The Brainy Borough

Metuchen Brainy Boro Post Office — Metuchen, NJ Post Office, Brainy Boro Station

As I wrote in my post about the Lake Hiawatha Firehouse, many New Jersey town names are derived from Native American words.

For example, the very nice borough (sometimes spelled “boro”) of Metuchen is named for the Indian chief Metuching.

Metuchen is located in Middlesex County, completely surrounded by the much larger Edison Township, like a hole in a doughnut.

Just about 100 years ago, Metuchen had many intellectuals living and working in the town.

The prosperous community of Glen Ridge had many intellectuals of their own and they decided that they were obviously a smarter town and they would claim bragging rights to the title.

Metuchen responded to the challenge, and had a contest with Glen Ridge to decide which was the “brainy boro.”

Metuchen won, and the name has stuck.

Metuchen has never forgotten this, and has been bragging about this for the last century.

To prove this, here are some links:

Metuchen: The Brainy Borough’s ‘Overnight’ Success

Metuchen Living: People Events and Places in the Brainy Boro: Co-Working in the Brainy Boro

Recently, there was a vaguely worried article on NJ.com about Metuchen’s downtown area, although the author assured readers that “plenty of people have moved to the Brainy Borough because they liked its vibrant, walkable downtown.”

Not to worry. Not only is the official motto of the town “The Official Brainy Borough” but one of the two post office branches is still called the “Brainy Boro Station.”

You may also want to read my post about the Lake Hiawatha Firehouse.

2022 Updates:

I added new photos!

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14 Comments

Poppy

June 23, 2014 at 11:47 am Reply

This is TOO funny, but also very intriguing! Hmm. And here I thought that competition between Greek villages was fierce!

Poppy

Cass @ That Old House

June 23, 2014 at 3:03 pm Reply

This is hilarious! Now let's nominate other NJ towns for such titles as "Nerdiest Boro," or "Boro Most Likely To Sit At the Cool Kids' Lunch Table,:" and so on. What fun. But brainy boro? That IS so funny. Well, as Ward Melville said, "I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives," or something like that. Thanks for stopping in to That Old House! — Cass

Thanks for sharing over at Creative Mondays …

The Brainy Borough | Metuchen, New Jersey