Long Valley
Long Valley Info

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Reasons to Live in Long Valley
2. Township Links
3. School Information
4. Places of Worship
5. Fun Things to Do
6. Recreation
7. Youth Organizations
8. Adult Sports
9. Community Organizations
10. Newspapers
11. Transportation
12. New York Times Article about Long Valley
1.
REASONS TO LIVE IN
LONG VALLEY
As a life long resident of Long Valley, and a retired teacher
I can vouch that this is a fabulous place to live. Located approximately 1 hour
from New York City, Long Valley is adjacent to some of the most cosmopolitan
areas in New Jersey, but has some of the most beautiful preserved land and
parks in the state. It is a family centered community. See the links below
for more information.
Long Valley Named Safest
Town in NJ
https://patch.com/new-jersey/longvalley/long-valley-named-safest-town-new-jersey
Long Valley Ranked 4th
Safest Town in USA
https://patch.com/new-jersey/longvalley/icymi-long-valley-ranked-4th-safest-town-america
Only In Your State
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/new-jersey/fall-town-nj/
2.TOWNSHIP
LINKS
Long Valley is a section of Washington
Township, Morris County. Some other
sections of the township are Schooley’s Mountain, Beattys Town, Pleasant Grove,
Califon, Middle Valley and Naughright.
Several post offices serve the 45 mile square township. Some of the
mailing addresses in Washington Township are Long Valley, Califon,
Hackettstown, Port Murray, Chester and Pottersville. Listed below are links
that will give you greater insight into Washington Township.
Washington Township Town
Site https://www.wtmorris.org/
Washington
TownshipLibrary https://wtpl.org/
Fairmount Fire Company
https://www.34fire.org/
Long Valley Fire Company
https://www.36fire.org/
Long Valley First Aid
Squad https://www.lvfas.org/
Schooley’s Mountain Fire
Department https://www.35fire.org/
3.SCHOOLS
Washington Township is served by 2 boards of
education. The elementary schools are
run by the Washington Township Board of Education. There are 3 elementary
schools: Flocktown, Old Farmers and Cucinella and one middle school; Long
Valley Middle. West Morris Central High
School is run by the West Morris Regional School Board and its sister school is
West Morris Mendham. The links below will give you more details about our
fabulous township schools, preschools and private schools.
Washington Township
Schools (Elementary Schools) https://www.wtschools.org/
West Morris Central High
School https://www.wmchs.org/
Valley Brook Country Day
School https://www.valleybrookcountrydayschool.com/
Long Valley Christian
Nursery School https://longvalleychristian.com/
Kindercare
https://www.kindercare.com/our-centers/hackettstown/nj/301722
The Goddard School
https://www.goddardschool.com/nj-ny/flanders-route-206-nj
Westmont Montessori
https://westmontmontessori.org/
Little Lambs Nursery
School https://www.gracebiblechapelnj.org/connect/little_lambs_ministry
Bright Horizons
https://child-care-preschool.brighthorizons.com/nj/flanders/mountolive
St. Joseph’s School
Mendham www.sjsmendham.org/
Far Hills Country Day
https://www.fhcds.org/
Gill St. Bernards
www.gsbschool.org/
Delbarton https://www.delbarton.org/
Villa Walsh
https://www.villawalsh.org/s/172/start.aspx
Pingry https://www.pingry.org/
4. PLACES OF WORSHIP
Many
options abound in Long Valley as far as places of worship. The various congregations do not operate in
isolation, but jointly sponsor and/or contribute to various events such as the
local food pantry. Follow the links
below to learn more about this wonderful congregations.
Drakestown Methodist
Church www.drakestownchurch.com/
Highlands Presbyterian
Church
https://www.usachurches.org/church/highlands-presbyterian-church-schooleys-mountain.htm
Long Valley Presbyterian
https://www.lvpc.net/
Our Lady of the Mountain
RC Church https://www.ourladyofthemountain.org/
Saint Luke’s RC Church
https://stlukeparishlv.com/
Zion Lutheran Church
https://zionlongvalley.org/
Valley View Chapel https://www.valleyviewchapel.org/
Immanuel Lutheran Church
https://www.immanuelnj.net/default.asp?sec_id=140000249
Emmanuel Bible Church
https://emmanuelbiblechurch.net/
Temple Hatikvah https://www.templehatikvahnj.org/flanders/
5.FUN THINGS TO DO IN LONG VALLEY
Even though NYC is short drive away, many
unique options abound in Long Valley for
entertainment. Follow the links to learn about just a few.
Valley Shepherd – Sheep
Shearing, Cheese Making – great for kids
Ort Farms – Pumpkin
Picking, Hay Rides, Monster Trucks, Corn Maze
Long Valley Brew Pub –
needed by parents after a day in the Corn Maze!
www.restaurantvillageatlongvalley.com
Ethos Health- Medical
Practice on an Organic Farm using Organic Food to Heal
Long Valley Green Market
6.RECREATION
Within the 45 square miles of this beautiful
corner of North West New Jersey, recreational options abound. Long Valley is
probably most noted for the Columbia Trail, which is popular for biking,
walking and horseback riding. But many parks and beautiful vistas are
throughout the town. Be sure to click on
the I Love Long Valley Video for an overview of this gorgeous town! Follow the
links below for more information.
The Columbia Trail
www.traillink.com/trail/columbia-trail.aspx
Schooley’s Mtn. Park
morrisparks.net/index.php/parks/schooleys-mountain-county-park
YMCA Randolph
https://www.randolphymca.org/
YMCA Basking Ridge
https://www.somersetcountyymca.org/
Chester Area Pool
https://www.chesterborough.org/pool
7.YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS
Long Valley is a family centered community and
has many fine organizations run by parent volunteers. As a result we have many
fine quality options for families. Long Valley ranks nationally as having the
one of the highest number of Eagle Scouts and Girl Scout Gold Awardees. New in
town? Want to get to know people? Get
involved! Read all about these fine
organizations below. Also check the Washington Township Library site for other
programs sponsored by our wonderful Library staff.
Boy Scout Troop 36
Http://www.longvalleytroop36.org/
Boy Scout Troop 236
https://www.troop236bsa.org/
Boy Scout Troop 436
www.troop436.org
Girl Scouts https://www.lvgirlscouts.com
4 H https://morris.njaes.rutgers.edu/
Long Valley Hockey
https://www.wolfpackicehockey.com/
Long Valley Baseball
https://www.longvalleybaseball.com/
Long Valley Rec Soccer
https://www.longvalleyrecsoccer.org/
Long Valley Travel Soccer
https://www.longvalleytravelsoccer.org/
Long Valley Softball
www.longvalleysoftball.com/
Long Valley Lacrosse
https://www.lvlax.org/
Long Valley Wrestling
www.Longvalleywrestling.org
Long Valley Basketball
https://www.longvalleybasketball.com/
Long Valley Football
https://www.lvrfa.org/
Long Valley Cheerleading
https://lvrca.tripod.com/
Long Valley Swimming
https://www.seadragonsac.org/
Long Valley Rugby
https://www.longvalleyrugby.com/
Long Valley Running Club
coachkd@longvalleytrack.org
8. ADULT SPORTS
Though Long Valley is very family oriented,
that doesn’t mean we have ignored adults! There are various sports options for
adults. Check out other adult programs sponsored by the Washington Township
Library. Don’t see what you are looking for?
Another great way to become involved in our town is to start a new
club! Read below for options currently
available.
Washington Township
Badminton Club wfark15@gmail.com
Long Valley Men’s
Basketball https://www.lvmba.org/
Long Valley Women’s
Basketball chrisadamt@comcast.net
Long Valley FC Men’s
Soccer (+18) League https://www.uslnj.com
Long Valley FC Men’s
Soccer (+40) League https://www.uslnj.com
Long Valley FC Men’s
Soccer (+48) League https://www.uslnj.com
Long Valley United Men’s
Soccer (+40) cjolly@blacktowercapital.com
Long Valley Men’s
Softball munizmd@att.com
Long Valley Women’s
Softball League annettewagner01@gmail.com
9. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
Options abound for adults to become involved
and meet other residents in Long Valley. These fine organizations sponsor numerous
events and programs. Check them out and
see what appeals to you!
Long Valley Junior
Women’s Club https://www.lvjuniors.org/
Long Valley Women’s
Club lvwomansclubeveningmembership.webs.com
Long Valley Evening
Women’s Club https://lvwomansclubeveningmembership.webs.com/whoweare.htm
Washington Township
Newcomers’ Club
Chester/Long Valley
Rotary Club https://www.rotaryclubofchesterlongvalleynj.org/
Children’s Enrichment
Program for the Handicapped (CEP) https://www.childrensenrichmentprogram.org/
The Garden Club of Long
Valley https://thegardencluboflongvalley.shutterfly.com/
Community Garden https://wtcommunitygarden.jimdo.com/
10.NEWSPAPERS
A great way to get a feel for Long Valley is to
check out the local newspapers and online forums. The local papers do a
terrific job of highlighting Long Valley sporting results, community activities,
upcoming events, etc. Listed below are
links to sites that can give you current information about what is going on in
town.
Star Ledger www.nj.com/starledger/
Daily Record www.dailyrecord.com/
Long Valley Patch www.patch.com/new-jersey/longvalley
Observer Tribune https://www.newjerseyhills.com/observer-tribune/
Long Valley Patch https://patch.com/new-jersey/longvalley
11.TRANSPORTATION
There are other transportation options in Long
Valley other than the car! The links below will assist you in finding train and
bus options.
NJ Transit https://www.njtransit.com/
MAPS https://www.morrishumanservices.org/adv/maps.asp
12. New York Times Article about Long Valley
LIVING IN
Long Valley, N.J.: Verdant and
Occupationally Diverse
New York Times, March 5, 2019
Where does New Jersey feel like the Garden State? In a part
of Morris County where you’ll find historic buildings, wooded trails and an
eclectic community.
There is a place in New Jersey with rolling farmland and
waterfalls, where foxes trot and black bears lumber. Where stone buildings date
to the Revolutionary War and locals cry out in anguish at the arrival
of Dunkin’ Donuts.
That place is Long Valley. A census-designated area with
about 2,000 people in the municipality of Washington Township in Morris County,
Long Valley feels like it belongs in something called the Garden State.
This came as a surprise to Catherine and James Klaassen.
When the couple moved to New Jersey from Ohio 14 years ago, they associated it
with dense cities like Trenton and Newark. Pulled east by Mr. Klaassen’s job
transfer to Bell Labs in Whippany, N.J., the last thing they expected to find
was a fresh green landscape with goat cheese. An added bonus was a highly rated
public school system for their four children.
They paid $695,000 for a four-bedroom colonial in Long
Valley, with a conservatory, an office and a walkout basement. Part of an
early-2000s Toll Brothers development, the house was on 0.62 acres and had a
wooded hiking path in back. In the spring and summer, Long Valley is
“majestic,” Ms. Claassen, 56, said. “All beautiful shades of green and filled
with flowering trees, bushes and vines. No one from outside the region would
believe they were in New Jersey.”
Nearby pharmaceutical, telecom and candy corporations (Mars
has offices just up the road in Hackettstown) have brought a number of
businesspeople to these green acres, making for a population that is
occupationally, if not racially, diverse. Your neighbor might be a farmer, a
line cook, a vice president of marketing or a member of Donald J. Trump’s
Secret Service detail (the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster is 20 minutes
south).
Or she might be Michelle Hoff, 27, a public-school counselor
who grew up in Long Valley and returned to live there as a newlywed. “I’m
probably the one millennial who actually moved back to their hometown,” she
said.
A year ago, Ms. Hoff and her husband, Ethan, a project
manager for a commercial construction company, paid less than $300,000 for a
three-bedroom clapboard house on West Maple Avenue in Long Valley’s historic
center. From there, it is five minutes on foot to the Columbia Trail, a 15-mile
scenic path. A favorite rest stop just off the trail is the Coffee Potter, a
cafe whose mission, according to its website, is to “unite the community and
connect its people.”
The Chesapeake Tavern was once the Long Valley Inn, a hotel
and restaurant with roots that go back to 1787. According to the Washington
Township Historical Society, when Albert Einstein lived in Princeton, he used
to stop by for Sunday chicken dinners.
Ms. Hoff pointed out that Long Valley offers other comforts,
as well. A 2019 study by the National Council for Home Safety and Security, a
trade organization composed of alarm installers and related professionals,
ranked Washington Township in Morris County the third-safest area in
New Jersey. The report tallied
45 total crimes in 2016-17, 42 of which were “property crimes.”
Previously known as German Valley — the name was changed in
response to World War I-era anti-Teutonic sentiment — Long Valley has deep
roots and wonderful antique buildings. In 1983, 69 acres were designated as the
German Valley Historic District, “a microcosm of vernacular architectural
styles found in New Jersey,” from early Pennsylvania-German to Victorian
shingle style, notes the nomination for protected status.
But there is an undeniable look of dishevelment. Several of
the old stone and frame buildings in the historic district are rundown, and not
in the poetic way of a New Jersey acropolis. The husk of a 19th-century
blacksmith shop sits at the edge of the South Branch Raritan River, near
the shored-up ruins of the 1774 Old Union Church. The 1832 schoolhouse that is
now the Washington Township Historical Society museum is intact, but has been
closed for months because winter cold overpowered the heating system. On the
cheerier side, several spiffy vintage buildings operate with contemporary
commercial uses, like the Long Valley Pub and Brewery, housed in an
18th-century stone barn that is part of a complex of four restaurants on
Fairmount Road.
What You’ll Find
Its name notwithstanding, Long Valley occupies different
altitudes in Washington Township. It rises from an actual valley to the top of
Schooley’s Mountain, a 1,200-foot-high ridge to the north whose mineral springs
made it a fashionable resort destination in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The community’s boundaries are commonly identified with the 07853 ZIP code.
Currently on the market are historic houses, like a former dairy farm on Naughright Road listed for $995,000; it has a dining room that dates to the 18th century and a stone cottage immersed in a spring-fed pond, where it was originally placed to keep milk cold.
Long Valley is also studded with midcentury ranches and
bi-levels, as well as spacious properties that sprang up in the 1980s and later
for executives at companies like AT&T and Warner-Lambert, said David
Salmon, an agent with Keller Williams Towne Square Realty, in Basking Ridge,
N.J. “The eight-room, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom colonial became the
most common home in the area,” he said.
Those who live in the area have access to parks, streams,
fresh produce and cozy independent businesses. They get their nails done, their
vision tested, their pumpkins picked and their hardware needs supplied locally.
Even Long Valley Village, a strip mall on East Mill Road, is filled mainly with
mom-and-pop ventures (as well as the Dunkin’, to which residents have appeared
to come around).
But not all demands can be met in the immediate vicinity.
The only clothing store in town is a thrift boutique called Racks, operated by
the Long Valley
Junior Women’s Club, with the proceeds donated to community organizations.
Big-box retailers are 10 minutes away in Chester and 15 minutes away in
Hackettstown. Residents drive 20 miles east to Morristown for the food and
entertainment, or continue on to New York City.
What You’ll Pay
Long Valley is dominated by single-family houses. The median
sale price in the 12 months preceding Feb. 19 was $456,000, a year-over-year
increase of 5 percent, according to Trulia. The median monthly price of rentals
in that period was $2,900.
As of Mar. 2, 70 houses in Long Valley were posted on the
Garden State Multiple Listing Service website. The least expensive in good
condition was a 1965 ranch house with three bedrooms on 1.1 acres; it was
listed on Feb. 9 for $295,000, with property taxes of $6,018. The most
expensive was a 25-acre equestrian estate with a four-bedroom house and three
horse barns, also built in 1965. This property was listed at $1.55 million,
with unusually low taxes (for its size) of about $13,000; it has been on and
off the market since 2009 and was last put up for sale in June 2018.
The Vibe
Residents describe a warm community that bands together,
especially to support neighbors in distress.
The Long Valley Pub and Brewery is housed in a stone barn that is more than two centuries old. It serves seasonal microbrews with names like Long Winter’s Night Black Lager, as well as nachos, gravlax and an assortment of German sausages called “Best of the Wurst.”CreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times
The Schools
The highly regarded Washington Township school district
includes three elementary schools in Long Valley serving different parts of the
district, and one middle school in Long Valley. Students in ninth through 12th
grade attend West Morris Central High School in nearby Chester, N.J.
Benedict A. Cucinella Elementary School enrolls about 490
students in kindergarten through fifth grade and has a prekindergarten program
for 15 disabled students. In 2016-17 state assessments, 66 percent of students
met standards in English versus 56 percent statewide; 67 percent met standards
in math versus 49 percent statewide.
Flocktown-Kossmann Elementary School comprises two
buildings, one serving about 215 students in prekindergarten through second
grade, the other about 250 students in third through fifth grade. On 2016-17
state assessments, 72 percent of students met standards in English versus 56
percent statewide; 69 percent met standards in math versus 49 statewide.
Old Farmers Road Elementary School enrolls about 335
students in kindergarten through fifth grade. On 2016-17 state assessments, 77
percent of students met standards in English versus 56 percent statewide; 76
percent met standards in math versus 49 statewide.
Long Valley Middle School enrolls about 800 students in
sixth through eighth grade. On 2016-17 state assessments, 77 percent of
students met standards in English versus 57 percent statewide; 61 percent met
standards in math versus 37 statewide.
West Morris Central High School, which is part of the West Morris Regional High School District and has an International Baccalaureate program, enrolls about 1,300 students in ninth through 12th grade. Average 2016-17 SAT scores were 601 reading and writing and 612 math, versus 551 and 552 statewide.
The Washington Township Historical Society museum has occupied this stone building on Fairview Avenue since 1981. Built in 1840, the structure was originally a schoolhouse and later became the public library. CreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times
The Commute
The most efficient way to get to New York City, about 60
miles east, is by car. The trip to Midtown on Interstates 80 or 78 takes
between one and two hours, depending on traffic. Another option is to drive to
Dover, N.J., half an hour east of Long Valley, and take a direct train to
Pennsylvania Station on New Jersey Transit’s Morris and Essex Line. Travel time
is less than an hour and a half, and the fare is $15.25 one way, or $445 for a
monthly ticket.
The History
An article on summer health resorts published in an 1891
American medical journal recommended Schooley’s Mountain for its location on a
high plateau covered in pitch pine trees, “a region of exceptional
healthfulness, especially for those inclined to consumptive troubles.” The
article went on to point out: “On the west side of the mountain is a mineral
spring containing muriate of soda and lime, etc., beneficial in dyspepsia and
bladder troubles.”
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