Watchung

Watchung is a Borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 5,613.

Watchung was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 23, 1926, from portions of North Plainfield Township (now Green Brook Township) based on the results of a referendum held on April 20, 1926.

Watchung, from the 1900s was a semi-rural small community of about 3,200 people in comparison with the relatively much larger cities of Plainfield and Somerville. Even as late as the 1960s, it was common for residents to know one another by name, with few moving in or out of the town. The 1967 Plainfield riots, however, caused an exodus of the large upper-middle class population from the nearby cities to move to the Watchung Hills area to towns such as Watchung, Warren Township and Bridgewater Township. It was at this time that Watchung became a bedroom community and the average income and median house prices soared.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 6.0 square miles (15.6 km²), of which, 6.0 square miles (15.6 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.33%) is water.

The name 'Watchung' comes from the Lenni Lenape Native Americans, meaning 'high hills'. It is from the first ridge of the Watchung Mountains that George Washington surveyed the British troops in Perth Amboy many miles SSE. The eastern reach of these ridges is to the Oranges in the direction of Newark.

The median income for a household in the borough was $101,944, and the median income for a family was $120,764. Males had a median income of $80,658 versus $54,167 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $58,653. About 0.5% of families and 2.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.6% of those under age 18 and 1.6% of those ages 65 or over.

Students in Kindergarten through eighth grade are educated by the Watchung Borough Schools. Schools in the district (with 2004-05 school enrollment data from the New Jersey Department of Education School Report Cards are Bayberry Elementary School with 403 students in grades K - 4, and Valley View School with 286 students in grades 5 - 8.

Watchung's students in public school for grades 9-12 attend Watchung Hills Regional High School in Warren Township together with students from the neighboring communities of Green Brook Township and Warren Township (in Somerset County) and Long Hill Township (in Morris County). As of the 2005-2006 school year, there were over 1,900 students attending.