 1901, and since has grown into a major university medical center. Since June 1, 2014, the 355 bed facility has been affiliated with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the largest healthcare network in the state.

Points of interest The following locations in Somerville are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: • Wallace House, New Jersey State Historic House Museum – Washington's Headquarters during the second Middlebrook encampment (1778–79). • Old Dutch Parsonage, New Jersey State Historic Site – First parsonage of the Dutch Reformed Church in Somerset County and home of Reverend Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, a founder and later first president of Queens College (now Rutgers University). • Daniel Robert House, Somerville Borough Hall – Based on Alexander Jackson Davis design, classic example of American Gothic architecture. • J. Harper Smith Mansion – Library designed by Horace Trumbauer. • St. John's Episcopal Church – Built in 1895 and designed by Horace Trumbauer. • West End Hose Company Number 3 – the Somerville Fire Department Museum.