Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0
More historic than 20% of U.S. towns · #441 of 468 in New Jersey. What drives it
Most of Monmouth Beach was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1954 on, and the census since 1910.
Founding year: the first Monmouth Beach post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1906.
History grade
What drives Monmouth Beach’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Monmouth Beach is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns, #441 of 468 in New Jersey. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Monmouth Beach’s overall grade.
New Jersey towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Jersey town has 3.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Monmouth Beach’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (12% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C. The pre-1940 share (±2.8 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1906.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
The story so far
Monmouth Beach, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Monmouth Beach yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Monmouth Beach is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated on the Jersey Shore in Central Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 3,174, a decrease of 105 (−3.2%) from the 2010 census count of 3,279, which in turn had reflected a decline of 316 (−8.8%) from the 3,595 counted at the 2000 census. The area was first settled in 1668 and grew into a community with the arrival of the Long Branch and Sea Shore Railroad. Many early residents were professional fishermen with Norwegian backgrounds. Monmouth Beach was incorporated from portions of Ocean Township as a borough on March 9, 1906, by an act of the New Jersey Legislature. In 2…
Its first post office opened in 1872. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 3,279 to 3,174 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Monmouth Beach, 1872 to 1962
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Monmouth Beach. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1954Long Branch sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Monmouth Beach.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewSeabright and Monmouth Beach Property (Villages), 1873
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Monmouth Beach’s page.
The Monmouth Beach post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1906.
How does Monmouth Beach rank for history?
Monmouth Beach is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns, #441 of 468 in New Jersey. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Monmouth Beach?
6% of Monmouth Beach’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.8 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1976.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (3), 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.
1900
1900
1900
