Swedesboro is a borough in Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough’s population was 2,584, reflecting an increase of 529 (+25.7%) from the 2,055 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 31 (+1.5%) from the 2,024 counted in the 1990 Census.
Swedesboro was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 9, 1902, from portions of Woolwich Township. The borough was named for its early settlers from Sweden.
Swedesboro has been recognized by the National Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree City USA since 2000.
Swedesboro was settled as part of New Sweden in the mid-1600s. The early Swedes and Finns were fishermen, hunters and farmers.
The English Colonial government needed a road between the communities of Burlington and Salem, so they built the Kings Highway in 1691 which opened the southern portion of Gloucester County to more settlers, who were drawn to the area by the fertile sandy soil, prime farmland and vast tracts of oak, birch, maple and pine trees. Originally, the community was called Raccoon, until the name was changed to Swedesboro in 1765.
Swedesboro, along with Bridgeport, was one of only two settlements established in New Jersey as a part of the New Sweden colony. The oldest extant log cabin in the United States, the Nothnagle Log Cabin (ca. 1640) was built by Antti Niilonpoika (Anthony Neilson/Nelson) in Swedesboro. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as is Trinity Episcopal “Old Swedes” Church, which was established as a Swedish Lutheran Church in 1703; the present building dates to 1784.
Trinity Church Cemetery is the burial place of Governor of New Jersey Charles C. Stratton and Congressman Benjamin Franklin Howey, among other notable interees.
Through the late 1800s, Raccoon Creek was a water route that was naturally deep enough to transport wood and farming projects to Philadelphia by the Delaware River.
Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, visited the borough as part of a 1976 tour of the United States.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Swedesboro borough had a total area of 0.758 square miles (1.964 km2), including 0.724 square miles (1.876 km2) of land and 0.034 square miles (0.088 km2) of water (4.49%).
Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Ivyside.
Swedesboro is an independent municipality surrounded on all sides by Woolwich Township, making it part one of 21 pairs of “doughnut towns” in the state, where one municipality entirely surrounds another.
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 2,584 people, 938 households, and 645.3 families residing in the borough. The population density was 3,568.4 per square mile (1,377.8/km2). There were 1,004 housing units at an average density of 1,386.5 per square mile (535.3/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 69.81% (1,804) White, 15.02% (388) Black or African American, 0.58% (15) Native American, 1.35% (35) Asian, 0.08% (2) Pacific Islander, 9.48% (245) from other races, and 3.68% (95) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.07% (441) of the population.
Source: Wikipedia
