Roselle is a Borough located in Union County in the state of New Jersey, United States of America. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 21,274. On January 19, 1883, the first electric lighting system employing overhead wires to ever exist began service in Roselle, and was built by Thomas Edison to demonstrate that an entire community could be lit by electricity. The First Presbyterian Church, located on the corner of West 5th Avenue and Chestnut Street, was the first church in the world to be lit by electricity. Roselle was incorporated on December 20, 1894, at the height of the Boroughitis phenomenon sweeping through New Jersey at the time, based on the results of a referendum held two days earlier, from portions of Linden.