Little Silver was established with a King's land grant in 1663 and settled in 1667.[22] Little Silver was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 19, 1923, from portions of Shrewsbury Township, based on the results of a referendum held on April 28, 1923.[23]
History
Prior to the settlement of Europeans, the area that is now Little Silver was inhabited by the NavesinkNative Americans.
There are several tales of how Little Silver received its name. In one, brothers Joseph and Peter Parker, who settled in this area in 1667 and owned land bounded by Parker's Creek on the south and Little Silver Creek on the north, named their holdings "Little Silver" after their father's (George Parker) estate in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.[22] The original Parker Homestead, dating to 1725 and one of the state's oldest, was acquired by the borough and is undergoing renovation.[24]
Other explanations for the derivation of the name are the payment to Native Americans for purchase of the land and the placid appearance of the water.[25]
The borough's earliest European residents were primarily farmers, fishermen and merchants.
Early families included:
Parkers – Joseph and Peter Parker originally settled the area, and their original homestead at 235 Rumson Road has been declared a state historic site.
Sickles – Harold and Elsie Sickles acquired land and opened a wholesale truck farm in 1908. The land was acquired from Harold's mother who was related to the Parkers. Transitioning from seasonal to year-round in 1998, Sickles Market became a specialty garden and food market until it closed in March 2024 after 116 years.[26]
Lovett – John T. Lovett owned a nursery that once covered almost half the borough, supplying large catalog houses such as Sears Roebuck, Macy's and Newberry's. In 1878 he circulated a petition to the community recommending that the name be revised and on July 30, 1879, the Post Office name was changed from "Parkersville" to "Little Silver".[27]
The borough has had a varied history as a resort, agricultural area and fishing town. Today, the municipality is primarily residential with a range of housing types, from ranches and capes.
Little Silver separated from Shrewsbury Township in 1923. Since then, farms and nurseries have been replaced by housing. Over the years, New York City and North Jersey commuters have made Little Silver their home, traveling by rail or auto to their jobs. The Little Silver train station on Sycamore Avenue was designed by the noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson and built in 1890. It reopened after renovations in 2003.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 3.32 square miles (8.60 km2), including 2.71 square miles (7.02 km2) of land and 0.61 square miles (1.57 km2) of water (18.28%).[1][2]
The original farms and nurseries have almost all been replaced by housing today. Little Silver's location on the Shrewsbury River makes it a popular destination for boaters and water sports enthusiasts, with a public boat ramp at the Dominick F. Santelle Park off Riverview Avenue. Approximately 8% of the homes are directly on the Shrewsbury River and another third of homes are on streams that connect to it.[28]
Of the 2,146 households, 37.3% had children under the age of 18; 68.4% were married couples living together; 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present and 21.3% were non-families. Of all households, 18.5% were made up of individuals and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.18.[19]
27.9% of the population were under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 19.0% from 25 to 44, 32.3% from 45 to 64, and 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.8 years. For every 100 females, the population had 92.1 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 85.4 males.[19]
The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $144,299 (with a margin of error of +/− $23,666) and the median family income was $167,659 (+/− $28,090). Males had a median income of $126,556 (+/− $27,434) versus $71,667 (+/− $13,832) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $66,069 (+/− $8,285). About 1.7% of families and 2.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.7% of those under age 18 and 1.7% of those age 65 or over.[37]
2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census,[16] there were 6,170 people, 2,232 households, and 1,810 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,226.2 inhabitants per square mile (859.5/km2). There were 2,288 housing units at an average density of 825.5 per square mile (318.7/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 97.15% White, 0.31% African American, 0.16% Native American, 1.51% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.19% from other races, and 0.66% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.31% of the population.[34][35]
There were 2,232 households, out of which 37.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 72.5% were married couples living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.9% were non-families. 16.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 and the average family size was 3.13.[34][35]
In the borough the population was spread out, with 27.4% under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 27.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.0 males.[34][35]
The median income for a household in the borough was $94,094, and the median income for a family was $104,033. Males had a median income of $90,941 versus $45,938 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $46,798. About 0.4% of families and 0.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and 0.8% of those age 65 or over.[34][35]
Government
Local government
Little Silver is governed under the borough form of New Jersey municipal government, which is used in 218 municipalities (of the 564) statewide, making it the most common form of government in New Jersey.[38] The governing body is composed of the mayor and the borough council, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis as part of the November general election. A mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office. The borough council is composed of six members elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats coming up for election each year in a three-year cycle.[6] The borough form of government used by Little Silver is a "weak mayor / strong council" government in which council members act as the legislative body with the mayor presiding at meetings and voting only in the event of a tie. The mayor can veto ordinances subject to an override by a two-thirds majority vote of the council. The mayor makes committee and liaison assignments for council members, and most appointments are made by the mayor with the advice and consent of the council.[39][40]
As of 2022[update], the mayor of Little Silver is Republican Robert C. Neff Jr., whose term of office ends December 31, 2023. Members of the Borough Council are Council President Kevin Brennan (R, 2023), Stephanie Brannagan (R, 2024), Doug Christensen (R, 2025), Donald S. Galante (R, 2025), Michael E. Holzapfel (R, 2023) and Christian M. Smith (R, 2024).[3][41][42][43][44][45]
In March 2016, the borough council selected Corinne Thygeson from three candidates nominated by the Republican municipal committee to fill the seat expiring in December 2016 that had been held by Stuart W. Van Winkle that became vacant upon his resignation; Thygeson will serve on an interim basis until the November 2016 general election, when voters will select a candidate to fill the balance of the term.[46]
In January 2015, the borough council selected Glenn Talavera to fill the vacant seat expiring December 2015 of Richard J. "Rick" Scott, who resigned from office as work obligations will have him out of the borough.[47]
In September 2011, following the death of mayor Suzanne Castleman in July 2011, Robert Neff was appointed to fill the vacant mayoral seat, while Donald Galante, a former member of the borough council, was appointed to fill Neff's vacant council seat.[48]
Little Silver is a participating municipality in an initiative to study regionalizing their municipal police force with one or more municipalities. The borough received a grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs in the amount of $40,950 along with the Boroughs of Fair Haven, Oceanport, Shrewsbury and Rumson to hire professional consultants to conduct the study on their behalf. A report delivered in July 2008 recommended that Fair Haven, Little Silver and Rumson should consider a network of shared police services, with consideration of inclusion of Oceanport and Shrewsbury deferred to a second phase.[49]
Federal, state, and county representation
Little Silver is located in the 6th Congressional District[50] and is part of New Jersey's 13th state legislative district.[51]
Monmouth County is governed by a Board of County Commissioners composed of five members who are elected at-large to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either one or two seats up for election each year as part of the November general election. At an annual reorganization meeting held in the beginning of January, the board selects one of its members to serve as director and another as deputy director.[58] As of 2024[update], Monmouth County's Commissioners are:
As of March 2011, there were a total of 4,677 registered voters in Little Silver, of which 1,065 (22.8%) were registered as Democrats, 1,486 (31.8%) were registered as Republicans and 2,124 (45.4%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 2 voters registered as either Libertarians or Greens.[73]
In the 2012 presidential election, Republican Mitt Romney received 61.4% of the vote (2,186 cast), ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 37.8% (1,344 votes), and other candidates with 0.8% (29 votes), among the 3,574 ballots cast by the borough's 4,903 registered voters (15 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 72.9%.[74][75] In the 2008 presidential election, Republican John McCain received 55.7% of the vote (2,155 cast), ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 42.0% (1,625 votes) and other candidates with 1.1% (41 votes), among the 3,867 ballots cast by the borough's 4,879 registered voters, for a turnout of 79.3%.[76] In the 2004 presidential election, Republican George W. Bush received 60.1% of the vote (2,310 ballots cast), outpolling Democrat John Kerry with 39.1% (1,501 votes) and other candidates with 0.4% (19 votes), among the 3,842 ballots cast by the borough's 4,752 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 80.9.[77]
In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 74.3% of the vote (1,639 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 24.0% (530 votes), and other candidates with 1.6% (36 votes), among the 2,230 ballots cast by the borough's 4,837 registered voters (25 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 46.1%.[78][79] In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 67.5% of the vote (1,865 ballots cast), ahead of Democrat Jon Corzine with 25.9% (715 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 5.9% (163 votes) and other candidates with 0.4% (12 votes), among the 2,761 ballots cast by the borough's 4,752 registered voters, yielding a 58.1% turnout.[80]
For ninth through twelfth grades, students attend Red Bank Regional High School, which serves students from the boroughs of Little Silver, Red Bank and Shrewsbury, along with students in the district's academy programs from other communities who are eligible to attend on a tuition basis.[89][90] Students from other Monmouth County municipalities are eligible to attend the high school for its performing arts program, with admission on a competitive basis.[91] The borough has two elected representatives on the nine-member board of education.[92] As of the 2021–22 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 1,247 students and 117.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.6:1.[93]
As of May 2010[update], the borough had a total of 32.41 miles (52.16 km) of roadways, of which 25.68 miles (41.33 km) were maintained by the municipality and 6.73 miles (10.83 km) by Monmouth County.[94]
^Jackson, Kimberley L. "NJ's oldest home? Parker Homestead in Little Silver predates founding of U.S.", The Star-Ledger, February 20, 2014. Accessed September 3, 2015. "A stately white sign near the house at 235 Rumson Road in Little Silver proclaims that it is a National Historic Site where there is 'Preservation in Progress'.... Parker was a descendant of some of the earliest English settlers in New Jersey, and her house, believed to have been built in 1725, is one of the state's oldest dwellings."
^Donohue, Brian; Ward, John T. "LITTLE SILVER: SICKLES MARKET CLOSES", Red Bank Green, March 11, 2024. Accessed March 26, 2024. "Sickles Market in Little Silver closed Monday, shocking customers of the grocer that began life as a farm market 116 years ago."
^Cheslow, Jerry. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Little Silver, N.J.; Riverfront Borough That Prizes Stability", The New York Times, September 2, 2001. Accessed August 6, 2012. "According to Mayor Castleman, 8 percent of Little Silver's homes are on the Shrewsbury River and another 35 percent are along its stream corridors. From Seven Bridges Road, which spans the river and its tributaries in seven places, private docks are visible behind waterfront houses. For residents without private access to the river, the borough provides a boat ramp, at no cost, in Dominick F. Santelle Park off Riverview Avenue."
^Minutes of the Regular Meeting March 21, 2016, Borough of Little Silver. Accessed July 15, 2016. "Dane Mihlon moved to appoint Corinne Thygeson to fill the unexpired term of Stuart Van Winkle... Motion Carried"
^"Message From Mayor Neff", Little Silver Newsletter, February 2015, Volume MMXV, Issue 2. Accessed July 14, 2015. "In addition, we had a new face on the dais in January. Councilman Rick Scott, M.D., resigned late last year because of new job responsibilities in Chicago. ... Taking his place is Glenn Talavera."
^O'Donnell, Jenna. "Study recommends towns share police services; Consultants: Law enforcement can be regionalized"Archived 2013-01-24 at archive.today, the hub, July 17, 2008. Accessed August 6, 2012. "A feasibility study of shared police services among Rumson, Fair Haven and Little Silver suggests that the three towns pool resources in six areas, including criminal investigation and communications. The findings of the Two River Regional Police Study Group by Eatontown-based Patriot Consulting Group were presented to officials and residents of the three boroughs during a meeting held at Little Silver Borough Hall on July 9. ... The group was founded by the elected officials of the three towns, along with the boroughs of Oceanport and Shrewsbury, in 2007 for the purpose of assessing the feasibility of sharing and possibly regionalizing their five municipal police departments into on regional department, the release states. ... O'Scanlon, a Little Silver councilman at the time, said then that the study would proceed with only Little Silver, Fair Haven and Rumson, but that Oceanport and Shrewsbury might join at a later date. "
^Biography, Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. Accessed January 3, 2019. "Frank Pallone, Jr., was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, where he grew up and still resides."
^Biography of Bob Menendez, United States Senate, January 26, 2015. "Menendez, who started his political career in Union City, moved in September from Paramus to one of Harrison's new apartment buildings near the town's PATH station.."
^Monmouth County Government, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Accessed July 19, 2022. "Monmouth County is governed by five commissioners elected at-large for three-year terms. Each January, the freeholders select one of their members to serve as the director of the board for the year to preside over the meetings and activities of the Board."
^Little Silver Board of Education District Policy 0110 - Identification, Little Silver Public Schools. Accessed January 4, 2023. "Purpose: The Board of Education exists for the purpose of providing a thorough and efficient system of free public education in grades Kindergarten through eight in the Little Silver School District. Composition: The Little Silver School District is comprised of all the area within the municipal boundaries of Little Silver."
^Red Bank Regional High School 2016 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed May 30, 2017. "Red Bank Regional High School is a comprehensive and diverse secondary school that offers a multitude of rigorous academic and extra-curricular programs for the student body which numbers 1,236. The constituent sending districts include Little Silver, Red Bank Borough and Shrewsbury. The district also accepts students on a tuition basis who may be interested in one of our specialized academies of study."
^Martin, Patti. "A Day in the Life of Red Bank Regional High School", Asbury Park Press, March 30, 2007. Accessed September 1, 2014. "Located in Little Silver, RBR, as the school is commonly referred to, is the home school to students from Little Silver, Red Bank and Shrewsbury."
^About the Board of Education, Red Bank Regional High School District. Accessed January 21, 2017. "The Board of Education is composed of nine citizens elected from our constituent districts. Representatives are elected on the basis of constituent population – two from Little Silver, five from Red Bank, and two from Shrewsbury."
^Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, 1973, p. 403. J.A. Fitzgerald, 1973. Accessed April 19, 2020. "District 5B (part of Monmouth) Chester Apy (Rep., Little Silver) - Assemblyman Apy was born in Red Bank, N. J., March 8, 1932."
^Schreuders, Piet. "The Paperback Art of James Avati"[permanent dead link], Illustration Magazine, October 2001, p. 16. Accessed July 14, 2011. "A large portion of Avati's youth was spent in Little Silver, a small community in Monmouth County, New Jersey, near the Atlantic coast. Sadly, Avati's father died suddenly of pneumonia in 1928. Luckily for the boy, he had a wealthy uncle who was willing to fund his college education at Princeton. In 1935, Avati graduated from there with a degree in Architecture."
^Virginia S. Bauer, New Jersey Next Stop. Accessed August 31, 2016. "Ginny grew up in Little Silver, Monmouth County as the eldest of five children. All through high school she had jobs, from babysitting at age 11 to afternoons and weekends as a cashier at the A&P in Little Silver. She graduated from Red Bank Catholic High School and Rosemont College before immediately landing a job with a Merrill Lynch training program."
^Dave Bry, Huffington Post, Accessed October 16, 2017. "Dave Bry was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1970 and raised in the neighboring town of Little Silver."
^Van Develde, Elaine. "A bicycle trip that leads to someone else's home"Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, Atlanticville, January 9, 2004. Accessed March 17, 2011. "Shariff, 20, of Tinton Falls, is an undergraduate studying electrical engineering at Princeton University. Brown, 19, also from Tinton Falls, is a physics major at Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; and Christian, a Little Silver native, attends Brown University, Providence, R.I., and majors in computer science and philosophy."
^"In Memoriam: Marilyn Levy", The Two River Times, July 4, 2014. Accessed August 31, 2021. "Marilyn Levy, 92, died on Thursday, June 19, at Riverview Hospital of heart failure. Marilyn was a long-time resident of Little Silver, previously residing in Red Bank."
^Gleick, Elizabeth. "Susan Love; A Surgeon Crusades Against Breast Cancer", People, July 25, 1994. Accessed September 3, 2015. "Born in Little Silver, N.J., the oldest of five children of Peggy and James Love, she moved to Puerto Rico when she was 13 after her father, a salesman for the Eaton machinery company, was transferred there."
^via Associated Press. "Coburn, Rutgers overcome Monmouth 79-56", The Seattle Times, December 18, 2010. Accessed January 8, 2011. "There was a sense of familiarity to the night for Rice, who lives in nearby Little Silver, N.J., and is 2-0 at Monmouth's new Multipurpose Activities Center in less than a year."
^Edelson, Stephen. "Winter Olympics: Monmouth County native Meghan Tierney headed to South Korea", Asbury Park Press, January 25, 2018. Accessed January 28, 2018. "Meghan Tierney was the young American girl competing in the rough-and-tumble world of international snowboard cross, challenging the top female snowboarders on the planet on icy turns and big-air jumps at harrowing speeds down the most treacherous courses.... Now Tierney, who grew up in Rumson and Little Silver, joins teammates like silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis, her idol and former instructor, who was teaching her jumps at an early age, on the biggest stage in winter sports."
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