Holmdel Township was formed by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 23, 1857, from portions of Raritan Township (now Hazlet).
History
In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of Bell Labs discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation while working on the Horn Antenna in this town. The earliest work on radio astronomy was conducted by Bell Labs engineer Karl Guthe Jansky in 1931, also in this town.The PNC Bank Arts Center (formerly the Garden State Arts Center), a popular outdoor amphitheatre concert venue that opened in 1968, is located in Holmdel. Adjacent to it is the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which opened on May 7, 1995.
VoIP provider Vonage Holdings, Inc., moved its world headquarters from Edison, New Jersey, to Holmdel in November of 2005, occupying the building that formerly housed Prudential Property Casualty & Insurance.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 18.1 square miles (46.9 km²), of which, 18.0 square miles (46.5 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km²) of it is water. Holmdel Township is located roughly 44 miles southeast of New York City, and 53 miles northeast of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Crawford Hill (40 23' 28" N, 74 11'07" W) is Monmouth County's highest point, standing at least 380 feet (116 m) above sea level. The top portion of the hill is owned by Alcatel-Lucent and houses a research laboratory of Bell Laboratories.
Demographics
Population
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,781 people, 4,948 households, and 4,328 families residing in the township. The population density was 878.4 people per square mile (339.1/km²). There were 5,137 housing units at an average density of 285.9/sq mi (110.4/km²). The racial makeup of the township was 80.20% White, 17.45% Asian, 0.65% African American, 0.03% Native American, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.52% from other races, and 1.15% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.45% of the population.As of the 2000 census, 9.97% of Holmdel Township's residents identified themselves as being of Chinese ancestry. This was the highest percentage of people with Chinese ancestry in any place in New Jersey with 1,000 or more residents identifying their ancestry.
There were 4,947 households out of which 47.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.1% were married couples living together, 6.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.5% were non-families. 11.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.09 and the average family size was 3.35.
In the township the population was spread out with 28.5% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 29.2% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 91.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.6 males.
The median income for a household in the township was $112,879, and the median income for a family was $122,785. Males had a median income of $94,825 versus $54,625 for females. The per capita income for the township was $47,898. About 2.7% of families and 3.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.0% of those under age 18 and 6.7% of those age 65 or over.
Religion
The religious makeup of Holmdel Township is as follows:- Percent Nonreligious 30.97%
- Percent Religious 69.03%
- Christian 63.01
- Catholic 47.00%
- Protestant 8.10%
- Methodist 2.12%
- Lutheran 1.50%
- Presbyterian 1.38%
- Baptist 1.19%
- Episcopalian 1.11%
- Pentecostal 0.79%
- LDS 0.20%
- Other Christian 1.62%
- Jewish 10.56%
- Islam 1.54%
- Eastern 0.02%
- Other Religion 24.87%
Government
Local government
Holmdel Township is governed under the Township form of government with a five-member Township Committee. The Township Committee is elected directly by the voters in partisan elections to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with one or two seats coming up for election each year. At an annual reorganization meeting, the Township Committee selects one of its members to serve as Mayor and another as Deputy Mayor. The Township Committee exercises control over the conduct of municipal business by means of legislation through ordinances or resolutions, approval and adoption of the annual budget and the formulation of policy to be carried out by the staff.Members of the Holmdel Township Council are Mayor Serena DiMaso, Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman, Janet Berk, Laurence I. Fink and Rocco Pascucci.
Federal, state and county representation
Holmdel Township is in the Twelfth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 13th Legislative District.Education
The Holmdel Township Public Schools serve students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Schools in the district (with 2005-06 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Village Elementary School (K-3; 965 students), Indian Hill School (4-6; 821), William R. Satz School (7&8; 596) and Holmdel High School for grades 9-12 (1,184).Holmdel High School was the 19th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2006 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools..
The high school was ranked as Number 426 nationwide in Newsweek magazine's listing of "America's Best High Schools" in the August 5, 2005, issue.
Holmdel High School became the center of a scandal due to a homoerotic hazing incident at a football camp in 1988 that was reported in the press and received considerable notoriety.
Private schools within the township include the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton's St. John Vianney High School and St. Benedict School, a kindergarten through eighth grade Catholic school that feeds into St. John Vianney.
Many students also attend Ranney School in nearby Tinton Falls, a K-12 preparatory school.
Notable residents
Notable current and former residents of Holmdel Township include:- John Burke (1971-), former professional football player, New England Patriots, New York Jets and San Diego Chargers.
- John Cannon (1960-), former defensive end who played nine seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
- Christopher Dell, U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe and former U.S. Ambassador to Angola.
- Renzo Gracie (1967-), professional mixed martial arts Fighter from Brazil.
- Bob Roggy (1956-1986), who set the American javelin throw record in the early 1980s, whose javelin is on display in the front entrance hall of Holmdel HS, and after whom the Holmdel HS football field and track is named.
- John H. Tilelli, Jr., retired United States Army four star general.
- Robert Woodrow Wilson, (1936-), awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.
Points of interest
References
External links
- Holmdel Township's official website
- Holmdel Township Public Schools
- Data for the Holmdel Township Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics
- Holmdel Police Department
- Former Holmdel Nike Missile Site
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday July 24, 2008 at 19:57:35 PDT (GMT -0700)
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