Ocean Township municipal offices are located at 399 Monmouth Road, Oakhurst, NJ 07755.
Phone: 609-693-3302.
Ocean Township [†] was formed from a part of Shrewsbury Township in 1849 and was initially larger, extending to the Atlantic Ocean. Between 1867 and 1967, parts of the original township spun off to create other municipalities including Long Branch, Eatontown, Asbury Park, Neptune, Sea Bright, Allenhurst, Deal, Monmouth Beach, Interlaken and Loch Arbour Village (Snyder, 1969). The township currently encompasses 10.88 square miles.
Neighborhoods
There is evidence that the area now known as Monmouth County has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. Stone implements with fluted points characteristic of Paleo-American cultures were recovered at an archeological excavation site near Freehold, and radiocarbon dating indicated that the tools originated during the period from 7,041 B.C. through 5,939 B.C. Similar artifacts have been found at other locations in the county, including Farmingdale and Squankum.
The earliest documented native inhabitants called the area Lenapehoking, which means land of the Lenape. Lenapehoking encompassed all of what is now New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, southeastern New York State, northern Delaware and a small section of southeastern Connecticut (Lenape Lifeways, 2002). The original residents traveled with the seasons, moving to the shore areas for shellfish and cooler weather in the summers but maintaining permanent settlements inland for the rest of the year (Ocean Township, 1949). Shells, arrowheads and artifacts found at Cold Indian Springs suggest this was once the location of a Lenape summer campsite.
The Township of Ocean was established in 1849 when Shrewsbury Township was divided into two parts. At that time the two main villages in the township were Long Branch and Eatontown (Edelson, 1974). Ocean Township's first post office was established in 1860 and its first church was built in 1882. The area continued to develop: Several railroads were built to serve the vicinity in the late 1800s as well as a trolley route along what is presently Norwood Avenue, and poles with gas lamps were added to light the public roads. Ongoing regional growth resulted in the formation of independent municipalities from portions of the original Township of Ocean, the last of which was Loch Arbour in 1957.
Environmental Resource Inventory for Ocean Township, 2019, www.oceantwp.org, accessed June, 2021.
Nearby Towns: Allenhurst Boro • Asbury Park City • Avon-by-the-Sea Borough • Belmar Boro • Bradley Beach Boro • Deal Boro • Eatontown Boro • Lake Como Boro • Little Silver Boro • Long Branch City • Neptune Twp • Red Bank Boro • Shrewsbury Boro • Shrewsbury Twp • Tinton Falls Boro • Wall Twp •