History of the Borough of Victory Gardens

 

Victory Gardens is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, United States.

Victory Gardens is Morris County's smallest municipality, measured both by size and population, and its most densely populated.

The origins of the borough began in 1941, when the federal government acquired 91 acres (370,000 m2) in Randolph Township as the site of a 300-unit housing project for war industry employees. The borough was named for the victory gardens planted at private residences during World War II. The federal government paid for all infrastructure. Streets are named for U.S. Presidents.

Randolph Township residents approved a referendum as part of a September 1951 special election in which voters were asked if the township's Victory Gardens neighborhood should be removed from the township and created as an independent municipality for its 1,300 residents covering 92 acres. 

Victory Gardens was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on June 20, 1951, from portions of Randolph Township, based on the results of the referendum passed on September 18, 1951.

A project approved in 1973 brought the construction of 184 units of garden apartments on a site covering 12.4 acres, providing additional rateables and offering permanent housing for an estimated 400 people, that would contrast with the temporary original structures built in the 1940s that had long passed their expected lifespan.