Chatham Township is a suburban township located in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 10,983, The long-established hamlet of Green Village (also within Harding Township) is located in Chatham Township.
The presence of the Chatham station along the Morris and Essex Lines in neighboring Chatham Borough proved a vital role in population increases in Chatham Township, which began to be developed for residential use due to its easy commute to nearby Manhattan.
New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Chatham Township first in the state in its 2008 rankings of the "Best Places to Live" in New Jersey.
The township has been one of the state's highest-income communities. Based on data from the 2013–2017 American Community Survey, township residents had a median household income of $176,364, ranked 3rd in the state among municipalities with more than 10,000 residents, more than double the statewide median of $76,475. In March 2018, Bloomberg ranked Chatham as the 64th highest-income place in the United States and as having the 8th-highest income in New Jersey.
In 2012, Forbes.com listed Chatham as 375th in its listing of "America's Most Expensive ZIP Codes", with a median home price of $776,703.
History
Formation
Chatham Township was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 12, 1806, from portions of Hanover Township and Morris Township. At the time Chatham Township was created, it included the communities of Chatham, Green Village and Bottle Hill (Madison), together with the extensive rural areas surrounding these communities, with each community retaining its own distinct existence and identity. Before the close of that century however, the township would lose all except one of the settlements under its jurisdiction, as they seceded from the township and established their own municipal governments.
The community known as Bottle Hill was established in the early eighteenth century in Morris Township when the area was within the English Province of New Jersey. Bottle Hill changed its name to Madison in 1834 to honor President James Madison. On December 27, 1889, Madison was incorporated as an independent borough and its former village boundaries were expanded between 1891 - 1899 with annexed portions of rural lands that had formerly been within the township. This village also had been within Morris Township and it was an active community in the Revolutionary War. On August 19, 1892, Chatham seceded from the new township that had taken its name and adopted the village form of government established in the United States for the new state of New Jersey. Shortly thereafter, Chatham adopted the borough form of government on March 1, 1897.
Most of Green Village has always been within the township's jurisdiction.
In 1773, the village John Day's Bridge, a community governed by the English township of Morris since its settlement in 1710, was renamed as, Chatham, in honor of Sir William Pitt, a British prime minister and the first Earl of Chatham, who was most favorable toward the colonists of the Province of New Jersey in issues with the British government.
Of the pre-revolutionary settlements included in its jurisdiction when it was formed, only portions of Green Village have remained governed by Chatham Township, which has never had a community center.
On December 27, 1889, based on the results of a referendum passed three days earlier, the village of Madison seceded from Chatham Township and adopted the borough form of government in order to develop a local water supply system for its population of 3,250. Madison annexed additional portions of Chatham Township in 1891, and annexed more each year from 1894 to 1898, followed finally, by an exchange of some lands in 1899 with Chatham Township. For several generations, the largest, the Schwartz Farm had produced dairy products that were sold in local stores and schools and that were delivered to homes on scheduled routes. Former rose farms became two major shopping centers near the corner of Shunpike Road and Southern Boulevard. The corner was known as Hickory Tree, named for a hickory tree planted during President Madison's term.
After successfully crossing the Delaware River and subsequent battles in Trenton and Princeton, General Washington marched to Morristown and established his headquarters in Arnold's Tavern on the Morristown Green for the Continental Army’s first winter encampment. Most of the army was sent a few miles southeast to the Lowantica Valley (modern spelling Loantaka) in Chatham Township, at a site located north of Loantaka Brook, East of Tredwell Avenue and West of Giralda Farms. In 2016, the Morris County Park Commission and the Chatham Township Historical Society began working together to reclaim the area and create trails and apply for grants for informational signage.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 9.35 square miles (24.22 km<sup>2</sup>), including 9.08 square miles (23.51 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 0.27 square miles (0.70 km<sup>2</sup>) of water (2.91%).
Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Floral Hill, Great Swamp, Green Village (partially in Harding Township), Hickory Tree, Mount Vernon and The Orchard.
Green Village is the site of the Rolling Knolls Landfill, a landfill identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a Superfund site. The landfill is bordered on two sides by the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and was formerly known as Miele's Dump, after owner Robert Miele. In operation from the 1930s until the late 1960s, the landfill accepted a wide variety of waste material from municipal and industrial sources, including residential septage and pharmaceutical materials. In 2010, the township designated the site as a redevelopment zone, with the possibility that the area could be remediated as a solar farm.
Weather
Chatham Township has a humid subtropical climate and is slightly more variant (lows are colder, highs are warmer) than its neighbor east: New York City.