NJ has East, West and South Orange, but why not North Orange?

As a New Jersey resident, you’ve probably wondered why there is a South Orange, West Orange, East Orange, or even a regular Orange, but no North Orange.

The four towns in Essex County are a unique example of “boroughitis,” or the age-old trend of large New Jersey cities splitting into smaller ones.

West Orange is known for the Essex County Turtle Back Zoo and Thomas Edison National Historical Park. South Orange is home to Seton Hall University. Orange has a large downtown area with shopping, dining (including Star Tavern), and more. East Orange is known for its parks, with Oval Park, Columbian Park, and more popular spots.

History of Oranges in NJ

To give some background, Orange was originally part of Newark when a group of settlers called the “Mountain Society” purchased land west of the Passaic River. This area would now be known primarily as present-day Essex County, according to West Orange historian and public information officer Joseph Fagan.

Fagan did extensive research when he tried to answer the question of why there was no North Orange, he said. He went through his own collection of local history books to uncover the history of the Orange towns. He read more than 50,000 digital files, postcards, newspaper articles and other documents. He calls it his own “personal research library,” where he says anyone can find New Jersey libraries in reference sections, but not all in one place.

Orange became a township in 1806 under an act of the New Jersey state legislature, Fagan said. This was the first separation from the original settlement of Newark. The townspeople voted to become their own separate municipality and called themselves Orange.

The name Orange does not come from the fruit. Fagan’s research revealed that the name Orange comes from one of England’s ruling houses, called the House of Orange, named after King William III.

East, West, and South Orange all followed many years later, in 1863, with further land divisions by the New Jersey State Legislature.

The historian said that these areas became their own separate townships due to local interest. West Orange was originally called Fairmount when they seceded in 1862. The farmers of the land protested that they had to pay taxes to Orange but were not reaping the benefits, so the farmers divided that they wanted to secede from Orange.

In the late 1890s there was a town called New Orange, but it quickly became the town we now know as Kenilworth in 1907. New Orange wanted to associate itself with the Orange towns because of their popularity, but the association never came about because the town was not particularly close to the other Oranges.

Why is there no North Orange?

But what about North Orange?

Before the separation of West, South and East Orange, there were more divisions of the Newark settlement. In 1812, towns such as Bloomfield were established. The Bloomfield land carved out more towns, such as Belleville, Glen Ridge, Nutley and Montclair, which was originally known as Cranetown and later West Bloomfield, Fagan said.

These lands were part of a separate land agreement from the one that created East, West and South Orange. This agreement took place about 50 years after the first divisions of Orange.

The towns of Bloomfield and other towns annexed from Orange were located north of their original settlement.

So when West, East and South Orange came into being, there were already many established towns north of Orange. If a North Orange came into being when the rest of the Oranges did, Fagan thinks that could potentially lead to confusion.

The fact that these two separate land annexations occurred at different times may explain why there is no North Orange in New Jersey.