In 1954, when it changed its name from Raritan Township to Edison Township, in honor of the inventor whose laboratories were once near the railroad tracks in the Menlo Park section, it was still primarily farm and field. Thousands of town houses and condominium apartments in large developments sprang up in the township during the 1980's. ![]() ''Edison went development crazy in the 1980's,'' said Pat Schwalje, who moved here in 1981.Įdison's explosive growth has made it a model of suburban sprawl, without a downtown or much in the way of true neighborhoods. Since 1980 it has grown by 27 percent, to 88,569 people, according to the preliminary 1990 census count. ![]() So many people moved in over the last decade that Edison is now New Jersey's sixth-largest community, with more people than cities like Trenton, Camden and East Orange. But because the township has grown so fast, the roads are often clogged with traffic, the schools have to be expanded, and the dump, almost full, will have to go the way of other local landfills and close by the end of the year. Spread over 32 square miles near the center of the state, Edison has good roads, stable schools and even its own town dump. If, as planners predict, New Jersey continues to become more suburb than city, Edison is what much of the state may look like in years to come.
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