 Welcome to Hillsborough, New Jersey. Its outstanding schools and comfortable lifestyle are in Somerset County, within a one hour drive of Manhattan. An hour and a half away is The Shore (New Jersey shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean) or the Poconos. Ocean or mountains - your choice. Employment opportunities abound within 30 minutes of Hillsborough, and Princeton and Rutgers Universities are twenty minutes away.
Hillsborough is a large township (about 55 square miles), and is a fast-growing community with diverse home developments offering some of the most affordable housing in New Jersey. Historically, like most townships in New Jersey, Hillsborough is an amalgam of Colonial-era villages that were swallowed up in the twentieth century to unify services such as schools, roads and other infrastructure. Don't be surprised is you read about the "Belle Mead" section of Hillsborough, or "Woods Tavern," or "Neshanic." These are some of the former villages.
Virtually all of Hillsborough is one postal zip code - 08844. The exception is Flagtown, a village-like section of Hillsborough that still has its own general delivery post office.
The township recreational facilities are truly astounding. Duke Farms, the former Doris Duke Estate, covers 2700 acres of Hillsborough, and is in the process of becoming a truly public park. The Duke Gardens, an enclosed series of ten different styles of gardens, has been open to the public for years, and is a don't-miss attraction. The Sourland Mountain Preserve is a wilderness area of nearly 3000 acres, and is free to the public, maintained by the Somerset County Parks Commission.
Youth soccer, football and baseball fields dot the township, making it an attractive destination for home-seekers with those interests. A major golf course, Royce Brook, was opened in 1999, with a total of 36 holes, 18 for the public and 18 for members only.
The rapid growth of Hillsborough has not been ignored by local and state government. Traffic congestion is being addressed rapidly in order to maintain the high quality of life that initially attracted people to the area. Local, county and state government is also working hard to preserve open space by purchasing development rights to farms so that they can never be covered with homes or roads. See the photo in the gallery, "A Good Sign of the Times."
Access to trains to New York City is important for many Hillsborough residents. Train stations are less than 30 minutes away, and many people anticipate with great enthusiasm the re-opening of the West Trenton commuter rail line through Hillsborough, but probably not much before 2010.
Hillsborough continues to grow in the quality of life.
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