The City of Orange (known simply as Orange) is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 34,447, an increase of 4,313 (+14.3%) from the 2010 census count of 30,134, which in turn reflected a decline of 2,734 (-8.3%) from the 32,868 counted in the 2000 census.Table 7. Population for the Counties and Municipalities in New Jersey: 1990, 2000 and 2010, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, February 2011. Accessed May 1, 2023.
The New Jersey Legislature originally incorporated Orange as a township on November 27, 1806, from parts of what was then Newark Township. Parts of the township were taken on April 14, 1834, to form the now-defunct Clinton Township. On January 31, 1860, Orange was reincorporated as a town. Parts of the town were taken to form South Orange Township (April 1, 1861, now known as Maplewood), Fairmount (March 11, 1862, since a part of West Orange), East Orange (March 4, 1863) and West Orange (April 10, 1863). On April 3, 1872, Orange was reincorporated as a city.Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. pp. 130–131. Accessed July 6, 2012. In 1982, the city was one of four Essex County municipalities to pass a referendum to become a township, joining 11 municipalities that had already made the change, of what ultimately were more than a dozen Essex County municipalities to reclassify themselves as townships to take advantage of federal revenue sharing policies that allocated townships a greater share of government aid to municipalities on a per capita basis."Chapter VI: Municipal Names and Municipal Classification", p. 73. New Jersey State Commission on County and Municipal Government, 1992. Accessed September 24, 2015."Removing Tiering From The Revenue Sharing Formula Would Eliminate Payment Inequities To Local Governments", Government Accountability Office, April 15, 1982. Accessed September 24, 2015. "In 1978, South Orange Village was the first municipality to change its name to the 'township' of South Orange Village effective beginning in entitlement period 10 (October 1978 to September 1979). The Borough of Fairfield in 1978 changed its designation by a majority vote of the electorate and became the 'Township of Fairfield' effective beginning entitlement period 11 (October 1979 to September 1980).... However, the Revenue Sharing Act was not changed and the actions taken by South Orange and Fairfield prompted the Town of Montclair and West Orange to change their designation by referendum in the November 4, 1980, election. The municipalities of Belleville, Verona, Bloomfield, Nutley, Essex Fells, Caldwell, and West Caldwell have since changed their classification from municipality to a township."Narvaez, Alfonso A. "New Jersey Journal", The New York Times, December 27, 1981. Accessed September 24, 2015. "Under the Federal system, New Jersey's portion of the revenue sharing funds is disbursed among the 21 counties to create three 'money pools.' One is for county governments, one for 'places' and a third for townships. By making the change, a community can use the 'township advantage' to get away from the category containing areas with low per capita incomes."Karcher, Alan J. New Jersey's Multiple Municipal Madness, pp. 119–120. Rutgers University Press, 1998. . Accessed September 24, 2015. The city derives its name from William III of EnglandHutchinson, Viola L. The Origin of New Jersey Place Names, New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed September 16, 2015. or William IV, Prince of Orange.Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, p. 23. United States Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed September 16, 2015.
Despite the differences in the municipalities' character, Orange, East Orange, South Orange and West Orange are sometimes jointly called The Oranges.Caldwell, Dave. "A Place to Feel Homey While Staying Hip", The New York Times, March 2, 2008. Accessed November 3, 2019. "Signs on Interstate 280 often lump the township into a region known as "the Oranges," with Orange, East Orange and West Orange. But South Orange has a decidedly different feel: less urban than Orange and East Orange, but less spread out than West Orange."
In 2020, the township had New Jersey's 12th-highest property tax rate, with an equalized rate of 4.679% compared to 2.824% in the county as a whole and a statewide average of 2.279%."Here are the 30 N.J. towns with the highest property tax rates", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, March 15, 2021. Accessed January 19, 2022. "The average equalized tax rate in New Jersey was 2.279 in 2020, according to data from the Department of Community Affairs. Here is the list of 30 New Jersey towns with the highest property tax rates.... 12. City of Orange Equalized tax rate in City of Orange Township, Essex County, was 4.679 in 2020 Average equalized tax rate in Essex County: 2.824"
History Orange has its origins in Connecticut's New Haven Colony. In 1666, 30 of New Haven's families traveled by water to found "a town on the Passayak" River. They arrived on territory now encompassing Newark, the Oranges, and several other municipalities. The area was in the northeast portion of a land grant conveyed by King Charles II of England to his brother James, Duke of York. In 1664, James conveyed the land to two proprietors, Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Since Carteret had been Royal Governor of the Isle of Jersey, the territory became known as "New Jersey."
Orange was initially part of the city of Newark, but it was originally known as "Newark Mountains". On June 7, 1780, the townspeople of Newark Mountains officially voted to adopt the name Orange.Pierson, David Lawrence. History of the Oranges to 1921: Reviewing the Rise, Development and Progress of an Influential Community – Volume 1. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1922. OCLC 3884577. See Chapter XXIX – The Name Orange Adopted, Page 155. Available via Internet Archive At the time, a significant number of people favored secession from Newark. This did not occur until November 27, 1806, when the territory now encompassing all of the Oranges was finally detached.
On April 13, 1807, the first government was elected, but not until March 13, 1860, was Orange officially incorporated as a city. Immediately, the new city began fragmenting into smaller communities, primarily because of local disputes about the costs of establishing paid police, fire, and street departments. South Orange was organized on January 26, 1861; Fairmount (later to become part of West Orange) on March 11, 1862; East Orange on March 4, 1863; and West Orange (including Fairmount) on March 14, 1863.
Early center of transportation
Orange is on the Newark and Mount-Pleasant Turnpike, the main road from Newark to Morristown, and ultimately to Easton, Pennsylvania. The town became a busy thoroughfare for travelers, and hotels abounded. Initially, the stagecoach was the primary method of transportation. Omnibuses of the Eclipse and the Morris & Newark Lines serviced Orange.
The Morris and Essex Railroad arrived in Orange in November 1836, its first cars drawn by horses. On October 2, 1837, the first steam locomotive appeared, and the horses were, with minor exception, relegated to pasture. The "M&E" later became a part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W), which exists today as NJ Transit's Morristown Line.
Trolley cars appeared much later, with the Orange and Newark Horse Car Railroad Company running its first car up Main Street in May 1862. The Orange Crosstown Line, eventually extending from Morris Street, Orange, to Bloomfield, was started in June 1888. (The first electric trolley in the State of New Jersey operated over a section of this line.) Eventually, all the trolleys, and the buses that replaced them, became part of the sprawling Public Service Coordinated Transport System.
Orange became an industrial city early in its history, with the tanning industry expanding rapidly after settlers found growths of hemlock trees that were a source for the tannic acid they needed, leading to the growth of many factories producing shoes and boots.
Orange was once the United States' hat-making capital. The industry can be traced there to 1792. By 1892, 21 firms were engaged in that trade, employing more than 3,700 people in plants that produced about 4.8 million hats, which had a combined value in excess of $1 million (equivalent to $ million in ). A group of brothers founded the "No-Name Hat Company" in Orange before one of them moved on to make fedoras in Philadelphia under the family name "Stetson." By 1921, only five hat-making firms were left, many having departed for places such as Norwalk and Danbury, Connecticut.History of the Hat Industry at Orange, NJ. Accessed November 3, 2019. By 1960, all had left.
Beer was a major industry in Orange beginning in the early 1900s, when the three Winter Brothers of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arrived in the city and built the first brewery. The Orange Brewery was constructed in 1901 at a reported cost of $350,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). The production of beer ceased with prohibition in 1920, and after the repeal of the Volstead Act in 1933, the brewery was sold to John F. Trommers of Philadelphia. Trommers brewed beer under that label until 1950, when the concern was again sold to Liebmann Breweries, Incorporated, which bottled Rheingold Beer. Eventually, after passing through several other owners, the plant was closed permanently in 1977.
Other notable firms in Orange were the Monroe Calculating Company, manufacturers of the adding machines of the same name, and the Bates Manufacturing Company, producers of office accessories such as staplers and stampers.
From about 1917 to 1926, the United States Radium Corporation refined ore and extracted the radium used to make luminous paint for dials and hands of watches and other indicators. Years later, the carcinogenic effects of this material became known, and the polluted site of the factory became a liability for the city.Frame, Paul. Radioluminescent Paint, Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Accessed November 16, 2021. The Radium Girls were a group of hundreds of female factory workers who contracted acute radiation syndrome after ingesting radioactive radium when they followed instructions to rub brushes on their lips that were being used to paint luminescent watch dials, many of them suffering cancers and other deformities due to the radiation poisoning.Cowen, Ron. "New Jersey's 'Radium Girls' and the NIST-Trained Scientist Who Came to Their Aid", National Institute of Standards and Technology, March 16, 2022. Accessed December 17, 2025. "Because the work required fine detail to paint the tiny numbers, the factory supervisors instructed the women to lick their camel-hair brushes to a point before and after dipping the brushes in the radium paint.... In 1925, five of the women filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Radium Corporation (USRC), based in Orange, New Jersey." The company's facility at 422–432 Alden Street was added to the National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey in 1999.U.S. Radium Corporation; Written Historical and Descriptive Data, National Park Service. Accessed December 17, 2025.
Notable residents and visitors Orange has produced such notables as baseball's Monte Irvin and heavyweight boxer Tony Galento. Actor William Bendix lived and worked here for a short while. Presidents, presidential candidates, and governors visited. Orange held major celebrations for its 100th anniversary, and another when it turned 150.
Late 20th century political and social changes