Essex

Formed March 7, 1683 (3^rd county)

Essex County (862,969), Newark (311,552)

The Modern concrete and glass 1970 structure replaced the 1906 courthouse.  It is located on Market Street at MLK Street.  New Jersey State Highway 21 is five blocks to the east.  Essex County was formed on March 7, 1683 as an original county (3^rd county) with Newark as the only county seat.  The courthouse designers were Robert H. Fava, Richard O. Becker, John B. Murray, and Warren E. Bendixen.  There were 1845 and 1906 versions earlier.  A 1927 Hall of Records building augments the courthouse.  A County Courts Building is under construction in 2021.  The county is named for Essex County, England.  The county seat is named by settlers for the “new work” needed to form the community.  Essex County was the birthplace for 7 New Jersey Governors, William S. Pennington, William Pennington, Marcus L. Ward, Charles Edison, Brendan T. Byrne, Richard J. Codey, and Christopher J. Christie. 

The area of the county is 126 square miles.  It is 19 out of 21 in the state.  It ranks 3 out of 21 in population in the state.  It has a density of 6847.5 persons per square mile making it 2 out of 21 in the state.  Essex County has 47.9% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 78 enters the county from Union County, southwest, and exits into Hudson County.  Interstate Highway 80 clips the northwest corner form Passaic County, north, to Morris County, west.  Interstate Highway 95 crosses north to south from Hudson County to Union County.  United States Highway 1 parallels Interstate Highway 95 from Hudson to Union counties.  United States Highway 9 travels north to south from Hudson County to Union County.  United States Highway 22 originates and goes west into Union County.  Grover Cleveland, the 22^nd and 24^th President, was born in this county. 

Essex County government consists of a sheriff, a County Executive, and 9 Freeholders.  Sixty Superior Court Judges serve Essex County.  The county is in northeast New Jersey.  New York, New York is east and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is southwest of the county.  The county center is 6.9 miles Northwest of Newark in West Orange.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Passaic, Bergen, Hudson, Union, and Morris counties.  The county shape looks like a backwards comma.  Newark is in the southeast corner of the county.  Newark is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 36.1% of the county population.  This county is in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Roseland