According to an 1883 history, "the first name of the village was Queenstown, which was given it in honor of Queen Anne. Later it was by some, in derision of its comparative insignificance, Pennytown, and as early as 1747 it began to be called Pennington."[21][22][23] The name "Penington" was already known in the area, as Edward Penington (1667–1701), son of the British Quaker leader Isaac Penington, was appointed by his kinsman William Penn as Surveyor General of Pennsylvania. His father-in-law was a longtime leader, including as governor, of the province of West Jersey, where Edward married.[24]Henry Gannett attributes the borough's name to colonial governors from the Pennington family.[25]
Pennington was established as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on January 31, 1890, from portions of Hopewell Township, based on the results of a referendum held on January 21, 1890.[26] It is a dry borough, where alcohol cannot be sold.[27][28]
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 0.96 square miles (2.50 km2), including 0.96 square miles (2.49 km2) of land and <0.01 square miles (0.01 km2) of water (0.31%).[1][2]
The borough is an independent municipality completely surrounded by Hopewell Township,[29] making it part one of 21 pairs of "doughnut towns" in the state, where one municipality entirely surrounds another.[30][31][32]
Of the 1,031 households, 34.9% had children under the age of 18; 60.4% were married couples living together; 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present and 30.9% were non-families. Of all households, 28.4% were made up of individuals and 19.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.04.[18]
26.4% of the population were under the age of 18, 4.5% from 18 to 24, 17.9% from 25 to 44, 33.4% from 45 to 64, and 17.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45.7 years. For every 100 females, the population had 87.7 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 79.4 males.[18]
The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $107,250 (with a margin of error of +/− $18,509) and the median family income was $156,923 (+/− $18,294). Males had a median income of $106,250 (+/− $20,859) versus $76,477 (+/− $25,432) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $56,962 (+/− $6,372). About 6.2% of families and 6.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.2% of those under age 18 and 2.9% of those age 65 or over.[39]
2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census[15] there were 2,696 people, 1,013 households, and 761 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,801.0 inhabitants per square mile (1,081.5/km2). There were 1,040 housing units at an average density of 1,080.5 per square mile (417.2/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 94.96% White, 2.63% African American, 1.00% Asian, 0.41% from other races, and 1.00% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.19% of the population.[40][38]
There were 1,013 households, out of which 40.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.2% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.8% were non-families. 22.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.14.[40][38]
In the borough the population was spread out, with 28.7% under the age of 18, 4.9% from 18 to 24, 23.6% from 25 to 44, 27.9% from 45 to 64, and 15.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males.[40][38]
The median income for a household in the borough was $90,366, and the median income for a family was $107,089. Males had a median income of $84,912 versus $43,068 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $45,843. About 0.7% of families and 2.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.4% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.[40][38]
Arts and culture
United Methodist Church
Pennington Day, typically in the middle of May, is an annual event where local organizations and businesses set up booths in a street-fair style on Main Street. The event, with origins back to 1980, features local music and a parade early in the day and festivities continuing into the afternoon.[41]
Government
Local government
Pennington 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.[42] The governing body is comprised of a mayor and a 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 comprised of six members, who are 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 Pennington 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.[43][44] The borough council has the option to designate an administrator or assign executive responsibilities to the administrator. The council may also adopt an administrative code which describes how the Council performs its duties.[45]
As of 2023[update], the mayor of Pennington is Democrat James Davy, who was elected to serve an unexpired term of office ending December 31, 2023. Members of the Borough Council are Council President Catherine M. "Kit" Chandler (D, 2023), Katrina Angarone (D, 2025), Deborah L. Gnatt (D, 2024), Charles "Chico" Marciante (D, 2025), Nadine Stern (D, 2024) and John Valenza (D, 2023; appointed to serve an unexpired term).[3][46][47][48][49][50][51]
In February 2023, the council selected John Valenza to fill the seat that had been held by Ken Gross expiring in December 2023 that became vacant when he resigned.[52]
Katrina Angarone was selected in February 2022 from a list of three names submitted by the Democratic municipal committee to fill the seat expiring in December 2022 that had been held by Beverly Mills until her resignation from office the previous month.[53]
In June 2021, the borough council appointed former councilmember James Davy to fill the mayoral seat expiring in December 2023 that became vacant following the resignation of Joseph Lawver earlier that month.[54] Davy served on an interim basis until the November 2021 general election, when he was elected to serve the remainder of the term of office.[49]
In January 2019, Joseph Lawver was appointed to fill the mayoral seat expiring in December 2019 that was vacated by Anthony Persichilli, the borough's longest-serving mayor, when he resigned from office the previous month.[55] Former mayor Persichilli was first elected on November 7, 2006, to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of James Loper. Returned to office at that same election were Democratic council members Joseph Lawver and Eileen Heinzel.[56] James Loper, the previous elected mayor, had resigned from office effective February 1, 2006. The Pennington Republican Committee nominated three candidates to take his place and the council selected James Benton from the three candidates to fill the vacancy.[57] That same procedure was repeated in December 2006, when the borough council selected Diane Zompa to fill the unexpired term left by Persichilli.[58]
Federal, state and county representation
Pennington is located in the 12th Congressional District[59] and is part of New Jersey's 15th state legislative district.[60][61][62]
Mercer County is governed by a County Executive who oversees the day-to-day operations of the county and by a seven-member Board of County Commissioners that acts in a legislative capacity, setting policy. All officials are chosen at-large in partisan elections, with the executive serving a four-year term of office while the commissioners serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either two or three seats up for election each year as part of the November general election.[69] As of 2024[update], the County Executive is Daniel R. Benson (D, Hamilton Township) whose term of office ends December 31, 2027.[70] Mercer County's Commissioners are:
Mercer County's constitutional officers are:
Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello (D, Lawrence Township, 2025),[80][81]
Sheriff John A. Kemler (D, Hamilton Township, 2026)[82][83] and
Surrogate Diane Gerofsky (D, Lawrence Township, 2026).[84][85][86]
Politics
As of March 2011, there were a total of 2,017 registered voters in Pennington, of which 828 (41.1%) were registered as Democrats, 467 (23.2%) were registered as Republicans and 720 (35.7%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 2 voters registered as either Libertarians or Greens.[87]
In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 66.0% of the vote (985 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 32.7% (488 votes), and other candidates with 1.3% (19 votes), among the 1,653 ballots cast by the borough's 2,115 registered voters (161 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 78.2%.[90][93] In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 66.9% of the vote (1,090 cast), ahead of Republican John McCain with 31.0% (506 votes) and other candidates with 1.1% (18 votes), among the 1,630 ballots cast by the borough's 2,088 registered voters, for a turnout of 78.1%.[91] In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 61.7% of the vote (999 ballots cast), outpolling Republican George W. Bush with 35.9% (581 votes) and other candidates with 0.5% (11 votes), among the 1,619 ballots cast by the borough's 2,022 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 80.1.[92]
In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 49.6% of the vote (496 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 48.7% (487 votes), and other candidates with 1.6% (16 votes), among the 1,015 ballots cast by the borough's 2,067 registered voters (16 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 49.1%.[99][100] In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 53.8% of the vote (640 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 35.7% (425 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 9.3% (111 votes) and other candidates with 0.3% (3 votes), among the 1,190 ballots cast by the borough's 2,057 registered voters, yielding a 57.9% turnout.[97]
Education
Toll Gate Grammar School
Public school students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade attend the Hopewell Valley Regional School District.[101] The comprehensive regional public school district serves students from Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township and Pennington Borough.[102][103] As of the 2019–20 school year, the district, comprised of six schools, had an enrollment of 3,467 students and 351.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.9:1.[104] Schools in the district (with 2019–20 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[105]) are
Bear Tavern Elementary School[106] with 397 students in grades Pre-K–5,
Hopewell Elementary School[107] with 400 students in grades Pre-K–5,
Stony Brook Elementary School[108] with 378 students in grades K–5,
Toll Gate Grammar School[109] with 306 students in grades K–5,
Timberlane Middle School[110] with 820 students in grades 6–8 and
Hopewell Valley Central High School[111] with 1,097 students in grades 9–12.[112][113] The district's board of education is composed of nine members allocated to each of the three municipalities based on population, with Pennington assigned a single seat.[114]
Eighth grade students from all of Mercer County are eligible to apply to attend the high school programs offered by the Mercer County Technical Schools, a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career and technical education at its Health Sciences Academy, STEM Academy and Academy of Culinary Arts, with no tuition charged to students for attendance.[115][116]
The Pennington School serves students in sixth through twelfth grades, having been founded in 1838 with a single teacher and three students.[117]
Transportation
Roads and highways
Route 31 is the primary state highway serving Pennington
As of May 2010[update], the borough had a total of 12.34 miles (19.86 km) of roadways, of which 8.57 miles (13.79 km) were maintained by the municipality, 3.17 miles (5.10 km) by Mercer County and 0.60 miles (0.97 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.[118]
Route 31 passes through Pennington, providing access to Interstate 295 at exit 72.[119] Additionally, exit 73 along I-295 connects to Scotch Road North, which provides access to all of the surrounding Hopewell Township area.[120]
Wendy Benchley (born 1941), marine and environmental conservation advocate and former councilwoman from New Jersey who was the wife of author Peter Benchley[133]
^Pennington Borough History from History of Burlington and Mercer Counties, New Jersey, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Their Pioneers and Prominent Men by Major E. M. Woodward & John F. Hageman, 1883. Accessed September 1, 2014.
^Form of Government, Pennington Borough. Accessed May 13, 2020. "The Borough form remains the most popular form of local government in New Jersey. This form dates back to the Borough Act of 1878 and was revised in 1897 . The borough Mayor is elected at large to a four-year term. Six Council members are elected at-large to staggered three-year terms."
^Murphy-DePaolo, Colleen. "Pennington Council elects new member: life-long Pennington resident John Valenza", Mercer Me, February 9, 2023. Accessed April 23, 2023. "Mayor Jim Davy read a proclamation during the reorganization meeting honoring former member Ken Gross.... Valenza took his oath of office to join council as its newest member.... Valenza’s election was to fill the unexpired term left by Gross, ending December 31, 2023."
^Harrison, Andrew. "Angarone appointed newest member of Pennington Council", Hopewell News, February 8, 2022. Accessed June 15, 2022. "The Pennington Council has appointed Katrina Angarone to fill former Councilwoman Beverly Mills’s vacant seat on the governing body. The council unanimously voted to appoint Angarone to the unfilled seat on the council at a meeting on Feb. 7. Angarone was one of three candidates nominated by the Pennington Democratic Committee to fill the council vacancy.... Mills resignation from the governing body went into effect on Jan. 6 and was announced at the council’s reorganization meeting on Jan. 5."
^Harrison, Andrew. "Lawver resigns; Davy appointed Pennington’s new mayor", Hopewell News, June 9, 2021. Accessed June 15, 2022. "Former Pennington Councilman James Davy was appointed Pennington’s new mayor following the recent resignation of former Mayor Joe Lawver. Davy was appointed through a unanimous vote by the Borough Council at a council meeting on June 7.... Davy now succeeds Lawver, whose resignation was effective June 6. He fills Lawver’s unexpired term until Dec. 31, 2023."
^Galioto, Mary. "Pennington Borough Honors Former Mayor and Swears-in Council Members", MercerMe, January 10, 2019. Accessed November 28, 2019. "New Councilwoman Liz Semple was sworn in to a three-year term, and Councilwoman Deb Gnatt was re-elected. Mayor Joe Lawver was selected by Council at the December 27, 2018 meeting to fill the unexpired mayoral term vacated upon Tony Persichilli’s retirement. That term runs to December 31, 2019.... Persichilli set a 12-year record as the longest serving mayor in Pennington Borough history."
^Hamner, Nicholas. "Council complete", Pennington Post, December 7, 2006, backed up by the Internet Archive as of September 30, 2007. Accessed July 11, 2016.
^Biography, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. Accessed January 3, 2019. "Watson Coleman and her husband William reside in Ewing Township and are blessed to have three sons; William, Troy, and Jared and three grandchildren; William, Kamryn and Ashanee."
^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.."
^Government, Mercer County. Accessed March 1, 2023. "Mercer County is governed by an elected County Executive and a seven-member Freeholder Board."
^Meet the County Executive, Mercer County. Accessed March 1, 2023. "Brian M. Hughes continues to build upon a family legacy of public service as the fourth person to serve as Mercer County Executive. The voters have reaffirmed their support for Brian's leadership by re-electing him three times since they first placed him in office in November 2003."
^"Governor - Mercer County"(PDF). New Jersey Department of Elections. January 29, 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on January 1, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
^Hopewell Valley Regional School District 2016 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 25, 2017. "Hopewell Valley serves the two boroughs of Pennington and Hopewell and the much larger Hopewell Township, and encompasses a total area of nearly 60 square miles with a population that exceeds 20,000. There are six schools that comprise the district. (Four elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school.) District enrollment is currently 3,750 students."
^About Us, Hopewell Valley Regional High School. Accessed September 25, 2017. "Hopewell Valley Regional School District, as it functions today, has been a regionalized operation since 1965 when voters of Hopewell Township, Hopewell Borough and Pennington Borough approved a plan to consolidate their schools. But the first consolidation of local schools actually occurred in 1894 when the 14 separate districts, operating one-room schoolhouses throughout the valley, agreed to merge and be governed by a single school board."
^About the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education, Hopewell Valley Regional School District. Accessed March 2, 2020. "The Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education is a nine-member body elected by the residents of Hopewell Township, Hopewell Borough and Pennington Borough. Seats are apportioned by population. Hopewell Township has seven representatives; each borough is represented by one seat.... The Hopewell Valley Regional School District is comprised of all the area within the municipal boundaries of the Borough of Pennington, Hopewell Borough, and Hopewell Township."
^Heyboer, Kelly. "How to get your kid a seat in one of N.J.'s hardest-to-get-into high schools", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, May 2017. Accessed November 18, 2019. "Mercer County has a stand-alone specialized high school for top students: a Health Sciences Academy at the district's Assunpink Center campus. The district also offers a STEM Academy at Mercer County Community College. How to apply: Students can apply online in the fall of their 8th grade year."
^HistoryArchived July 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, The Pennington School. Accessed November 19, 2012. "When The Pennington School (then the Methodist Episcopal Male Seminary) opened its doors in 1838 in the small town of Pennington, New Jersey, the school was housed in one building and enrolled three students under the tutelage of one teacher."
^Lawlor, Julia. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Pennington; Small Town With a Sense of Community", The New York Times, May 18, 2003. Accessed October 31, 2013. "Pennington's mix of Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival and Victorian-style architecture appeals to old-home lovers, and the Victorian stone Pennington Railroad Station, which now holds two condominiums, is on the National Register of Historic Places."
^Hoffman, Jan. "Public lives; A League President in the Dreams Business", The New York Times, May 26, 2000. Accessed November 19, 2012. "As a girl, thinking about what she would be when she grew up, Val Ackerman just assumed she'd be an athletic director.... When she was a teenager in Pennington, N.J., playing field hockey, swimming butterfly and freestyle, competing in track and field, and emerging as a star small forward in basketball, her father was her high school's athletic director."
^BiographyArchived February 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Kwame Anthony Appiah. Accessed November 19, 2012. "Kwame Anthony Appiah has homes in New York city and near Pennington, in New Jersey, which he shares with his partner, Henry Finder, Editorial Director of the New Yorker magazine."
^Frank Baldwin, Naval History and Heritage Command. Accessed June 27, 2019. "Born in Pennington, New Jersey, on November 19, 1880, Frank Baldwin attended Pennington Preparatory School and the Stewart School in Trenton, prior to his appointment in 1906 as Assistant Paymaster, with rank of Ensign in the Supply Corps of the US Navy."
^Hawtree, Christopher. "Peter Benchley: He was fascinated by the sea, but his bestselling novel tapped into a primeval fear of the deep", The Guardian, February 14, 2006. Accessed August 18, 2008. "In 1971, he was asked by Tom Congdon, an editor at the publishers Doubleday, if he had anything in mind for a book, and he pitched this as a 'long story'; he produced a hundred pages, and, with a $1000 advance, he reworked it steadily, holing up to do so, during the winter, in a room above the Pennington Furnace Supply Co in Pennington, New Jersey, and, by summer, in an old turkey coop at Stonington, Connecticut."
^Stratton, Jean. "Princeton personality", Town Topics, April 16, 2008. Accessed November 6, 2019. "'We were looking for a place to live, and we didn’t have any money. Peter wanted to be near New York, and finally, we were able to get a house in Pennington in 1970.'... 'Peter had this idea for a novel,' explains Ms. Benchley, 'and he wrote Jaws in the Blackwell Furnace Repair Shop in Pennington.'"
^ abLucille Day, Office of the Governor of New Jersey, backed up by the Internet Archive as of July 2, 2008. Accessed February 15, 2011. "Commissioner Davy is married to James M. Davy. They live in Pennington with their two sons, James and Andrew."
^Staff. "Tony DeNicola: Obituary", The Times, September 4, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2015. "Tony DeNicola, 79, died Saturday in the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Born in Pennington, he had resided in Lawrenceville for 40 years."
^Strauss, Elaine. "A Concert to Honor Volunteers for the Homeless"Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, U.S. 1 Newspaper, January 26, 2005. Accessed February 15, 2011. "Olga Gorelli is a Pennington-based composer and leader in New Jersey's musical life; her compositions experiment with both words and music."
^"Himes Reaches Out to War-Weary Republicans"Archived October 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Jim Himes for Congress. Accessed February 15, 2011. "He was raised by 'a working single mom' in the small town of Pennington, N.J., and attended 'a decent public school.' When he brought home an A minus, his mother would ask, 'What went wrong?'"
^Burkhart, Ford. "Samuel Messick, 67, Leader In Educational Testing Field", The New York Times, October 19, 1998. Accessed November 24, 2018. "Dr. Samuel J. Messick, a leader in educational testing who argued for restraint in the use of student test scores, died on Oct. 6 at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. He was 67 and lived in Pennington, N.J."
^Kenneth G. MillerArchived December 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Rutgers University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Accessed November 27, 2013. "A resident of Pennington, NJ, Ken grew up in Medford, NJ in the heart of the pine barrens and still owns a house in Waretown, NJ, the home of the sounds of the NJ pines, where he watches the inexorable rise in sea level from his deck 16 ft above Barnegat Bay."
^Davis, Mike. "Elizabeth Maher Muoio sworn in as new assemblywoman in 15th District", The Times, February 5, 2015. Accessed September 17, 2015. "Muoio, a Pennington resident, was sworn into office on Thursday by Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) two weeks after Mercer and Hunterdon County Democrats convened and appointed her to the seat.... Muoio served on the Pennington Borough Council in the late 1990s before winning election to the Mercer County freeholder board."
^Shea, Kevin. "Bill Schluter, former state senator who ran for governor, dies at 90", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, August 6, 2018. Accessed August 7, 2018. "William 'Bill' Schluter, a longtime New Jersey legislator and public servant who ran for governor in 2001, died at his Pennington home Monday morning at the age of 90."
^John Tanguay, Columbia Lions. Accessed August 11, 2020. "Hometown: Pennington, N.J.; High School: Hopewell Valley"
United States
New Jersey
