Wall Township, New Jersey

Wall Township is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It is located in the New York Metropolitan Area and is a bedroom community of New York. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 26,164, reflecting an increase of 903 (+3.6%) from the 25,261 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 5,017 (+24.8%) from the 20,244 counted in the 1990 Census.

Wall Township was formally incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 7, 1851. Over the years, portions of the township have been taken to form North Spring Lake (May 1884), Ocean Beach (March 9, 1885, now Belmar), Manasquan (December 30, 1887), Spring Lake (March 14, 1892), Sea Girt (April 10, 1919), South Belmar (March 12, 1924, now Lake Como) and Spring Lake Heights (March 19, 1927).Snyder, John P
''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968''
Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 186–187. Accessed January 22, 2012.

Wall Township was named for General Garret D. Wall (1783–1850), a lawyer who commanded a Trenton volunteer company during the War of 1812 and was stationed at Sandy Hook. Wall served five years as clerk of the New Jersey Supreme Court and as quartermaster general of the state for more than 20 years before being chosen to represent the state in the United States Senate from 1835 to 1841.

History

The Greenville Cemetery was established in 1734, when a casualty of the French and Indian War was buried there. The original structure of the Glendola Protestant Bible Church was built in 1776; The congregation dedicated a new church in 1964.

Allaire Village dates back to 1822, when James P. Allaire purchased what became known as the Howell Works in Wall, and though it was the largest producing bog iron manufacturing site in New Jersey by 1836, the ironworks were shut down in 1846. The village and surrounding acres were later preserved and gifted to the State of New Jersey to form Allaire State Park as a memorial to Hearst editor Arthur Brisbane, the last private owner of the site, who purchased the land in 1907 and built a palatial residence on that property that would later serve as the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center. The Brisbane family donated the property to the State of New Jersey to establish Allaire State Park and the Historic Village at Allaire. Allaire Village Inc., a non-profit organization, is licensed by the State of New Jersey to operate the site now known as "The Historic Village at Allaire."

The Allgor-Barkalow Homestead at 1701 New Bedford Road was constructed in 1840, although some accounts indicate construction of part of the building began in the 18th century. The building now houses the museum of the Old Wall Historical Society. The Blansingburg schoolhouse at Sea Girt Avenue opened in 1855; The building was relocated in 1999 to the Allgor-Barkalow Homestead Museum property for refurbishing.

Wall Township was formed in 1851, from portions of Howell Township.

The newly formed Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, with its home office in England, purchases a farm around 1900 that became the site of the company's receiver equipment for commercial transatlantic radio operation. The Marconi signal site was abandoned in 1924, but it was later occupied by the Ku Klux Klan until they were ejected in March 1928. The United States Army purchased the Marconi site in November 1941 and named it Camp Evans.

The Allenwood Hospital, located at the corner of Squankum-Allenwood and Hospital Roads, opened in January 1921 as a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. In 1957, a 16-room building is dedicated to Geraldine L. Thompson, who served as president of the hospital's board of managers. In the 1960s, the facility becomes an annex to the John L. Montgomery Medical Home in Freehold Township, a county-run nursing home, and was renamed the Geraldine L. Thompson Care Center. In early 2016, Monmouth County finalized the sale of the nursing home to Preferred Care Holdings LLC for $15 million, which was renamed Preferred Care at Wall.

In 1940, Edward I. Brown used an old World War I tank converted into a bulldozer to clear land for an airport that he turned into what is now Monmouth Executive Airport after completing his service in the United States Navy as a pilot during World War II; The airport was sold by the Brown family in 2007 to a private equity firm, despite lengthy attempts by Monmouth County to acquire the facility.

Wall Stadium, which opened in 1950, is located just south of Monmouth Executive Airport and north of Interstate 195 on Route 34 and was the first track that NASCAR champion Richard Petty raced on in the United States. In 2019, plans were announced to close the track after the 2020 season and construct houses on the site.

The Roadside Diner, formerly the Circle Diner and Rusty's, was delivered to its Route 34 site by the Silk City Diner Co. in the 1940s. The diner was used for filming of a scene for the 1983 movie ''Baby It's You'' and appears on the cover of the 1994 Bon Jovi album ''Cross Road: 14 Classic Grooves'', as well as having been featured in the 2008 music video for " Girls in Their Summer Clothes" by Bruce Springsteen.

Wall High School opened in September 1959, while Wall Intermediate School opened in 1967.

Interstate 195 was extended into Wall Township in 1981, giving direct high-speed access to Trenton.

A suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in December 1999 against the township over a holiday display that included a nativity scene and a Hannukah menorah, contending that the religious symbols violate the constitutional separation of church and state, was dismissed by a judge who ruled that the organization had filed its suit too close to the start of the holiday season. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a ruling in April 2001 vacating the decision of the district court in the case that the township's holiday display as modified in 2000 to include other seasonal decorations did not violate the Establishment Clause or the New Jersey Constitution and ruling that the ACLU lacked standing to file the case.

Even though many of the surrounding municipalities sprung out of Wall Township, the only ZIP code that exclusively serves areas of Wall is Allenwood, but even it relies solely on a Post-office box system for regular mail services.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 31.69 square miles (82.08 km²), including 30.66 square miles (79.41 km²) of land and 1.03 square miles (2.67 km²) of water (3.25%).

Allenwood (2010 Census population of 925) and West Belmar (2010 population 2,493) are census-designated places and unincorporated communities located within Wall Township.

Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Algers Mills, Allaire, Baileys Corner, Blansingburg, Carmerville, Collingwood Park, Glendola, Hurleys Mills, Lake Como, New Bedford, Old Mill, Osborn Island, Osbornes Mills, Remsen Mills, Shark River, Sterling Woods, Treasure Island and Wallington.

Wreck Pond is a tidal pond located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Wall Township and the boroughs of Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, and Sea Girt