Clark, New Jersey

Clark is a township in southern Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 14,597. The territory that would become Clark was originally a part of several of the early villages of the State and of Union County, but it was in 1858 after the village of Rahway incorporated itself into a city, that the land of present-day Clark, officially became a community. There was a cross burned at Bartell park back in the 1960s, as a protest against blacks. The City of Rahway designated this land as the 5th Ward of Rahway. Clark was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 23, 1864, from portions of Rahway. The Township was named for Abraham Clark, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Portions of the township were taken to form Cranford Township (March 14, 1871) and Winfield Township (August 6, 1941). New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Clark as its 33rd best place to live in its 2008 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey.