Prospect Plains, New Jersey

Populated place in Middlesex County, New Jersey, US

Unincorporated community in New Jersey, United States

40°19′26″N 74°28′16″W / 40.32389°N 74.47111°W / 40.32389; -74.47111Country

United StatesState

New JerseyCounty Middlesex Township MonroeElevation

^[1]

128 ft (39 m)GNIS feature ID879505^[1]

Prospect Plains is an unincorporated community located within Monroe Township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.^[2] The settlement is located at the intersection of Prospect Plains Road (County Route 614) and Applegarth Road (CR 619). Retail businesses generally line the two aforementioned county roads in the area but some single-family houses are clustered around the site of the Camden & Amboy railroad crossing of Prospect Plains Road.^[3]

The location is the site of the Monroe Oak, a white oak tree present at the time of the township's establishment in 1838. Following the attempted development at the site of the tree to a gas station, the tree has been preserved and became the official symbol of Monroe Township.^[4]^[5] Prospect Plains was also the site of a railroad station on the Camden & Amboy Railroad, a one-room school house, and was the long-time home of the township's municipal office.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b "Prospect Plains". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
^ Locality Search, State of New Jersey. Accessed February 13, 2015.
^ Google (November 30, 2015). "Aerial view of Prospect Plains" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
^ Smothers, Ronald (March 16, 2003). "Monroe Township Journal; By the Road an Old Oak Stands. That's the Rub". The New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2015. For one thing, Monroe is a tree-friendly town -- the home, too, of the Monroe Oak, a mammoth specimen of Quercus alba that was here when the town was founded in 1838. It was included in the town's official seal as a symbol of endurance and rootedness.
^ Smith, Jessica (November 15, 2007). "Future elementary to be named Oak Tree School". Sentinel. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015. Back in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Dooley and other residents fought to prevent a proposed gas station from removing the towering oak, she said. During the mid-1970s, Dooley said she helped design the emblem for the township's seal, with the oak at center stage.
^ Katerba, John D. (2007). Monroe Township & Jamesburg. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738550473. Retrieved November 30, 2015.