8 New Jersey Towns With A Slower Pace Of Life

A Saturday morning in Lambertville is for the bike rental at Pure Energy Cycling and a slow ride along the Delaware Canal towpath. A summer evening in Bay Head is for the 1.25-mile beach and a doughnut from Mueller's Bakery before they sell out before noon. A weekend in Hope means Greenwood Observatory's Saturday-night telescope program at Jenny Jump State Forest, weather permitting. The eight New Jersey towns below all run on a different clock, and the people who choose to live in them know exactly why.

Bernardsville

Bernardsville sits in the Raritan Valley, 30 miles west of Newark. Most of what is worth doing here is on foot. The Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary, owned by New Jersey Audubon and serving as that organization's state headquarters, covers 298 acres of woods and wetlands with several trails and a treetop-level observation deck. Twenty-five species of warblers move through during spring and fall migrations. The Olcott Historic District has a substantial collection of late-19th- and early-20th-century country estates from the era when New York industrialists built summer homes along the railroad. Osteria Marini on Mine Brook Road serves Northern Italian cooking with serious portions; the bomboloni are the local order.

Lambertville

Lambertville is a former canal town across the Delaware from New Hope, Pennsylvania. Bridge Street is the spine: Liv & Charlie's for breakfast, Pure Energy Cycling and Java House for a bike rental and a second coffee, and a string of antique shops, galleries, and restaurants in 19th-century brick storefronts. The Delaware Canal State Park towpath runs car-free for 60 miles along the Pennsylvania side; a 3.5-mile spin to Stockton is the manageable option. Goat Hill Overlook, a marked path that climbs about 400 feet from a dirt parking area south of town, gives a long view of the river and the bridges.

Lambertville Station Inn, in the converted 1867 train depot on Bridge Street, is the obvious place to stay overnight. The basement bar feels exactly like a 1920s railroad-era saloon. Music Mountain Theatre on the edge of town stages community-theater Broadway musicals on weekends through most of the year.

Bay Head

Bay Head is a small Jersey Shore borough that has refused to overdevelop since the 1880s, when it was first laid out as a summer retreat for Philadelphia and New York families. The 1.25-mile beach is accessible from every block along East Avenue. The Bay Head Historic District, between the ocean and Twilight Lake, contains some of the best Shingle and Queen Anne residential architecture on the Jersey Shore, much of it built in the 1880s and 1890s. Year-round population is about 1,000; summer brings it up roughly tenfold. Mueller's Bakery on Bridge Avenue opens at 6:30 a.m. for the doughnuts, which run out before the morning is over on summer weekends.

Frenchtown

Frenchtown sits on the Delaware River about 12 miles north of Lambertville. The 1844 Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge (a steel truss replacement of an earlier wooden bridge) is open to pedestrians and cyclists and connects to the Delaware Canal towpath on the Pennsylvania side. ArtYard, a contemporary arts center on Front Street with galleries, a theater, and artist studios, opened in 2018 and has become the village's main draw beyond the river itself. Bridge Street has a tight cluster of cafes (Perfect Day Cafe, Frenchtown Fresh) and shops. Up Creek Road, an old stone bridge of uncertain date crosses the Nishisakawick Creek on a quiet back route.

Boonton

Boonton was a working iron-rolling town on the Rockaway River through most of the 19th century. The 25-foot waterfall in Grace Lord Park, just off Main Street, is the river falling over the dam that powered the original ironworks. An arch bridge upstream gives the working view. The seasonal farmers' market on Upper Plane Street runs Saturday mornings through summer with vendors, kids' games, and live music. Reservoir Tavern, in continuous operation as an Italian restaurant since 1936, is the standard local dinner; the brick-oven pizza is what people come for. The Boonton Historical Society and Museum on Main Street covers the ironworks era.

Pitman

Pitman is 30 minutes south of Philadelphia in Gloucester County. The town began in 1871 as a Methodist camp meeting ground; the small wood-frame cottages of the original camp survive in the Pitman Grove Historic District as a circular pattern of streets radiating from a central tabernacle site. Many of the cottages are now year-round homes, and the elaborate Carpenter Gothic detailing remains visible on porch railings and trim.

The Broadway Theatre, built in 1926 for vaudeville and silent film, still operates with much of its original interior intact. It now books touring musicians, comedians, and small-cast musicals. Frostland Village, the town's holiday-light installation, runs through December and draws crowds across the region.

Hope

Hope was founded in 1769 by Moravian settlers who built the village's defining structures in cut limestone. The 1769 grist mill, now part of the Inn at Millrace Pond, is open for overnight stays and serves dinner in the original mill building. Several other Moravian-era stone buildings survive along the historic district. Jenny Jump State Forest, just outside the village, is a designated dark-sky area; the United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey runs Saturday-evening public programs at Greenwood Observatory from April through October, with telescope time when the weather cooperates. The trails on Jenny Jump Mountain itself climb to overlooks across the Kittatinny Valley.

Belvidere

Belvidere is the seat of Warren County, on a bluff above the Delaware River. The Victorian Days celebration each September is the main town event, with an antique car show, an art contest, and downtown music. Vintage VU on Greenwich Street has one of the larger record collections in the state. Skoogy's Deli, just off the courthouse square, runs sandwiches and ice cream. Four Sisters Winery, west of town, lets visitors stomp grapes during harvest events and runs a regular Murder Mystery dinner series. Hot Dog Johnny's, on Route 46 in nearby Buttzville, has been selling deep-fried hot dogs and frosted mugs of buttermilk since 1944.

The Quiet Side Of New Jersey

New Jersey's slower towns share something specific: each has held onto a structural choice from earlier in its history (the Moravian masons in Hope, the Methodist camp grid in Pitman, the refusal to overdevelop in Bay Head, the canal towpath that still runs along Lambertville) and built daily life around what that choice produced. None is in stasis, but none is rushing either. Spend a weekend in any of them and the rhythm changes.