National Park

History

The community was historically known as Red Bank, for the color of the soil. It was established by the Whitall family and others. The county court met here in 1686. In 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army under command of George Washington constructed two forts on the Delaware River to block the approach to Philadelphia: Fort Mifflin on the Pennsylvania side and Fort Mercer on the New Jersey side. The fort was named in honor of Brigadier General Hugh Mercer, who died earlier that year in the Battle of Princeton. A park, monument, and museum commemorate Fort Mifflin on its original site. On October 22, 1777, in the Battle of Red Bank, an attack by 900 Hessian troops, serving under British Major General William Howe, who then occupied Philadelphia, was repelled, with heavy losses on the Hessian side, including the death of their commander, Colonel Carl Emil Kurt von Donop, by the 600 Continental Army defenders under Colonel Christopher Greene. After the loss of Fort Mifflin, Fort Mercer was abandoned without a fight when Lord Charles Cornwallis landed 2,000 British troops nearby on November 18. The area was first developed in 1895 as National Park on the Delaware by James E. Lake, who also fostered the development of Ocean City, as a religious retreat for members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The founder, the Rev. James E. Lake, also created Ocean City, New Jersey. National Park was formally established as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 15, 1902, from portions of West Deptford Township. The town's name likely originated as a reference to the county park at Red Bank Battlefield.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 1.44 square miles (3.73 km2), including 1.01 square miles (2.61 km2) of land and 0.43 square miles (1.12 km2) of water (30.14%).

Race & ethnicity