Florham Park, NJ

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Florham Park is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 8,857, which had grown to 12,389 as of the Bureau’s 2008 estimate.

Florham Park was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 9, 1899, from portions of Chatham Township.

Florham Park is the home to the New York Jets training camp, where in 2008 the Jets relocated to from their old facility at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Florham Park beat out Berkeley Heights, Jersey City, Millburn, South Amboy, and Wood-Ridge, which had all been finalists contending to be the host of the new facility.

Florham Park is also the North American headquarters for the BASF corporation, the world’s largest chemical company.

Geography

Florham Park is located at 40°46′38″N 74°23′25″W40.777250°N 74.390278°W (40.777250, -74.390278).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 7.4 square miles (19.3 km²), of which, 7.4 square miles (19.2 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.27%) is water.

The Borough of Florham Park is located in the Southeastern part of Morris County and is bordered on the South by Madison and Chatham Boroughs; on the North by Hanover and East Hanover Townships; on the West by Morris Township; and on the East by the Passaic River.

Demographics

History of Florham Park, New Jersey:

200 year old oak tree at Brooklake Country Club in Florham Park, New Jersey

The area that is now Florham Park was first settled by the English sometime between 1680 and 1700, and the community was long recognized as a prime farming area. The area was known for the manufacture of quality brooms, which was the source of one of its names, Broomtown. Through its history, the area was known as Hoppingtown, Broomtown, Columbia, Afton, and finally Florham Park. It was part of Hanover Township, then Chatham Township before being incorporated as Florham Park in 1899.

Florence Vanderbilt (1854-1952), granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, renowned as the richest man in America, and her husband, financier, Hamilton McKown Twombly, came to the Morris County countryside in 1887, joining over 100 other millionaires who owned sprawling country retreats. They fancied an English-style country mansion in a stately park setting. “Florham,” built on 840 acres (3.4 km²), one of America’s finest Gilded Age homes, was the result. The couple named their new estate “Florham,” a combination of their first names, Florence and Hamilton.

The second part to the name “Florham Park” received its name from a second mansion in town that was on about 1,000 acres (4 km²) of land. It used to lie where the current Brooklake Country Club is located. It was owned by Dr. Leslie Ward one of the founders of the Prudential Insurance Company and the first vice president of the company and was named “Brooklake Park”, partially because of the beautiful lake that was on the property.

Both of these families were supporters of many civic projects including the petitioning of the State of New Jersey to create their own town. On March 20, 1899, the governor signed the bill, making Florham Park a borough. The new town was named after Florence and Hamilton Twombly’s and Dr. Ward’s estates.

Census Bureau map of Florham Park, New Jersey