Hammonton, New Jersey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Hammonton, New Jersey
Town
Town of Hammonton
William L. Black House
Nickname(s):  "Blueberry Capital of the World"
Map of Hammonton in Atlantic County
Census Bureau map of Hammonton, New Jersey
Hammonton, New Jersey Location in Atlantic County, New Jersey Show map of Atlantic County, New Jersey Hammonton, New Jersey Location in New Jersey Show map of New Jersey Hammonton, New Jersey Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Atlantic
Incorporated	March 5, 1866
Named for	John Hammond Coffin
Government
• Type	Town
• Body	Town Council
Area
• Total	41.32 sq mi (107.01 km2)
• Land	40.75 sq mi (105.54 km2)
• Water	0.57 sq mi (1.46 km2)  1.37%
Area rank	50th of 565 in state 7th of 23 in county
Elevation	62 ft (19 m)
Population  (2010 Census)
• Total	14,791
• Estimate  (2019)	13,934
• Rank	169th of 566 in state 6th of 23 in county
• Density	361.8/sq mi (139.7/km2)
• Density rank	464th of 566 in state 15th of 23 in county
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (Eastern (EDT))
ZIP Code	08037
Area code(s)	609
FIPS code	3400129430
GNIS feature ID	0885242
Website

Hammonton is a town in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, known as the "Blueberry Capital of the World". As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 14,791, reflecting an increase of 2,187 (+17.4%) from the 12,604 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 396 (+3.2%) from the 12,208 counted in the 1990 Census.

Hammonton was settled in 1812 and was named for John Hammond Coffin, a son of one of the community's earliest settlers, William Coffin, with the "d" in what was originally "Hammondton" disappearing over time. It was incorporated as a town by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 5, 1866, from portions of Hamilton Township and Mullica Township. It is located directly between Philadelphia and the resort town of Atlantic City, along a former route of the Pennsylvania Railroad that is used by NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had a total area of 41.419 square miles (107.274 km²), including 40.887 square miles (105.897 km²) of land and 0.532 square miles (1.377 km²) of water (1.28%).

The town borders Folsom borough, to the southwest, and both Hamilton and Mullica townships to the southeast in Atlantic County; Shamong Township and Washington Township in Burlington County to the northeast; and Waterford Township and Winslow Township in Camden County to the northwest. It is located in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, so is largely flat, though the highest point in Atlantic County is located along the Pennsylvania Railroad within the borders of Hammonton. The town is located almost exactly halfway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City.

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located completely or partially within the town include Barnard, Bellhurst, Caldwell Crossing, Dacosta, Dutchtown, Great Swamp, Murphy, Rockford, Rockwood, Rosedale and West Mills.

Pine Barrens

The town is one of 56 South Jersey municipalities that are included within the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, a protected natural area of unique ecology covering 1,100,000 acres (450,000 ha), that has been classified as a United States Biosphere Reserve and established by Congress in 1978 as the nation's first National Reserve. All of the town is included in the state-designated Pinelands Area, which includes portions of Atlantic County, along with areas in Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean counties.

Due to its location in the Pine Barrens, the soil is largely sandy, making it ideal for growing blueberries. Low, marshy areas, often within the Pine Barrens are also used for cranberry cultivation.

Climate

Hammonton lies in the northern reaches of the humid subtropical climate zone, and, similar to inland southern New Jersey, is characterized by brisk winters, hot summers, and plentiful precipitation spread evenly throughout the year. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Hammonton's climate is abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Demographics

2010 Census

As of the census of 2010, there were 14,791 people, 5,408 households, and 3,759 families residing in the town. The population density was 361.8 per square mile (139.7/km²). There were 5,715 housing units at an average density of 139.8 per square mile (54.0/km²)^*. The racial makeup of the town was 81.67% (12,080) White, 3.00% (444) Black or African American, 0.28% (42) Native American, 1.37% (203) Asian, 0.01% (2) Pacific Islander, 10.81% (1,599) from other races, and 2.85% (421) from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic or Latino of any race were 20.93% (3,096) of the population.

There were 5,408 households out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.5% were married couples living together, 12.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.5% were non-families. 25.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.19.

In the town, the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 26.1% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.6 years. For every 100 females there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and old there were 95.2 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $59,085 (with a margin of error of +/- $3,242) and the median family income was $62,354 (+/- $3,893). Males had a median income of $47,110 (+/- $4,411) versus $36,615 (+/- $3,549) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $25,292 (+/- $1,528). About 8.4% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.1% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

The eastbound Atlantic City Expressway in Hammonton

Roads and highways

As of 2010^[update], the town had a total of 126.50 miles (203.58 km) of roadways, of which 77.04 miles (123.98 km) were maintained by the municipality, 30.61 miles (49.26 km) by Atlantic County and 14.65 miles (23.58 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and 4.20 miles (6.76 km) by the South Jersey Transportation Authority.

The Atlantic City Expressway, U.S. Route 30, U.S. Route 206 and Route 54 all pass through Hammonton, as do County Route 536, County Route 542, County Route 559 and County Route 561.

Public transportation

Hammonton station, which is served by NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line

The Hammonton station of NJ Transit provides passenger rail service between the Atlantic City Rail Terminal in Atlantic City and 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and intermediate points on the Atlantic City Line.

NJ Transit provides bus service in Hammonton on the 554 route between Lindenwold station and Atlantic City.

Airport

Hammonton Municipal Airport is located 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of the central business district.

Community

Blueberry capital

Hammonton is known as the "Blueberry Capital of the World."

Since the 1980s, the Red, White and Blueberry Festival has celebrated Hammonton's status as the nation's blueberry capital. The Hammonton Wine Festival, a fundraiser for the area Rotary Club, celebrates the area's winemakers.

Presidential visits

Ronald Reagan visited Hammonton during his 1984 re-election campaign. Reagan's speech highlighted Hammonton's status as "Blueberry Capital of the World" and then extolled the virtues of New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen.

Hammonton has also been visited by Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt, who made whistle stops in the town.

Festivals

Every year Hammonton hosts the Red, White and Blueberry festival, Our Lady of Mount Carmel festival and the Hammonton wine festival. Mount Carmel's Italian Festival dates back to 1875 and is considered the oldest such continuously run festival in the United States. Other festivals include; Hammonton Fall Beer Festival, Teen Arts Festival, Hammonton Food Truck Festival, Hammonton Green Day Festival, and Crusin Main Street.

Downtown

Aerial view of Hammonton, New Jersey (1926)

Hammonton's downtown district has been growing for the past 20 years. The downtown area includes Bellevue Avenue, Central Avenue, Vine street, Second Street, Third Street, Twelfth Street, Egg Harbor Road, Front Street, West End Avenue, Railroad Avenue and Washington Street. The downtown includes art galleries, restaurants, wine and sports bars, banks, clothing stores,offices, a theatre, a park, and a college satellite campus, attracting shoppers from South Jersey.

Every year the downtown has two major parades which are the Halloween and Christmas parades. It also hosts a smaller parade every year, the Memorial Day parade. the Downtown also host the annual Christmas Tree Lighting, which is a large celebration that includes, the lighting of a large tree on the corner of Bellevue and Central Avenue, Christmas carolers, a music show, carriage rides, a live nativity and the arrival of Santa. During these events the downtown stores are open late.

On the third Thursday of every month, the downtown host the "Third Thursday Events", with a different theme each month. Stores offer discounts, and people perform on the street.

The downtown was one of the finalist for the Great American Main Street Award in 2013. The award recognizes three communities each year for their successful revitalization efforts, based on documented economic impact, small-business development, historic preservation, volunteer involvement, public/private cooperation and success over time.

Events

In 1949, Hammonton was the winner of the Little League World Series, after finishing third in the tournament in both 1947 and 1948. The Hammonton team was the first official team located outside of Pennsylvania.

On July 24, 2011, Ricca's Italian Bakery set a Guinness World Record for the Longest Line of Cakes.

In November 2014, in a study conducted by CreditDonkey.com, Hammonton was ranked second-happiest city in New Jersey. The ranking was based on restaurants, crime rate, commute, departure time, income, divorce rate, and housing.

Wineries and alcohol consumption

Hammonton has three active wineries - DiMatteo Vineyards, Plagido's Winery, and Tomasello Winery.

On June 7, 2013, the Eagle Theatre in Hammonton became the first theater in New Jersey to sell alcoholic beverages and allow spectators to drink wine during the show. Under an arrangement reached under the authority of the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Sharrott Winery will be able to sell patrons bottles of wine that can be consumed during shows at the theater.

Popular culture

The 2002 film, 13th Child, about the hunt for the Jersey Devil, was filmed in Hammonton. The film featured big names such as Cliff Robertson, Lesley-Anne Down, and Christopher Atkins.

A 2011 episode of Supernatural, "How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters" about the Jersey Devil, is set in Hammonton, though it wasn't filmed there.

Hammonton made a cameo appearance in the first two episodes of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, with a scene towards the end of both episodes showing the town sign "Welcome to Hammonton, The Blueberry Capital of the World".

The Fox TV show American Idol aired its first episode of its 12th season in January 2013 with a performance by Sarah Restuccio, a seventeen-year-old girl from Hammonton. The judges enjoyed her rendition of "Mama's Song" by Carrie Underwood, but she impressed them when they asked her to sing something else and she rapped "Super Bass" by Nicki Minaj. The show featured a short clip about Sarah's life, which included showing her everyday life in Hammonton.

In October 2013 the MTV reality show True Life, featured the episode "True Life Presents: My Dad Is A Bro" about a girl in her twenties and her father in his fifties, who both party. The episode takes place throughout Hammonton.

In the summer of 2013, scenes from the independent film The Honour were filmed in Hammonton.

In May 2015, a commercial for the male clothing brand, Chubbies Shorts, was filmed on South Second Street in Hammonton.

Sister cities

• San Gregorio da Sassola, Province of Rome,  Italy

• Hammonton Public Schools's 2014–15 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education

	Waterford Township	Shamong Township	Washington Township
	Winslow Township
		Hammonton
	Folsom	Hamilton Township	Mullica Township

Sports

In 1997, Gabriel Donio (founder and publisher of The Hammonton Gazette) proposed a minor-league baseball team called the Hammonton Blueberries, going so far as to create a team logo and a prototype uniform, as well as purchasing a 20-acre tract of land for $200,000. Donio planned to build on the site a 3,500-seat, six-million-dollar ballpark, which he described as "a rough miniature of the Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field". In 1999, the Northern League announced that they would form a six-team developmental circuit and include Hammonton as one of the clubs; however, this did not happen, and the proposed ballpark was not built, putting an end to the Blueberries. (Since Hammonton is less than 75 miles from Philadelphia, any pro baseball team there would either need permission from the Phillies or play in an independent league, outside of MLB's jurisdiction.)

Education

Students in kindergarten through twelfth grade attend the Hammonton Public Schools. As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprised of four schools, had an enrollment of 3,566 students and 249.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 14.3:1. Schools in the district (with 2018–19 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Early Childhood Education Center with 355 students in grades K-1, Warren E. Sooy Elementary School with 873 students in grades 2–5, Hammonton Middle School with 879 students in grades 6-8 and Hammonton High School with 1,393 students in grades 9-12.

Students from Folsom Borough (grades 9-12) and Waterford Township in Camden County (7-12) attend the Hammonton schools as part of sending/receiving relationships with the Folsom Borough School District and the Waterford Township School District.

In the wake of the dissolution of the Lower Camden County Regional School District, the Hammonton board of education voted in 1999 to begin accepting an estimated 800 students from Waterford Township for grades 7-12 starting as of 2002, with the tuition paid by students from Waterford helping to lower overall costs to Hammonton taxpayers.

Borough public school students are also eligible to attend the Atlantic County Institute of Technology in the Mays Landing section of Hamilton Township or the Charter-Tech High School for the Performing Arts, located in Somers Point.

Hammonton is home of the Catholic schools St. Joseph Regional Elementary School (for PreK-8) and St. Joseph High School (for grades 9-12) which operate under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Camden. In April 2020, the Diocese of Camden announced that despite its status as a football powerhouse, St. Joseph was one of five Catholic schools in New Jersey which would close permanently at the end of the school year on June 30, 2020. St. Joseph Regional Elementary was to permanently close at the end of the school year as well.

Notable people

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

• Tyler Bellamy (born 1988), soccer player.
• Jill Biden (born 1951), educator and First Lady of the United States.
• Reverend Gary Davis (1896-1972), blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica.
• Anthony Durante (1967-2003), professional wrestler.
• Ace Enders (born 1982), musician.
• Marie Howland (1836-1921), feminist writer.
• Johnnie O. Jackson (born 1971), professional bodybuilder and powerlifter.
• Nelson Johnson (born 1948), former Atlantic County Superior Court Judge and author of Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, a chapter of which about Enoch L. "Nucky" Johnson - "Atlantic City's Godfather" - became the basis for the series Boardwalk Empire.
• Margaret Mead (1901-1978), cultural anthropologist who did some of her first research in Hammonton.
• Victor Moore (1876-1962), actor.
• George Washington Nicholson (1832–1912), landscape painter who retired to Hammonton around 1902 and lived there until his death in 1912.
• Andrew Rider (1866-1898), founder of Rider University, who lived and was buried in Hammonton.
• Tony Siscone (born 1949), professional race car driver.
• Alma Joslyn Whiffen-Barksdale (1916-1981), mycologist who discovered cycloheximide.
• Gary Wolfe (born 1967), professional wrestler.
• The Early November (formed 1999), rock band.
• Thomas Ricca (Tom Ricca, born 1968) former professional WWE wrestler.

Images for kids

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  Longest Line of Cakes Guinness Record in Hammonton New Jersey