Greenwich, New Jersey
GREENWICH is in Cumberland County, in the southwestern part of New Jersey. The town sits in the extreme western part of the county, on the Delaware Bay and the winding Cohansey River. In the 2010 census the population of the township was 804. By car it is an hour from Center City Philadelphia, an hour-plus from the Philadelphia Main Line, an hour and 45 minutes from Princeton, and 40 minutes from the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The town was settled in 1686. In 1705 a “greate” road four rods wide was surveyed and laid out from Salem through Greenwich and across the Cohansey River, and the town was erected along that road, which today is still called the Greate Street. Throughout much of the eighteenth century Greenwich was an important port. In December 1774 a group of local residents dressed as Indians burned a cargo of tea destined for Philadelphia. By the early-to-mid-nineteenth century, as growing industrialization drew an increasingly larger segment of the population to commercial centers, Greenwich slipped back into a tiny rural town of farmers and watermen. And today, some 200 years later, very little has changed.
A remarkable number of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century houses remain. The little post office, where news of the day is exchanged, is still here. Next door, the old general store has just been reborn as a delightful breakfast and lunch kitchen with comfort food as well as healthy options. Two marinas. A couple of small businesses catering to boat owners. An historical society and library and museum. Three churches and a Friends meeting. A firehouse. And that’s it. No bed and breakfasts. No beaches. No restaurants. No stores. No gas stations. No night life. Want those things? Look somewhere else. Greenwich is small-town life at its best. People who care about each other and about the town. Farmers and crabbers. Lawyers and architects. Doctors and teachers.
For a tour of the town, click here.
To visit the official Greenwich website, click here.