Chatham, New Jersey

Chatham, New Jersey
Main Street in Downtown Chatham
Chatham Location in Morris County Show map of Morris County, New Jersey Chatham Location in New Jersey Show map of New Jersey Chatham Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 40°44′26″N 74°23′04″W / 40.740686°N 74.38448°W / 40.740686; -74.38448
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Morris
Municipalities	Chatham Borough and Chatham Township
Named for	William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (Eastern (EDT))
ZIP code	07928

"The Chathams" (/tʃæt.əm/, CHAT-əm) is a term used in reference to shared services for two neighboring municipalities in Morris County, New Jersey, United States – Chatham and Chatham Township. The two are separate municipalities, although when sharing some services act much like one cohesive community (hence "The Chathams"). The first municipality, a town that was settled in 1710 as a colonial English village in the Province of New Jersey, that in 1773 adopted a name change to "Chatham". There are numerous references to this village as "Chatham, New Jersey" dating from that time.

The second municipality, more southern, without a town center, and less densely populated until very recently, is the vestige of a regional government that was formed in 1806 as a township, a form of municipal government peculiar to the state of New Jersey. It had jurisdiction over a region including a large area of open space and several villages. One of those, the village of Chatham, dating from 1710, was the source for its name, "Chatham Township". It was mostly rural with expansive farmlands and open land until very late in the twentieth century and until the township school district was formed, its children were bussed to public and private schools in the closest municipality, Madison or Chatham.

Chatham and Chatham Township now share various joint public services: the school district, the library, the municipal court, the medical emergency squad, and recreation program.

In 2012, Forbes.com listed Chatham as 375th in its listing of "America's Most Expensive ZIP Codes", with a median home price of $776,703.^[1] In March 2018, Bloomberg ranked Chatham as the 64th wealthiest place in the United States, and the 8th wealthiest in New Jersey.^[2]