Founding year: the first Sea Girt post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1917.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Sea Girt’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sea Girt is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Sea Girt’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 Sea Girt’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 B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1917.
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 Sea Girt’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Sea Girt was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 29, 1917, from portions of Wall Township, based on the results of a referendum held on May 1, 1917. The borough was named for the estate of Comm. Robert F. Stockton, who had purchased a property in the area in 1853.
On April 1, 2023, a brief tornado that was part of a tornado outbreak measured EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale with winds estimated at 110 to 120 miles per hour (180 to 190 km/h). It blew off the roof of the New Jersey Youth Challenge Academy, with debris strewn up to 250 yards (230 m). Power poles were also damaged and a tree was uprooted.
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 Sea Girt post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1917.
How does Sea Girt rank for history?
Sea Girt is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns. 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 Sea Girt?
19% of Sea Girt’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1959.
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 (8), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, 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.
1906
c. 1908
c. 1908
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