Town of the week:
Mantua Township, NJ

Mantua Township covers about 16 square miles of Gloucester County and counted 15,235 residents in the 2020 Census. Our office is here, at 140 Bridgeton Pike. The Barnsboro Inn, pictured above, began as John Budd's log cabin in 1720 and was licensed as a tavern in 1776.

Schools, grade by grade

The Mantua Township School District runs pre-K through grade 6. Sewell School teaches pre-K and kindergarten, Centre City School teaches grades 1 to 3, and J. Mason Tomlin School teaches grades 4 to 6 and also houses some pre-K classes.

For grades 7 to 12, Mantua students attend the Clearview Regional High School District, which Mantua shares with Harrison Township: Clearview Regional Middle School for grades 7 and 8, and Clearview Regional High School for grades 9 through 12.

Parks on Main Street

Chestnut Branch Park, at 545 Main Street, covers 109 acres, with athletic fields, tennis and basketball courts, a playground, wooded trails and a butterfly garden. Ceres Park Wildlife Sanctuary, at 940 Main Street, covers 52 acres of upland and wetland forest, with trails and two lakes, Emerald and Cedar.

Where the name comes from

The township takes its name from Mantua Creek. According to the township's history, the creek's name comes from Manta, a Native American word for frog, and the frogs heard along the creek each year gave it that name. Mantua was part of Greenwich Township until February 23, 1853, when the New Jersey Legislature made it a township of its own.