Rahway, New Jersey Real Estate
Rahway: Birthplace of E Pluribus Unum

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Rahway, New Jersey, and the surrounding Union County area were once the home of the Lenni Lenape Native Americans. One tradition states that the city was named after Rahwack, a local tribal chief. Others, however, suggest the community was named for the Rahway River, which is an Indian term variously translated as "place of sands" and "in the midst of the forest." Formal European settlement began in 1664 with the purchase by the English from the Lenape of the Elizabethtown Tract, which encompassed lands from the mouth of the Raritan River and included all of present-day Union County as well as parts of Somerset, Middlesex, Morris and Essex counties.

Rahway saw limited action during the American Revolutionary War because of its proximity to Staten Island, Elizabethtown and Perth Amboy. In January 1777, rebels were victorious against the British in the Battle of Spanktown (the city's original name, supposedly assigned to "commemorate" a local doctor's habit of spanking his wife), which resulted in the death of some 100 British troops. Abraham Clark, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and namesake of nearby Clark Township, New Jersey, is buried in the Rahway Cemetery. Following the Revolution, Rahway became the home of the first national mint to create a coin bearing the inscription E pluribus unum.

Throughout the 19th century, Rahway grew due to its location along the major stagecoach and later, railroad lines between New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The navigable Rahway River, which flows through the city, also aided the city's commercial growth. Over time, the city became home to dozens of major manufacturers, including the Regina Music Box Company, Wheatena, Mershon Bros. and, most importantly, Merck & Co., which was established in Rahway in 1903 when George Merck moved his small chemical company to Rahway from New York City.

Following a regional economic decline in the first half of the last century, since 1990 the City of Rahway has rebounded as its downtown began construction of new restaurants, art galleries and market-rate housing, the old Rahway Theatre reopening as the Union County Arts Center and the building of a new railroad station by New Jersey Transit in 1999. The city presently enjoys one of the lowest property tax rates in Union County, a diverse population and a wide variety of municipal services not available in other locales.