Clark, New Jersey

History

The Township of Clark, New Jersey, is the product of many years of social, economic and political change. First established from Lenape Indian Hunting Grounds, it became a crossroad of the American Revolution. Our community would develop into an agricultural paradise that enabled many European immigrants to strive for the American Dream.

The territory of land that would become Clark was originally a part of several of the early villages of the State and of Union County, but it was in 1858 after the village of Rahway incorporated itself into a city that the land of present day Clark, officially became a community. The City of Rahway designated this land as the 5th Ward of Rahway and Clark remained a part of Rahway until 1864 when the 357 residents of the ward declared their independence and established their own town. They took the name of the signer of the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Clark.

The town in its early years was a small quiet farm community, but as the years went by Clark would slowly change. In the early part of the century large farms were slowly being sub-divided into smaller track farms. It was not until State Highway No. 4, present day Garden State Parkway, cut the town in half, that our community witnessed massive change. Many farmers facing economic changes as well as the need for the housing shortage of post World War II began to sell their land to housing developers. It is these land developers who in a period of 40 years,1949 to 1989, changed the appearance of Clark, from a community of wide open land to a town with numerous housing developments and business centers.

Clark today is a thriving suburban community which is at 98% capacity of occupied land, along with having a population of 14,597.