SAYREVILLE – The Sayreville community is invited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the municipality’s establishment as a borough.
Sayreville Centennial Day is scheduled to be held on Oct. 2 at Kennedy Park, with a rain date of Oct. 3. It will run from noon to 7:30 p.m.
According to event organizers, Sayreville Centennial Day will feature contests, food, games, a beer tent, a skateboard demo and vendors. Beginning at 7 p.m., there will also be a fireworks display.
As part of the event, residents were asked to create a new borough seal to demonstrate Sayreville’s growth over the years. The winner of the contest will be announced at Sayreville Centennial Day.
Individuals of age 18 or older will compete in a wing eating contest during the event. Competitors must arrive by 11:30 a.m. and the contest will begin at 12:15 p.m., according to event organizers.
Although Sayreville was founded in 1876, it was originally a township. Sayreville Centennial Day will recognize the municipality’s reorganization into a borough, which occurred in 1920.
According to the Sayreville Historical Society, the area that became Sayreville was a section of South Amboy known as the Roundabout in the 19th century because of the circuitous bend in the Raritan River nearby.
The borough is named after James R. Sayre, a Newark resident who formed a brick company at the Roundabout in 1850 with Peter Fisher of Fishkill, New York. A decade later, the Sayre and Fisher Company established the first post office in the Roundabout, according to the historical society. The name “Sayreville” also began to be used, although Sayre never lived in the area.
When Sayreville Township was founded in 1876, it consolidated the areas of Morgan, Melrose, Ernston, and Sayre’s Village into 14 square miles. Less than 2,000 individuals resided in the municipality at its formation, according to the historical society.
By the time Sayreville was reorganized as a borough in 1920, its population had grown to 7,200 residents, according to the historical society. The population growth was assisted by the arrival of Irish immigrants during the 1880s and Polish immigrants during the 1890s, the latter being Sayreville’s largest ethnic group.