This is the second of a few parts of a series I’m doing to show you every small town in Hunterdon County, the Central New Jersey county where I grew up. Find part 1 here. I’m increasingly fascinated by the juxtaposition of urban and rural in places like this, where, despite a lot of suburban growth, you can still make out the pattern of tiny cities amid the countryside.

Hunterdon County is still largely rural-exurban, and there is still agriculture and real small-town life there. Many of its residents would consider themselves country or small-town people, yet the century-plus-old settlements all over the county are far more urban than most of what we build today!

Look at the residential buildings with additions on the back, with businesses added on to the front. Or the old hotels. Or the modest duplexes or other forms of small-scale multifamily housing. Or the trains—the public transit of the day—running right through the middle of town, putting little settlements on the map. Think about what these artifacts all say about how life was lived here more than 100 years ago. It all goes together in these old places—in a way that sets off so much acrimony today.

But I think nothing really communicates the fundamental urbanity of the American small town like photos. So here are a few of my best photos from each of three small Hunterdon County towns.

I’m also including their current population numbers (not very far off from their historic numbers), which you might think clash with their urbanity. But they don’t, and that’s my point.

Milford, 1,232

Stockton, 495

Glen Gardner, 1,682

Related Reading:

Why Can’t Every Day Be Like a Christmas Market?

What’s a City To You?

Old City Driving

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