Berkeley Will Celebrate 150 Years at WinterFest March 29
By Eric San JuanB

Berkeley Township has been around for 150 years. As part of the celebration of that milestone, called the Sesquicentennial Anniversary, the town will begin a year full of celebrations with WinterFest on March 29 at Veteran’s Park.
The afternoon event is expected to be the first among many celebrations in the coming year, especially the annual Summer Concert Series.

WinterFest will be held from 3-7pm in Veteran’s Park. It will include music, iceless ice skating, family-friendly games and activities, food trucks, and more.
A $10 wristband will provide unlimited access to skating and other activities.

Town officials are looking for sponsors and volunteers to help bring the year’s events to life.

These can include small businesses, civic organizations, and individuals. For more information, contact Stacy in the Mayor’s Office at [email protected] or 732-244-7400 ext. 1203.
The annual Summer Concert series will be part of the 150-year celebration, too. For well over two decades now, this series of free live shows has been a staple of the community. First launched in 1999, the shows are funded by community and business donations, as well as the annual Mayor’s Golf Outing and advertising. The series includes the annual Beach Party, and Berkeley Founder’s Day aka Community Pride Day.
Most shows take place at Veterans Park, 489 Bill Zimmerman Jr. Way, with a special beach-themed event taking place each year at White Sands Beach in South Seaside Park.
Other Sesquicentennial Anniversary events may be announced as the year progresses.

Though Berkeley’s history extends back long before European colonization of the region, its “official” birth was in 1875.

People often use the names “Berkeley” and “Bayville” interchangeably, but in fact, they are not interchangeable. Bayville is an unincorporated section of Berkley, similar to Silver Ridge, Holiday City, and other named communities within the town.
The town was originally inhabited by the Lenni-Lenape Native Americans. In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson arrived in the area and claimed it for the Dutch East India Company. In the centuries ahead, European settlers began transforming the region.

The early 1900s saw a period of growth for Bayville, as the town became a tourist destination due to its proximity to New York City and its beautiful beaches.
However, as the late historian Diane Beer once pointed out, even by the 1950s, Berkeley still had only 1,500 residents or so, most living clustered in Bayville.
“Almost the entire population of Berkeley Township was concentrated along Route 9,” she said.

Today, that is no longer the case, thanks to the explosive growth of retirement communities in the second half of the 20th Century. Bayville is now home to approximately 5,000 residents, a fraction of the nearly 45,000 total in the entire township.

Berkeley Township was named for John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. The town was formed from sections of Dover Township (now called Toms River). Other portions were taken to form Seaside Park. Later, in 1953, the boroughs of Beachwood and South Toms River were both created from parts of Berkeley. Portions of the township were also used to form Island Heights (1887), Lavallette (1887), and Pine Beach (1925).

Today, Berkeley consists of a number of unincorporated communities such as Bayville, Cedar Creek, Pinewald, Manitou Park, and Holiday City, each with their own character but each coming together to make the town what it is today. Manitou Park is among the town’s most historic locations and is home to the Manitou Park School. Built in 1929, the one-room schoolhouse was first built to serve what was then the largest African-American community in Ocean County outside of Lakewood, and for a time one of the only primarily black communities in the region.