Union

Formed March 19, 1857 (21^st county)

Union County (575,352), Elizabeth (137,310)

The 1903 Neo-Classical building was remodeled and enlarged in 1925 and 1931.  The facility is on Broad Street at Rahway Avenue.  United States Highway 1 passes five blocks east of the courthouse.  There was an 1810 version also in Elizabeth, the only county seat.  Ackerman and Ross are the architects.  Two Annex, a Family Courthouse, and an Administration Building support the courthouse.  Union County was formed on March 19, 1857 from Essex County as the 21^st and last county.  The county is named for the United States.  The county seat is named for the wife of Sir George Carteret founder of the Carolina Colony.  Union County was the birthplace for 4 New Jersey Governors, Aaron Ogden, Isaac H. Williamson, William N. Runyon, and Donald T. DiFrancesco. 

Union County government consists of an executive, a sheriff, an administrator and a clerk (executive).  It has 9 Commissioners (legislative.)  Twenty Superior Court Judges and a prosecutor serve Union County (judicial.)  The county is in the northeast part of New Jersey.  Newark, New Jersey is directly north and New York, New York is directly east of the county.  The county center is 4.8 miles West of Elizabeth in Cranford.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Essex and Hudson counties and New York and Middlesex, Somerset, and Morris counties. 

The area of the county is 103 square miles.  It is 20 out of 21 in the state.  It ranks 7 out of 21 in population in the state.  It has a density of 5585.9 persons per square mile making it 3 out of 21 in the state.  Union County has 69.0% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 78 crosses east to west in the county from Essex County to Somerset County.  Interstate Highway 95 travels north to south from Essex County to Middlesex County.  United States Highways 1/9 parallel Interstate Highway 95 from Essex to Middlesex counties.  United States Highway 22 parallels Interstate Highway 78 from Essex to Somerset counties.  The county shaped resembles a squatting dog.  Elizabeth is located in the extreme eastern part of the county.  Elizabeth is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 23.9% of the county population.  This county is in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Westfield