Prospect Plains, New Jersey | |
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Coordinates: 40°19′26″N 74°28′16″W / 40.32389°N 74.47111°W | |
Country | United States |
State | New Jersey |
County | Middlesex |
Township | Monroe |
Elevation | 128 ft (39 m) |
GNIS feature ID | 879505 [1] |
Prospect Plains is an unincorporated community located within Monroe Township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. [2] The settlement is located at the intersection of Prospect Plains Road ( County Route 614) and Applegarth Road ( CR 619). Retail businesses generally line the two aforementioned county roads in the area but some single-family houses are clustered around the site of the Camden & Amboy railroad crossing of Prospect Plains Road. [3]
The location is the site of the Monroe Oak, a white oak tree present at the time of the township's establishment in 1838. Following the attempted development at the site of the tree to a gas station, the tree has been preserved and became the official symbol of Monroe Township. [4] [5] Prospect Plains was also the site of a railroad station on the Camden & Amboy Railroad, a one-room school house, and was the long-time home of the township's municipal office. [6]
For one thing, Monroe is a tree-friendly town -- the home, too, of the Monroe Oak, a mammoth specimen of Quercus alba that was here when the town was founded in 1838. It was included in the town's official seal as a symbol of endurance and rootedness.
Back in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Dooley and other residents fought to prevent a proposed gas station from removing the towering oak, she said. During the mid-1970s, Dooley said she helped design the emblem for the township's seal, with the oak at center stage.