Rahway is a city in Union County, New Jersey, home to about 30,109 people across 3.9 square miles. Its ZIP code is 07065.
Homes sold for a median of $395 per square foot in the three months ending August 2026, a seller’s market.
Each card is that ZIP code’s whole market, including any part outside Rahway. Seller’s market: under 4 months of supply; buyer’s market: over 6. Methodology
Rahway's land was part of the Elizabethtown grants of the 1660s, and the Rahway River is named for a Lenape leader. Early on the area was a set of outlying farm settlements tied to Elizabethtown and Woodbridge, and by the 1700s it had grown into separate villages known as Upper Rahway, Bridge Town (Lower Rahway), Leesville and Milton. During the Revolution, when the village was still called Spanktown, a skirmish known as the Battle of Spanktown was fought here in January 1777.
Rahway sat on the stagecoach road between New York and Philadelphia, and the Merchants and Drovers Tavern at 1632 St. Georges Avenue, whose significance dates to the 1770s, served travelers on that route; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The railroad reached town in 1835, the navigable river carried goods to the Arthur Kill, and Rahway was incorporated as a city in 1858. Carriage making and clothing were early industries, and Merck and Company arrived in 1903 and became the largest employer.
In 1922 the Wheatena Company donated riverfront land to the new Union County Park Commission, an early piece of the Rahway River Parkway, and the Olmsted Brothers firm laid out Rahway River Park in the 1920s. After World War II much of the city's manufacturing closed, and since the 1990s Rahway has focused on downtown redevelopment and historic preservation. The 1928 Rahway Theatre on Irving Street, restored and reopened as a county-owned performing arts center, is the most prominent downtown landmark.
Rahway covers about four square miles, and roughly seven in ten of its developed acres are residential. The city's master plan counts single-family houses as most of the housing, with two-family houses mixed into many blocks, pre-war houses converted to apartments, post-war garden apartment complexes, 1980s rowhouses, and a handful of mid-rise and high-rise apartment buildings near the center.
The downtown core runs along Irving and Main Streets between the railroad trestle and East Milton Avenue, with Cherry and Lewis Streets close by, and holds City Hall, the library and the performing arts center. Outside downtown, smaller commercial clusters sit on Westfield Avenue at Madison Hill Road, West Grand Avenue near St. Georges Avenue, East Grand Avenue and New Brunswick Avenue. Older place names such as Leesville, Milton, Inman Heights and North Rahway are still used for parts of the city.
The Rahway River and its branches wind through the city, and much of the riverbank is public parkland, including Union County's Rahway River Park and Milton Lake Park as well as city parks such as Hart Street Park, Shotwell Field and Flanagan Field. Rahway Public Schools serve the city.
Rahway Station, on Milton Avenue between Irving and Broad Streets about half a mile west of Routes 1 and 9, is served by NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast lines. Trains run north through Newark to New York Penn Station, and south toward Trenton on the Northeast Corridor or toward the Jersey Shore on the North Jersey Coast Line. The station is accessible, and as of 2026 the Rahway Parking Authority runs three lots there, including a parking deck on Lewis Street with daily and monthly rates.
U.S. Routes 1 and 9 cross the east side of the city, and St. Georges Avenue (Route 27) is the main commercial road running north to south. West Grand Avenue, Westfield Avenue, Milton Avenue and Hazelwood Avenue carry most local traffic. The Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike both pass just outside the city limits.
Newark Liberty International Airport is about ten miles northeast. Downtown, with the station, City Hall and the arts center within a few blocks of one another, is the most walkable part of the city.
The Union County Performing Arts Center occupies the restored 1928 Rahway Theatre at 1601 Irving Street, listed on the state and national historic registers, and a second, modern venue, the Hamilton Stage on Hamilton Street, opened in 2012. Programming includes concerts, comedy, plays and musicals, dance, a classic film series on 35mm, and tours of the historic theater. Downtown streets near the theater are also known for large outdoor murals.
The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum at 1632 St. Georges Avenue preserves the 18th-century tavern and the neighboring Terrill Tavern, with limited public hours and special events; calling ahead is recommended.
Rahway River Park, a 124-acre Union County park designed by the Olmsted Brothers firm in the 1920s, has a long pond, a running track, ball fields, tennis and basketball courts, picnic groves and the Walter E. Ulrich pool, one of the first public pools built in a U.S. park, open in summer. Paths follow the river through the county's Rahway River Parkway. The Rahway Public Library at 2 City Hall Plaza offers storytimes, classes, cultural events and meeting rooms.
Researched and drafted from the public sources below. Updated October 2026. Spot something wrong or out of date? Tell us.
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Get matched| Nearest major airport | Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)8 miles away |
|---|---|
| Nearest city of 250,000+ | Newark, NJ10 miles away |
| Nearest city of 1 million+ | New York, NY18 miles away |
Straight-line distances from the center of Rahway; driving is longer.
Source: Airports from OurAirports (scheduled passenger service); city centers and populations from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Source: Members of Congress from the congress-legislators project; districts from the Census Bureau’s relationship files; governor and mayor from Wikidata.
Rahway had 29,556 residents in the 2020 census, up 12% since 2000.
It’s the 80th largest of 565 towns in New Jersey by population.
Union County grew from 99,353 residents in 1900 to 575,345 in 2020.
Union County, 1900–2020
Source: U.S. Census Bureau decennial censuses (counties 1900–1990 from the Bureau’s historical county file).
Average highs peak around 86°F in summer, and winter lows average 25°F. About 50.4 inches of rain and melted snow fall in a typical year, with about 26 inches of snow.
Source: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, Cranford, NJ weather station (5 miles away).
208,505 jobs at 14,276 businesses in Union County. The biggest industries by employees:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (private employers; jobs counted where people work).
194 doctors and other health care providers list an office in Rahway.
Nearest hospitals
Providers with an office here
| Primary care doctors | 24 |
|---|---|
| Specialist doctors | 45 |
| Dentists | 14 |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 40 |
| Mental health providers | 26 |
| Physical and occupational therapists | 30 |
| Optometrists | 5 |
| Chiropractors | 10 |
| Pharmacies | 8 |
Source: Hospitals from CMS Hospital General Information (ratings are CMS overall star ratings); straight-line distances; providers from the CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), by practice address and primary specialty.
Parks (14 nearby)
Grocery stores
Pharmacies
Libraries (1 nearby)
Museums
Theaters and performance venues (1 nearby)
Counts are within about 1.5 miles of the center of town.
Source: Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright), as mapped by volunteers; it can miss places or include closed ones.
Notable people born here
Source: Wikidata (wikidata.org), the free knowledge base; people are listed by place of birth.
Public schools here are run by Rahway Public School District. Check each district’s attendance zones for a specific address.
| School | Grades | Students | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Elementary SchoolRahway | Pre-K–6 | 658 | Public | 0.6 mi |
| Grover Cleveland Elementary SchoolRahway | Pre-K–6 | 453 | Public | 0.8 mi |
| Madison Elementary SchoolRahway | Pre-K–6 | 384 | Public | 0.6 mi |
| Roosevelt Elementary SchoolRahway | Pre-K–6 | 608 | Public | 0.5 mi |
| Rahway 7th & 8th Grade AcademyRahway | 7–8 | 701 | Public | 0.8 mi |
| Rahway High SchoolRahway | 9–12 | 1,286 | Public | 0.6 mi |
| School | Grades | Students | Affiliation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ecyc, Inc. Child Development CenterRahway | Pre-K–K | 12 | Nonsectarian | 0.6 mi |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES: Common Core of Data (2024-2025) for public schools; Private School Universe Survey (2023-2024) for private schools. Listed by address; we don’t rate schools.
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Town boundaries don’t always match ZIP codes: a ZIP code can cross into neighboring towns, and a town can share a ZIP code with its neighbors. Facts describe the town itself; market figures describe whole ZIP codes.