The area is served as United States Postal ServiceZIP Code 08558.[6] However, the Skillman postal address covers an area significantly larger than the Skillman CDP. The Skillman postal address services approximately half of the 32 square miles (83 km2) and approximately 23,000 residents comprising Montgomery Township. The small CDP designated as Skillman and the much larger area known as Skillman based on the post office delivery area (which encompasses the Skillman CDP), are not the same.
All of the public school buildings (elementary, middle and high schools) for Montgomery Township are located in the Skillman postal area.
History
Skillman is named after the Skillman family. The first Skillmans were Dutch, but lived in England before moving to Brooklyn in 1664, according to family accounts. In 1729, Thomas Skillman ventured westward, buying some 500 acres (2.0 km2) of farmland on the Millstone River, near the village of Rocky Hill, for his sons, Jan and Isaac. That purchase was the Skillman family's entry into Montgomery. The Skillman area got its name when the railroads arrived in the 1870s, according to the Skillman family. Joseph A. Skillman, was a teamster who owned "wild Missouri mules," according to family accounts. When railroad workers were trying to lay tracks, their horses got bogged down in thick, clay mud, and Joseph A. Skillman came to the rescue with his mules. Railroad officials also socialized at the home of another Skillman nearby, and the new train station was named for the family. A post office opened in the station and a small village, with a hay press, feed store and hardware store, sprouted around it. It took the Skillman name, too. (While the train station is gone, remnants of the village still exist at the spot where Camp Meeting Avenue and Skillman Road meet. A clay and sculpting supply business occupies some of the buildings.) Also in Skillman was the sprawling New Jersey State Village for Epileptics, a 250-acre (1.0 km2) complex opened around 1900 that had its own dairy, laundry, and movie theater. Visitors would arrive by train. Skillman was a busy little country place. There were 1,637 residents in Montgomery in 1910, compared with more than 23,000 now, according to Census data. The community now has more traffic, fewer farms and more houses (specifically developments).
In 2011, Montgomery Township sold what remained of the North Princeton Developmental Center (also known as Skillman Village) to Somerset County in order for the village to be demolished.[15]
Geography
Rock Brook flowing through Bessie Grover Park in Skillman.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had a total area of 1.476 square miles (3.824 km2), including 1.466 square miles (3.798 km2) of land and 0.010 square miles (0.026 km2) of water (0.69%).[1][2]
Of the 87 households, 35.6% had children under the age of 18; 72.4% were married couples living together; 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present and 17.2% were non-families. Of all households, 12.6% were made up of individuals and 6.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.06.[14]
23.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 3.3% from 18 to 24, 20.2% from 25 to 44, 38.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47.0 years. For every 100 females, the population had 98.4 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 91.8 males.[14]
^Sokolove, Michael (February 7, 2016). "Who Killed the Sheridans?". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved September 22, 2016. It was still dark, a half-hour until sunrise, when the fire trucks and police vehicles came wailing down country roads in central New Jersey and stopped in front of 49 Meadow Run Drive in Skillman, north of Princeton.
United States
New Jersey
