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Red Bank:

Thriving Downtown, Energetic Nightlife
and a Sense of History and Culture

You know the deal with Red Bank. It's cool, it's avant-garde, it's funky. It's famously "the hippest town in New Jersey." But if you get right down to it and clear away the cutting-edge vibe talk, Red Bank is hip because it's square. It's the hot place to be because it's old-fashioned.

Once a down-on-its-luck town with a dwindling population, Red Bank has reinvented itself as a thriving community with a funky downtown shopping area and a spectacular waterfront. Suburbanite's flock here because it's a working model of the way Americans used to live and, on some level, wish they still did. There are no malls or subdivisions or freeways or superstores here. It's a classic American small town circa 1950 with storefronts and back alleys, a main street and a railroad station. Its sidewalks lead to places, not cul-de-sacs. People love Red Bank because it offers the kind of authenticity such strip malls can't. The streets of Red Bank look historic because they are. People sense community because one exists.

Red Bank began as a 17th-century port settlement on the Navesink River. It takes its name from the riverbank soil, which was tinged with iron and quartz. In the 19th century, the port flourished, with sloops and steamboats carrying farm produce to market in New York. These days, the waterfront is completely recreational, with Marine Park providing public access for sailing, kayaking, and fishing. Up the hill from the park is the hub of Red Bank: its downtown. Shopping there is a throwback to the days before mega stores. People hop from one small, often family-owned specialty store to another.

From its downtown hub, Red Bank expands into several distinctive areas. The northwest is an antiques district and site of the Galleria, a massive old clothing mill converted into shops. The train station and businesses catering to the commuters who use it occupy the few blocks south of that. West of the tracks is the largely black enclave known as the West Side. Its main business and civic street is Shrewsbury Avenue.

In a central triangle between the train tracks and Broad Street, south of the business district, many old Victorian homes have been converted into offices for doctors, lawyers and accountants. East of Broad Street to the Fair Haven and Little Silver borders are racially diverse neighborhoods that include garden apartments, condominiums and single-family houses.

No matter which part of town residents call home, walking, a dying art in New Jersey's car-driving culture, is part of their life. They run errands on foot. The drug store is so close to the bank -- which is close to the card shop, which is near the cleaners -- that driving a car would be a hassle. Parking is impossible, a symptom of the town's popularity, so when visitors find a space they tend to ditch their cars and walk from the restaurants to the movie theater to the coffee shops.

Common Facts

Schools

RED BANK BOROUGH
Administration Bldg.
76 Branch Avenue, Red Bank 07701-2202
(732) 758-1506

RED BANK REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Administrative Offices
101 Ridge Road, Little Silver 07739-1698
(732) 842-7884