Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Avenel was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Below: old-book passages.
The Avenel post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Avenel’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Avenel.
The community was established in 1901; it was named for the daughter of Captain Demarest, the founder of the village, which had formerly been known as Demarest on the Hill. Besides the Demarests, the first settlers included members of the Brown, Clark, Cooper, Crowell, Douglass, Edgar, and Thorpe families.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Avenel, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Perth Amboy, with stations at Woodbridge, Avenel and Spa Sjiring. Before that time the mail was carried from Rahway to Perth Amboy via Woodbridge, by wagon, sleigh or horseback ; and the writer remembers seeing the genial face of former Sheriff Convery, of Perth Amboy, who for several years was the mail carrier, appearing in the Woodbridge postofifice, his coat covered with snow, or drenched with rain, after a three and a half mile drive. The postoffice was successively located in the old building on the corner of Rahway avenue and Green street ;
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
being Hampton Cutter, James P. Prall and John H. Leisen. All these industries furnish employment to a large number of skilled and unskilled workmen, and add materially to the growth and prosperity of the township. The Steel Works at Avenel is a new and thriving industry, and is steadily increasing its output. On May 14, 1832, Rev. William Granville, pastor of the Rahway Methodist Episcopal Church, called a meeting of the Methodists of Woodbridge in the Strawberry Hill school-house, just below James P.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Avenel post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
