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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
FREEHOLD (170 alt., 6,894 pop.) seen from the air is a dot among squares and oblongs of contrasting green fields edged with reddish clay. Up to the town's very doorstep spread the fields and woodlands of the gently rolling land of Monmouth County, the second richest agricultural county in the United States.
Without drawing too heavily on its storied past, Freehold has individuality produced by a fusion of rural, urban, and residential life. In an unobtrusive way it seems to embody America's growth from farm to factory. But country atmosphere dominates the town. Main Street is broad and treelined, and many stores in the small business section are in former private dwellings, but rarely is a horse tethered to the hitching posts along the curb.
Surrounding this provincial core is an industrial growth concentrated in a large rug factory that has blended with the community rather than altered it into a factory town.
Although Freehold has a full quota of industrial workers as well as business people and retired farmers, there is nothing that could be called a slum section. The town has an almost uniform degree of prosperous living - equaled by few other New Jersey communities. Homes in the residential area range from Colonial through Victorian to contemporary American architecture, with a predominance of white-painted frame structures. There is plenty of room for lawns and trees-oaks, elms, maples, horse chestnuts, lindens, honey locusts, and copper beeches. Almost every house has a garden bright with such flowers as the oriental poppy, blue bachelor's button, lemon lily, and lavender iris.
Its position as county seat makes Freehold the center for the surrounding farm country. Traffic chokes the business section, especially when big farm trucks carry summer produce to the New York and Philadelphia markets. A steady stream of beach-bound motorists pours through the town on summer week ends, providing trade for several antique shops. Main Street, once the King's Highway and the old Burlington Trail, approximately follows a route once used by Indians, pioneer settlers, British
and American soldiers, and early stagecoaches.
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