Guess what the oldest neighborhood in NJ is

Remember when I’ve mentioned more than 60% of the buildings in Flemington were considered historic? That might make you think the oldest neighborhood in the state was there. Not even close.

What about Princeton? After all the university, originally called The College of New Jersey, was founded on Oct. 22, 1746, decades before there was even a United States.

Nope. Not by a long shot.

The oldest neighborhood in New Jersey is Bergen. Not to be confused with anything in Bergen County. We’re talking about Hudson County in a part of Jersey City when it first settled in the 1600s. The Bergen section of Jersey City is the oldest neighborhood in the state.

Some sites will mention Jersey City itself being the oldest city in New Jersey. But this Bergen section of Chilltown that straddles Kennedy Boulevard from Saint Peter's College/McGinley Square to Communipaw Avenue in the Bergen-Lafayette section is technically the oldest permanent settlement in our state.

It was granted its official charter on Sept. 5, 1661, about 115 years before our nation even existed. And more than 362 years ago from today.

Feel free to use this as a bar bet. And if they come up with Jersey City, ask, “But what part of Jersey City?”

OK, if you want to double down on a bar bet ask what’s New Jersey’s newest town. From what I can dig up New Jersey’s youngest town in Loch Arbour. That’s a small village that broke away from Ocean Township and through an act of the legislature was incorporated on April 23, 1957.

Yikes. I’d better stop. I think this is how Cliff Clavin on the old show “Cheers” started.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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