Shrewsbury Borough is a fraction of the 1664 township that carried the name, but it holds some of the oldest building fabric in the county — including Christ Church (1769), where exterior work can trigger historic preservation review.
Housing stock
The second oldest town in the county, founded 1664
Shrewsbury was founded in 1664 and is Monmouth County’s second oldest town — the original township was large enough that Fair Haven, Brielle and others were carved out of it later. The oldest building fabric in this part of the county is here, alongside everything added since, and the two are not always obvious from the street.
Source: Borough of Shrewsbury; Shrewsbury Historical Society
Permits & codes
A 1769 church with a musket ball still in the pulpit
Christ Church was built in 1769 to a design by the colonial architect Robert Smith, replacing a 1738 structure. It was used as a barracks during the Revolution and still carries a bullet hole in the steeple gilt ball and a musket ball in the original pulpit. In a town with that much surviving fabric, historic preservation review on exterior work is a live question rather than a formality.
Source: Christ Church (Episcopal), Shrewsbury — National Register listing
Neighbourhoods
A small borough inside a much larger original township
Present-day Shrewsbury Borough is a fraction of the 1664 township that carried the name. For a homeowner the useful version is simpler: the streets around Broad Street and Sycamore Avenue hold the older stock, and the newer development sits behind them.
Source: Borough of Shrewsbury; Monmouth County Clerk municipal records