Greenwich Township dates to 1748, and 44% of its homes were built before 1940
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 19 buildings. Below: 22 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1810.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Greenwich Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1890Bay Side sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Greenwich Township.
By decade
Greenwich Township, decade by decade
4 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Greenwich Township was first formed as a precinct on January 19, 1748, and was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798, as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships. Portions of Hopewell Township and Stow Creek Township were annexed in 1845. The township was named for Greenwich, England.
In 1774, during the run-up to the American Revolutionary War, the small community on the Cohansey River was the site of the Greenwich Tea Party, in which a load of tea meant to be sent overland into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was torched in the night. After the Revolutionary War, the pronunciation of the town was changed to Green-witch to differentiate itself from its English namesake.
In 1748, according to Wikidata. Greenwich Township’s post office opened in 1811, and the census of 1810 counted 858 people here.
What is on the National Register in Greenwich Township?
Three places: the Greenwich Historic District (Additional Documentation)) (listed 1972), the Thomas Maskel House (1975) and the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (1999).
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 Wikimedia Commons (7), the Library of Congress (18), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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