HISTORY of the BOROUGH of BRIELLE, NEW JERSEY

In the late 1600’s settlers, primarily Dutch and English, began arriving on the north banks of the Manasquan River and were mostly engaged in agricultural pursuits. Comfortable farm homesteads began dotting the area, some enjoying sweeping views of the Manasquan River and Atlantic Ocean.

Early in the 1700’s a small commercial port called Landing, and later Union Landing, was established on the Manasquan River. A modest ship building industry developed, as did shipping activities. Farmers used the port on the river to send their products to markets in New York City and Philadelphia and to import the necessities of the day. As a result, many of the founding families of Brielle were not only farmers, but also sea captains conducting a robust coastal trade. To meet the demand for salt during the Revolutionary War, the Union Salt Works were built on the banks of the river in Brielle to produce this valuable commodity. In April 1778, British troops destroyed the salt works and sacked the surrounding settlement. However, the salt works were quickly rebuilt by the local patriots. Union Landing remained a valuable port for the Revolutionary Army as men and materials continued to be shipped from its dock throughout the war.

During the second half of the 1800’s, a dramatic change started to transform the area. The railroad arrived in Manasquan in 1872 and extended to Brielle in 1880/81. The railroad made Brielle and the surrounding area accessible to people living in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. As a result, many “cottages”, summer hotels, and boarding houses were constructed along the Manasquan River in Union Landing to accommodate visitors taking advantage of activities on the Manasquan River and the close-by Atlantic Ocean. The Union House, the most popular hotel in the area located at the foot of Union Lane, was built by Captain John Brown. In May 1888, Robert Louis Stevenson spent a month at this hotel and wrote a portion of his book “The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter’s Tale” during his visit.

In July 1881, a group of fourteen businessmen from the Union League Club in Jersey City formed the Brielle Land Association and put up $15,000 to purchase 150 acres of farmland from Hank Vorhees just southeast of Manasquan Village in Union Landing. They bought the land with the intention of subdividing it into residential lots and building vacation homes. They named their venture the Brielle Land Association because the area reminded one of the developers of the small town of Brielle in Holland that he had recently visited on vacation. In 1919, when the Borough of Brielle was established, it consisted of the Brielle Land Association tract, the original Union Landing area, and all the property along the river up to around the current day Route 70 bridge.

The twentieth century brought continued change to the newly created Borough of Brielle. The growing popularity of the automobile in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and the development of powerboats, helped make Brielle’s protected riverfront with easy access to the ocean an ideal location for a new sport fishing industry to flourish. Many marinas were established along the river in Brielle to berth the rapidly growing sport fishing fleet to take advantage of the location close to the spectacular fishing opportunities in the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Along with private boats came the charter boats and their captains. By 1940, Brielle boasted the largest concentration of sport fishing boats on the Eastern Seaboard and was called the “Sport Fishing Capital of the World”.

During the early days of Brielle, many of the key civic and township organizations were established. The Manasquan River Yacht Club was established in 1899, the fire department in 1910, the police department and elementary school both in 1919, and the Manasquan River Golf Club and Brielle’s Library both in 1922.

Despite this burst of civic activity, post-World War II Brielle was still a relatively small village with a population of around 1,000 people. The building of the Garden State Parkway in the 1950’s rapidly changed the town, as it made commuting to job opportunities in the New York Metropolitan area feasible. By 1960, Brielle’s population had expanded to around 2,600 people and by 1970 to around 3,500 citizens. Today, Brielle, with a population of around 5,000 people, has grown into a beautiful residential community where its citizens and its many visitors enjoy the quiet charm of the riverside town and all the leisure activities that its proximity to the Manasquan River and the Atlantic Ocean has to offer.