Short Hills, New Jersey

Short Hills is an area located within the township of Millburn, in Essex County, New Jersey. The town is an active bedroom community of New York City. The opening of the Kearny Connection, allowing the establishment of the first direct rail service to Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan, has enhanced real-estate values immensely. Short Hills also has a business district along Chatham Road near the railroad station, which includes the post-office branch, a pharmacy, and several small specialty shops.

Short Hills is also home to many senior executives and controlling stockholders of some of the largest corporations in the United States and their families. The median family income is over $200,000.

Millburn's schools are often commended for their high standards. Millburn High School was rated best public high school in the state for 2008 by New Jersey Monthly Magazine. The survey used various objective criteria including percentage of graduates going to college, number of students in accelerated courses and average SAT scores.

Though Short Hills has its own railroad station and post-office branch, it does not have an independent government. It remains today a part of the Township of Millburn, as it has been since its inception.

The Morristown Line and its Gladstone Branch both serve the Short Hills train station. They provide service to multiple towns in northern New Jersey and west of Newark, and also to Hoboken and New York City.

Service begins at 5:00 a.m. and ends at 2:24 a.m. 58 inbound trains (including 15 peak-hour trains) and 63 outbound trains (including 14 peak-hour trains) stop at this station every weekday. Weekend and holiday service is limited to 39 inbound and 39 outbound trains, running between 5:32 a.m. and 2:20 a.m. Afternoon and evening service to and from Hoboken typically consists of trains containing three or four self-propelled electric cars. Hoboken service at other hours, and all Midtown Direct service (to and from New York), is provided on much longer trains propelled by electric (or occasionally Diesel-electric) locomotives either in push or pull mode.

For fare-calculation and seat-check purposes, the Short Hills station is in Zone 7 of the Morris and Essex Lines, a zone it shares with the Millburn station. As is the policy everywhere on the New Jersey Transit system, passengers who board the train while the ticket office is open, and then buy their tickets on board, are subject to a five-dollar surcharge.

Theoretically, any passenger could connect between the Morristown Line and the Gladstone Branch at this or any other station between Summit and Newark Broad Street stations. However, most passengers will transfer, if they need to, between the Morristown and Gladstone branches at Summit and between Midtown Direct and Hoboken service at Newark Broad Street.

New Jersey Transit does not operate any local bus route connecting to this station. However, at least one local hadicap/elderly jitney-like line provides service to this station.

Permitted parking is available on the eastbound side and across nearby Chatham Avenue, next to the United States Post Office branch. Permits typically cost $300 per year and are the same as the residential-parking permits that carry with them the privilege of parking one's car on the street in front of one's own house. Most Short Hills residents do not buy the annual permits. When they use the train they have family members drop them off at the station and pick them up. (Nearby shopping districts guard their parking spaces with meters that run no longer than one hour, for the nominal fee of ten cents per hour, a fee intended solely to prevent railroad users from abusing their parking privileges.)

Parking is not permitted on the westbound side. Limited standing is permitted for passenger pickup and drop-off.

Bicycle parking, in the form of metal chaining racks, is available on the eastbound side.

Short Hills is a somewhat small town located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 12,888 people and just one neighborhood, Short Hills is the 161st largest community in New Jersey.

Short Hills is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 96.51% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Short Hills is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Short Hills who work in management occupations (22.87%), sales jobs (19.78%), and business and financial occupations (9.32%).

Of important note, Short Hills is also a town of artists. Short Hills has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Short Hills's character.

The per capita income in Short Hills in 2000 was $92,940, which is wealthy relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $371,760 for a family of four. However, Short Hills contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Short Hills home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Short Hills is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Short Hills include Italian, Russian, German, Irish, English, Polish, Eastern European, and European.

The most common language spoken in Short Hills is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.

Stewart Hartshorn died in 1937, at the age of 97. His daughter Cora survived him, wrote her own history of the hamlet, and helped establish the Arboretum that bears her name.

In 1975, the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society formed in conjunction with the American Bicentennial celebrations.

In 2001, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center opened in Short Hills.

In 2002, local residents planted a memorial tree on the grounds of the railroad station, to honor those of their neighbors who died in the attacks on September 11, 2001.

In an episode of the television show Northern Exposure, a customs officer briefly explains to Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum) that he was a draft dodger, and is originally from Short Hills.

In Philip Roth's first book, Goodbye Columbus, the girlfriend of the character Neil Klugman is said to be from Short Hills. Since Roth was from nearby Newark, New Jersey, he probably had been to Short Hills himself, or at least knew of its reputation as an affluent town.

In the second series of House, it is revealed that Stacy and Mark Warner (House's ex-girlfriend and her husband) live in Short Hills.

In Judy Bloom's book Wifey, the main character's sister and brother-in-law live in Short Hills.

Herbert G. Hopwood (1898-1966) four-star admiral in the United States Navy who served as commander in chi Joe Kernen

ef of the United States Pacific Fleet from 1958 to 1960.

Peter Kellogg, tied for number 278 on Forbes Magazine's 2006 Billionaires List; director of the Wall Street investment firm Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, which was sold to Goldman Sachs in 2000 for $5.5 billion.

Joe Kernen (1956-), CNBC news anchor and main host of the popular show Squawk Box Alan Zweibel

Alan Zweibel (1950-), producer and writer on such productions as Saturday Night Live, PBS' Great Performances, and It's Garry Shandling's Show.

Actress Anne Hathaway, star of The Princess Diaries, Havoc, The Devil Wears Prada, and others.

Originally, the area that would become Short Hills was part of Springfield, New Jersey, and it's eponymous hills are thought to have played a role in the movement of the Continental Army under George Washington during the Battle of Springfield.

Short Hills began as a planned community, when Stewart Hartshorn purchased 13 acres of land in Millburn Township, near the present Hobart Avenue, Parsonage Hill Road, and Chatham Road. Hartshorn's purpose was to create "a harmonious community for people who appreciated nature," and "where natural beauty would not be destroyed by real estate developments, and where people of congenial tastes could dwell together." He later increased his land holdings to 56 acres for himself and 1,552 acres (6.28 km2) for the whole village, with each plot not owned by Hartshorn being no larger than 1/2 acre.

Hartshorn chose the name "Short Hills" because it reflected the topography of the region, and also because the local Lenape Native Americans used that same name to describe the region. One local resident suggested that he call his village "Hartshornville," but he definitively refused.

Hartshorn situated his "ideal town" near enough to a railroad to allow for an easy commute to Hoboken and, from there, to New York City. Hence, his decision in 1879 to build, at his own expense, a railroad station along the original Morris and Essex Railroad line. He also persuaded the United States Post Office to open a station in his new railroad station in 1880, and in fact, the Post Office has always had a presence in Short Hills from that day.

Presciently, Hartshorn deliberately preserved strips of land along the railroad right-of-way from any development west of Old Short Hills road. These strips separate Hobart Avenue to the north, and Chatham Road to the south, from the railway line. The only structure that has ever stood directly adjacent to the line is the railroad station. Mr. Hartshorn also established the Short Hills Park directly across Hobart Avenue from the station, which stands to this day. In 1944, his estate donated this park to Millburn Township, with the stipulation that it always remain open to the public.

After seventeen houses were erected, Hartshorn turned his attention to other "common elements." These included a Music Hall, which remains today as the Short Hills Racquets Club.