Phillipsburg’s post office opened in 1854, and 51% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 86% of U.S. towns · #85 of 468 in New Jersey. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 72 buildings between them. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1870.
Founding year: the first Phillipsburg post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Phillipsburg’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Phillipsburg is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #85 of 468 in New Jersey. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Phillipsburg’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 Phillipsburg’s 49.0 sits above most of its state (81% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 75 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Phillipsburg’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Phillipsburg, building by building, 1885–1916
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The town grew from an agricultural village in 1824. It was transformed into a transportation hub and shipping center as the Delaware River terminus of the Morris Canal, with operations commencing in 1831, the first of several transportation infrastructure projects that gave the community a direct connection 107 miles (172 km) to New York City. The Central Railroad of New Jersey soon followed with a connection. The community's growth soon reached the canal terminals of both the Delaware Canal and the Lehigh Canal by its cross-river cable ferry system to Easton, Pennsylvania. In 1853, the Lehigh Valley Railroad connected across the river with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and a passenger short line railroad, the Belvidere Delaware Railroad, and Morris Canal, all within Phillipsburg, which was followed by rapid growth.
Passages that mention Phillipsburg, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History and directory of Warren County, New Jersey1929 · page 5KRead the page →
Read the text
The first bridge across the Delaware connecting Easton and Phillipsburg, was built about 1800, and was washed away a few years later. In 1805 the Easton Delaware Bridge Company raised by a lottery enough money to build a wooden arch bridge similar to the bridge at Columbia and the wooden section of the bridge at Frenchtown. ‘This structure did service until 1895, when it was torn down and the present steel bridge erected. ‘This bridge was operated as a toll bridge until a few years ago, when it was purchased by the joint bridge commissions of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History and directory of Warren County, New Jersey1929 · page 3KRead the page →
Read the text
The site of the town of Phillipsburg seems to have fallen to the lot of John Tabor Kempe, one of the Coxe heirs and a royalist, and it was confiscated and sold in 1789 by James Hyndshaw, high sheriff, to Jacob Arndt, Jr., of Easton. The description says ‘Including the town of Phillipsburg,”’ containing 91*/, acres. This tract embraced the whole of the ancient town of Phillipsburg as laid out by the Coxes. On January 5, 1793, Jacob Arndt, Jr., sold the town of Phillipsburg as above described for about $530 to Philip Seager and Jacob Reese. In neither of these deeds is there a single reservation, indicating apparently no previous purchasers of town lots. Seager and Reese made a division of the town whereby Reese got two tracts in the northern part, containing, respec-
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.
Timeline
Phillipsburg, 1854 to 1924
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.
The Phillipsburg post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Phillipsburg rank for history?
Phillipsburg is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #85 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.
What is on the National Register in Phillipsburg?
4 listings: 2 buildings, among them the John Roseberry Homestead (listed 1973, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Morris Canal and the Phillipsburg Commercial Historic District, with 72 contributing buildings. 75 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Phillipsburg?
51% of Phillipsburg’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.9 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 (9), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1917
1917
1917
1917![Bridge and houses in [Phillipsburg, New Jersey; seen from] Easton, Pennsylvania](https://images.townratings.com/story/11108/3ec3f69b9773e3bbf5b9-s.jpg)
1935![Bridge and houses in [Phillipsburg, New Jersey; seen from] Easton, Pennsylvania](https://images.townratings.com/story/11108/e374599fdc383139b196-s.jpg)
1935