Allamuchy Township, New Jersey
Allamuchy Township is a township in Warren County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 4,323, reflecting an increase of 446 from the 3,877 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 393 from the 3,484 counted in the 1990 Census.
Allamuchy Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 4, 1873, from portions of Independence Township. The township's name comes from the Native American word "Allamachetey", meaning "place within the hills".
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 20.763 square miles, including 20.454 square miles of land and 0.309 square miles of water. The townships southeastern border is formed by the Musconetcong River.Allamuchy CDP and Panther Valley are census-designated places and unincorporated communities located within the township. As of the 2000 United States Census, the two CDPs were consolidated as Allamuchy-Panther Valley, which had a 2000 Census population of 3,125.
Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Alphano, Long Bridge, Quaker Church, Saxton Falls and Warrenville.
Allamuchy Township borders the municipalities of Frelinghuysen Township, Hackettstown and Independence Township in Warren County; Mount Olive Township in Morris County; and Byram Township and Green Township in Sussex County.
Demographics
The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that median household income was $82,781 and the median family income was $104,601. Males had a median income of $76,467 versus $55,625 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $49,834. About 0.9% of families and 2.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.8% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.Culture and tourism
is a cultural center and museum that provides educational and enrichment opportunities for the residents of Allamuchy, the surrounding communities, and the greater New York – New Jersey Highlands region at large. It conducts and hosts public programs including: 4th of July Fireworks, Hall of Haunts, Scouting, Teas & Talks, etiquette courses, lectures, concerts, specialty summer camps and weddings. A family seat for the decedents of Walter Rutherfurd and Senator John Rutherfurd, Rutherfurd Hall was designed by Whitney Warren and the Olmsted Brothers and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.The north end of Shades of Death Road, a dark tourism "haunted highway" known by readers of Weird NJ magazine for the legends and folklore inspired by its macabre name, runs through Allamuchy.
Government
Local government
Allamuchy Township is governed under the Small Municipality form of government. The Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, allows municipalities to adopt a Small Municipality form of government only for municipalities with a population of under 12,000 at the time of adoption. The township is one of 18 municipalities statewide that use this form of government. The governing body is comprised of a Mayor and a four-member Township Council, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis as part of the November general election. A Mayor is elected directly by the voters to a three-year term of office. Council members serve a term of three years, which are staggered so that two seats come up for election in the first two years of a three-year cycle and the mayoral seat is up for direct vote in the third year., the Mayor of Allamuchy Township is Republican Rick Lomonaco, whose term of office ends December 31, 2021. Members of the Allamuchy Township Committee are Council President Douglas A. Ochwat, James H. Cote, Manuel P. "Manny" Quinoa and Rosemary Tuohy.
In January 2016, the Township Committee selected former mayor Betty Schultheis from three candidates nominated by the Republican municipal committee to fill the seat expiring in December 2017 that had been held by Keith DeTombeur until he stepped down to take office as mayor; Schultheis will serve on an interim basis until the November 2016 election, when voters will select a candidate to serve the balance of the term of office.
Federal and state representation
Allamuchy Township is located in New Jersey's fifth congressional district and is part of New Jersey's 24th state legislative district. Prior to the 2011 reapportionment following the 2010 Census, Allamuchy Township had been in the 23rd state legislative district.Politics
As of March 23, 2011, there was a total of 3,197 registered voters in Allamuchy Township, of whom 529 were registered as Democrats, 1,253 were registered as Republicans, and 1,413 were registered as Unaffiliated. There were two voters registered to other parties. Among the township's 2010 Census population, 74.0% were registered to vote, including 90.7% of those ages 18 and over.In the 2012 presidential election, Republican Mitt Romney received 62.2% of the vote, ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 36.3%, and other candidates with 1.5%, among the 2,431 ballots cast by the township's 3,328 registered voters, for a turnout of 73.0%.
In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 74.3% of the vote, ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 24.3%, and other candidates with 1.4%, among the 1,433 ballots cast by the township's 3,426 registered voters, for a turnout of 41.8%.
Education
Public school students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade are served by the Allamuchy Township School District. As of the 2017–18 school year, the district and its two schools had an enrollment of 423 students and 33.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.8:1. Schools in the district areMountain Villa School with 149 students in pre-kindergarten through 1st grade and
Allamuchy Township School with 274 students in second through eighth grade.
Students in public school for ninth through twelfth grades attend Hackettstown High School which serves students from Hackettstown, as well as students from the townships of Allamuchy, Independence and Liberty, as part of sending/receiving relationships with the Hackettstown School District. As of the 2017–18 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 867 students and 70.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.4:1.
Students from the township and from all of Warren County are eligible to attend Ridge and Valley Charter School in Blairstown or Warren County Technical School in Washington borough, with special education services provided by local districts supplemented throughout the county by the Warren County Special Services School District in Oxford Township.
Transportation
Roads and highways
, the township had a total of of roadways, of which were maintained by the municipality, by Warren County and by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.Interstate 80 crosses Allamuchy Township, and is accessible at Exit 19, County Route 517. Many choose the Allamuchy area because of its proximity to New York City.
Public transportation
Allamuchy Township was formerly served by the Allamuchy Train Station and Allamuchy Freight House until passenger service on the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway was ended in 1933. The Allamuchy Freight House is listed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places.Notable events
- In 1865 Lewis Morris Rutherfurd took the first telescopic photographs of the moon from his home at Tranquility Farm in Allamuchy.
- In 1902, Winthrop Rutherfurd commissioned Grand Central Station architect Whitney Warren to design Rutherfurd Hall. Completed in 1906, the Hall served as a hunting lodge family residence where prominent guests could be entertained, most famously U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt who was a close friend of Winthrop's second wife Lucy. The Rutherfurd family gave the Hall to the Catholic Church in 1959 after the completion of Interstate 80 brought more traffic and noise to the area. The Church changed the Hall's name to Villa Madonna and used it as a convent for an order of nuns for five decades before selling it the town to be used as a museum and community education facility. Now on the National Historic Register, Rutherfurd Hall first opened to the public in 2012.
- In the early 1920s, the schoolhouse in Quaker Grove was the site of experimental research in rural education by Fannie W. Dunn and Maria A. Everett, both of whom were from Teachers' College, Columbia University. The result of their fieldwork was Four Years in a County School which detailed their findings with regards to the single-teacher model, curriculum, and observations about rural education in general.
- In 1972 a left-wing group called the Allamuchy Tribe, led by activists Rennie Davis and Jerry Rubin and funded by ex-Beatle John Lennon, met at the Peter Stuyvesant Farm in Allamuchy to organize protests against the 1972 Republican National Convention. FBI surveillance of the Allamuchy Tribe led to the Bureau putting pressure on Lennon to divest from political activity by threatening to deport him.
Notable people
- Alison Becker, actress.
- Stephen Bienko, entrepreneur behind the College Hunks Hauling Junk brand.
- Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, lived in what is now Rutherfurd Hall where President Franklin D. Roosevelt paid at least one call on her "as a friend" before the existence of their lifelong romantic affair was publicly revealed.
- Winthrop Rutherfurd, socialite and husband of Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd.