Woodbridge Township, New Jersey Real Estate
Woodbridge Township: Center of Progress and Activity

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Woodbridge Township in Union County, New Jersey, is the oldest original township in the state of New Jersey. It was settled in the early autumn of 1664 and was granted a charter on June 1, 1669 by King Charles of England. In his history of Woodbridge, Dally records that it was so called in honor of Reverend John Woodbridge of Newbury, Massachusetts. James Parker, who was born in Woodbridge in 1714 and was a business associate of none other than Benjamin Franklin, established the first permanent printing house in New Jersey in Woodbridge in 1751. In 1758 he established and printed, at Woodbridge, "The New American Magazine," the first periodical of its kind edited and published in the Colony and the second magazine of its kind on the continent.

What may be said to be the first antislavery meeting ever held in the United States was held in Woodbridge on the 4th of July, 1783, seven years after the Declaration of Independence and six years before George Washington was inaugurated as President of the United States. This meeting was held on the farm of Moses Bloomfield, a surgeon in the Continental Army, located north of Freeman Street where Barron Avenue runs through Prospect.

When George Washington left Mount Vernon for New York to take the oath of office as the first President of the United States, he left Philadelphia on the morning of April 21, 1789, arrived at Trenton that afternoon, and that same night journeyed to Princeton, where he spent the night. The next day, accompanied by Governor Livingston, Washington proceeded to Woodbridge where he spent the night at the Cross Keys Tavern, then located on the northwest corner of Amboy Avenue and Main Street, on the site presently occupied by the Knights of Columbus. This famous old building still stands, having been moved to a new location to the rear of the original site on the north side of James Street. On the morning of April 23, Washington left for New York by way of Rahway and Elizabethtown.

Today, with a population of 100,000+ residents and burgeoning industrial retail service, transportation and professional growth - the community of Woodbridge is the fifth largest municipality in New Jersey and the center of progress and activity for Central Jersey.