New Jersey has East, West and South Orange, but why is there no North Orange?

As a New Jerseyan, you must have wondered at some point why there is a South Orange, West Orange, East Orange, even a plain Orange, but no North Orange.

The four Essex County towns represent one of the more unique examples of "boroughitis," or the centuries-old trend of larger towns splitting into smaller ones in New Jersey.

West Orange is well known for housing the Essex County Turtle Back Zoo and Thomas Edison National Historical Park. South Orange is the home of Seton Hall University. Orange holds a large downtown area with shopping, food (including Star Tavern), and more. East Orange is known for its parks, with Oval Park, Columbian Park, and more popular spots.

History of the Oranges in NJ

For some background, Orange was originally part of Newark as a group of settlers called the "Mountain Society" purchased land west from the Passaic River that would be mostly known today as present Essex County, according to historian and West Orange Public Information officer Joseph Fagan.

Fagan went through an extensive amount of research when trying to figure out the question of why there was no North Orange, he said. He looked through his own collection of local history books to uncover the history of the Orange towns. He read through over 50,000 digital files, postcards, newspaper articles and other documents. He called all of this his own "personal research library" where he says anyone can find New Jersey libraries in reference sections but not all in one place.

Orange became its own township in 1806 under an act of New Jersey State Legislature, said Fagan. This was the first separation from the original Newark settlement. The townspeople voted to become their own separate municipality and named themselves Orange.

The name Orange does not come from the fruit. Fagan's research revealed the name Orange originated from one of England's ruling houses called House of Orange, named after King William III.

East, West and South Orange all followed many years later in 1863 in more land separations done through New Jersey State Legislature.

The historian said these areas became their own separate townships because of local interest. West Orange was originally called Fairmount when they separated in 1862. The farmers of the land were protesting that they had to pay taxes to Orange but were not reaping the benefits, so the farmers partitioned that they wanted to secede from Orange.

In the late 1890s there was a town named New Orange but that soon became what we know as Kenilworth in 1907. New Orange wanted to associate with the Orange towns because of their popularity, but the collaboration never worked out since the town was not particularly close to the other Oranges.

Why is there no North Orange?

But what about North Orange?

Before the separation of West, South and East Orange, there was more divisions from the Newark settlement. In 1812, towns such as Bloomfield were established. The Bloomfield land carved out more towns such as Belleville, Glen Ridge, Nutley and Montclair, which was originally known as Cranetown and then West Bloomfield, said Fagan.

These areas of land were part of a separate land agreement than those that created East, West and South Orange, which happened about 50 years after the first divisions from Orange.

The towns of Bloomfield and others that were annexed from Orange were located to the north from their original settlement.

So when West, East and South Orange came into existence, there were already many established towns to the north of Orange. If a North Orange came into fruition when the rest of the Oranges did, Fagan thinks that could potentially lead to some confusion.

The fact that these two separate land annexes happened at different times can explain why a North Orange does not exist in New Jersey.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ has East, West and South Orange, but why no North Orange?