Local city information for Franklin Park, NJ

Franklin Park is an unincorporated area within portions of North Brunswick Township and South Brunswick Township in Middlesex County and Franklin Township in Somerset County, in New Jersey, United States. Route 27 (historically known as Old Road/King's Highway and once part of the Lincoln Highway system) bisects the village and serves as the dividing line between the two counties.

The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP Code 08823. Most of the 2001 anthrax attacks letters had the address of Franklin Park.

As of the United States Census, 2000, the population for ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) 08823 was 7,389.

Franklin Park, originally know as Six Mile Run, named for the tributary of the Millstone River that flows through the area, first came to importance about 1710.

In that year a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church (now the Reformed Church in America) was formed here making it the oldest congregation in Franklin Township. The church also used the name Six Mile Run. Today, the historic Six Mile Run Reformed Church remains an important part of the community. The first building was replaced by a new building in 1766 and was later replaced in 1817 by a third structure on the same site. The current building replaced the 1817 church that was destroyed by fire in 1879. The Frelinghuysen Memorial Chapel was added in 1907 and the Fellowship Hall was dedicated in 1958.

Franklin Park, then Six Mile Run, served as the first site of the Somerset County Courthouse and jail from 1714 until 1737 when a fire destroyed the building and the county seat was moved to Millstone, New Jersey. Occasionally Franklin Park was referred to as Somerset Courthouse during the time the courthouse was located here. A commemorative marker is located on Route 27 between Clover Place and Bennington Parkway near the original courthouse site.

Several early taverns were established here and welcomed travelers using King's Highway while headed towards New Brunswick and New York City going north and Princeton, Trenton and Philadelphia going south. Wood's Tavern was operating by 1745 and Gifford's Tavern by the 1760's. John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson are known to have stopped at Gifford's Tavern. In 1874, Gifford's Tavern was replaced by the 26-room Beekman's Hotel, aka Franklin House, which operated until it was destroyed by a major fire in 1929. The building currently occupied by Chauncey’s Restaurant was purportedly once a barn of the Beekman’s Hotel.

The first post office in Franklin Township was established here in 1826.

The village name was formally changed from Six Mile Run to Franklin Park on June 25, 1872.

In the late 1800’s in addition to the Beekman’s Hotel and another known as Manley’s Hotel and the Six Mile Run Reformed Church, the community included a wagon factory, blacksmith, wheelwright, butcher, hay scales, ice house, a school, and a general store called Hullfish’s Store, as well as residences for about 110 people.

Today many of the historic commercial buildings are gone but newer commercial buildings have taken their place to serve the rapidly growing population in the surrounding area.

The old Franklin Park School, built in 1909, was a two room building until three more rooms were added in 1931. Renamed the Phillips School in honor of Mrs. Jane E. Phillips in 1954, it ceased being used as a school in 1976. The building was used by the Township’s Recreation Department until 1993 when it was abandoned due to structural problems. After sale and renovations, it reopened as a privately run pre-school.

The new Franklin Park School was originally a ten room building constructed in 1957. A new major expansion building was completed in 1998 that increased enrollment from about 130 to over 900 students.

Franklin Park has been served by the Franklin Park Volunteer Fire Company since 1936. Originally housed in the converted South Middlebush one-room schoolhouse that had been relocated to Route 27 in Franklin Park, the company had to build a new building after an oil stove fire destroyed the first firehouse in 1946.

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