Roosevelt, New Jersey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Roosevelt, New Jersey
Borough
Rochdale Avenue through Roosevelt
Flag
Map of Roosevelt in Monmouth County. Inset: Location of Monmouth County highlighted in the State of New Jersey.
Census Bureau map of Roosevelt, New Jersey
Roosevelt, New Jersey Location in Monmouth County, New Jersey Show map of Monmouth County, New Jersey Roosevelt, New Jersey Location in New Jersey Show map of New Jersey Roosevelt, New Jersey Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Monmouth
Incorporated	May 29, 1937 as Jersey Homesteads
Renamed	November 9, 1945 as Roosevelt
Government
• Type	Borough
• Body	Borough Council
Area
• Total	1.95 sq mi (5.05 km2)
• Land	1.94 sq mi (5.02 km2)
• Water	0.01 sq mi (0.02 km2)  0.46%
Area rank	416th of 565 in state 31st of 53 in county
Elevation	144 ft (44 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	808
• Estimate  (2023)	799
• Rank	540th of 565 in state 51st of 53 in county
• Density	416.5/sq mi (160.8/km2)
• Density rank	454th of 565 in state 50th of 53 in county
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (Eastern (EDT))
ZIP Code	08555
Area code(s)	609
FIPS code	3402564410
GNIS feature ID	0885377

Roosevelt is a borough in western Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 808, a decrease of 74 (−8.4%) from the 2010 census count of 882, which in turn reflected a decline of 51 (−5.5%) from the 933 counted in the 2000 census.

Located at the cross-roads between the Delaware Valley region to the south and the Raritan Valley region to the north in the center of the state, the borough was established as Jersey Homesteads by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on May 29, 1937, from portions of Millstone Township. The name was changed to Roosevelt as of November 9, 1945, based on the results of a referendum held three days earlier, in honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died on April 12, 1945.

New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Roosevelt as its 12th best place to live in its 2008 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey.

History

Jersey Homesteads, circa late 1930s

Ben Shahn's untitled fresco for the Jersey Homesteads, completed in 1938

Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, historic marker in Jersey Homesteads (Roosevelt), N.J.

Jersey Homesteads Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location in Monmouth County, New Jersey
NRHP reference No.	83004053
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 5, 1983

Roosevelt was originally called Jersey Homesteads, and was created during the Great Depression as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal, its main purpose being to resettle Jewish garment workers. The town was conceived as an integrated cooperative project, with farming, manufacturing, and retail all on a cooperative basis. The project fell under the discretion of the Resettlement Administration, but was conceived and largely planned out by Benjamin Brown.

Farmland in Central Jersey was purchased by Jersey Homesteads, Inc., a corporation owned by the federal government but under control of a board of directors selected by Brown. Construction started around 1936. Soon after there were 200 homes and various public facilities in place. The economy of the town consisted of a garment factory and a farm. Objectives of the community were to help residents escape poverty, to show that cooperative management can work, and as an experiment in government intervention.

Albert Einstein gave the town his political and moral support. Artist Ben Shahn lived in the town and painted a fresco mural viewable in the current Roosevelt Public School. The three panels show the history of the Jersey Homesteads, starting with the eastern European origins of its Jewish residents, their passage through Ellis Island and making plans for the community in Roosevelt.

David Dubinsky and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union opposed the project, arguing that the factory town would cause unions to lose their power over wages. Political opposition came from those who thought too much money was being spent on the project, as well as those opposed to the New Deal in general.

The Jersey Homesteads cooperative didn't last through World War II. It failed for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons for its failure is because of delays in housing construction and resulted of shortage in workers in the garment factory. They ended up going on strike against themselves and the Farm Security Administration declared it a failure in 1939 and tried to auction off the assets. By early 1940, having failed to auction the factory fixtures, negotiations with Kartiganer and Co. succeeded and the company began operations at the Jersey Homesteads factory. Proving to be no more economically successful than the factory, the settlement's agricultural cooperative ceased operations in 1940. Although the clothing store failed with the factory, the borough's cooperative grocery and meat market endured into the 1940s. According to town expert Michael Hiltzik another reason it failed is "It was very, very expensive, and the agricultural progress that New Dealers thought they'd make, and certainly the industrial gains they thought they would see, never really materialized"

Roosevelt is a historic landmark and is the subject of the 1983 documentary, Roosevelt, New Jersey: Visions of Utopia. The Jersey Homesteads Historic District was added to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, including "all that area within the corporate boundaries of the Borough of Roosevelt".

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 1.95 square miles (5.05 km²), including 1.94 square miles (5.02 km²) of land and 0.01 square miles (0.02 km²) of water (0.46%).

The borough borders the Monmouth County municipalities of Millstone Township on the north and east and Upper Freehold Township on the southwest.

Demographics

2010 census

The 2010 United States census counted 882 people, 314 households, and 241 families in the borough. The population density was 461.8 per square mile (178.3/km²). There were 327 housing units at an average density of 171.2 per square mile (66.1/km²). The racial makeup was 92.52% (816) White, 0.91% (8) Black or African American, 0.00% (0) Native American, 3.17% (28) Asian, 0.00% (0) Pacific Islander, 1.93% (17) from other races, and 1.47% (13) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.90% (52) of the population.

Of the 314 households, 31.8% had children under the age of 18; 65.9% were married couples living together; 6.1% had a female householder with no husband present and 23.2% were non-families. Of all households, 17.5% were made up of individuals and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.22.

23.7% of the population were under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 17.5% from 25 to 44, 37.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45.8 years. For every 100 females, the population had 98.2 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 93.9 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $81,000 (with a margin of error of +/− $13,354) and the median family income was $86,406 (+/− $11,892). Males had a median income of $48,571 (+/− $11,433) versus $40,909 (+/− $17,307) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $33,863 (+/− $6,772). About 4.7% of families and 8.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.4% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over.

Education

The Roosevelt Public School District serves public school students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade at Roosevelt Public School. As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of one school, had an enrollment of 84 students and 8.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.5:1. In the 2016–17 school year, Roosevelt had the 6th-smallest enrollment of any school district in the state, with 88 students.

For sixth through twelfth grades, public school students attend the East Windsor Regional School District, which serves students from East Windsor and Hightstown, with students from Roosevelt attending as part of a sending/receiving relationship. Schools in the East Windsor district attended by Roosevelt students (with 2021–22 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Melvin H. Kreps Middle School with 1,194 students in grades 6–8 and Hightstown High School with 1,621 students in grades 9–12.

From 2005 to 2010, a Jewish secondary and post-secondary religious school, Yeshiva Me'on Hatorah, was located in a local synagogue, Congregation Anshei Roosevelt. Due to unresolvable zoning issues for its dormitory and dining facilities, and local opposition to its presence, the yeshiva relocated to Monsey, New York, after the yeshiva brought and lost several actions against the borough and certain individual borough officials in state and Federal courts.

Transportation

CR 571 entering Roosevelt from the northwest

As of May 2010^[update], the borough had a total of 8.43 miles (13.57 km) of roadways, of which 6.27 miles (10.09 km) were maintained by the municipality and 2.16 miles (3.48 km) by Monmouth County.

The only major road that passes through is County Route 571, which traverses the center of the borough.

Interstate 195 is accessible in both of its neighboring towns. Interstate 95 (the New Jersey Turnpike) and Route 33 are also nearby.

Notable people

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Roosevelt include:

• Benjamin Appel (1907–1977), crime novelist
• Benjamin Brown (1885–1939), poultry trader who developed Roosevelt
• John Stanley Grauel (1917–1986), Methodist minister and Zionist leader
• Lois Hunt (1925–2009), soprano opera singer who toured for decades with baritone Earl Wrightson
• Louis Kahn (1901–1974), assistant architect for the Jersey Homesteads, who later designed internationally famous buildings
• Irwin Lachman (born 1930), one of the inventors of the catalytic converter
• Jacob Landau (1917–2001), printmaker, painter, and humanist
• David Stone Martin (1913–1992), artist best known for his designs for jazz album covers
• Stefan Martin (1936–1994), printmaker
• Gregorio Prestopino (1907–1984), social realist painter of the 1930s
• Paul Prestopino (1939–2023), multi-instrumental musician and audio engineer
• Louise Rosskam (1910–2003), documentary photographer
• Ben Shahn (1898–1969), Social realist painter
• Bernarda Bryson Shahn (1903–2004), painter and wife of Ben Shahn
• Jonathan Shahn (1938–2021), noted sculptor and son of Ben and Bernarda Shahn

See also

In Spanish: Roosevelt (Nueva Jersey) para niños