Shrewsbury

With lovingly maintained sycamore trees lining Sycamore Avenue, beautiful historic homes and a wealth of nearby parks alongside a caring community, stepping into Shrewsbury is a little like stepping into a fairy tale. At least that’s how Joyce Fernandes, a longtime resident and Realtor at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, describes it. The borough has a sense of historic charm and beauty, and residents work together to maintain that.

“They have a lot of pride in the town, so they’ve taken the time to maintain the integrity of the town,” says Fernandes. This care extends all the way to Shrewsbury’s well-known Sycamore Avenue and the sycamore trees that line it. “They’ve actually won awards many times for the tree commission, because they maintain them and they just really do a nice job with the tree commission.”

One of the town’s most interesting historical sites is at the Four Corners, where Sycamore Avenue and Broad Street intersect. At this crossroads sit three historic churches and the Allen House, which was built in 1710 before functioning as a tavern during the mid-1700s and playing a role in the Revolutionary War, all of which are still in use today. The house is now a museum outfitted to match its time as a tavern.

Shrewsbury may be full of history, but the town and its citizens both look toward the future by putting a lot of care into its school, Shrewsbury Borough School, which serves pre-kindergarten all the way through eighth grade. “That’s not that common nowadays,” says Fernandes, whose own children went to the school. “And it’s kind of a nice value because you feel like it’s a private school because it’s such a small population in the town, so the student-to-teacher ratio is well below the state average.”

The neighborhood’s many parks are just as well-maintained as the rest of it, including places where residents can go to play baseball, basketball and tennis or participate in the community garden at Manson Park. Despite being a small town, Shrewsbury has plenty of shopping within its own borders, including two shopping centers. The largest of these, an outdoor mall called The Grove, features major retailers like Banana Republic, Sephora and Chico’s.

The neighborhood is also home to several major places to grab groceries, from a Trader Joe’s to a ShopRite, in addition to a few popular local restaurants. Kick off a long day of shopping with breakfast at Americana Diner or finish off your day with a delicious dinner at Albariño Tapas & Wine Bar. This wealth of shopping options ensures that most of your shopping needs can be taken care of just a few minutes from home—with none of the workarounds that are often the downsides of other small towns.

When residents want a little bit more excitement, Shrewsbury is also ideally located to provide it. “You can get to the beach in under 10 minutes,” Fernandes says. “You need to commute, you can get to the Parkway in under 10 minutes. If you need public transportation, you have the train, the New Jersey transit, that takes you into the city or wherever else you need to go, eventually. We have the commuter ferry that you get to that’s in Highlands to go into the city. A lot of great neighboring towns.”

According to Fernandes, the town is a mixture of retirees and residents who grew up in Shrewsbury and moved away for college, only to come back to raise their children in the town where they themselves grew up. “So you have a lot of professionals, you have a lot of repeat lifelong residents,” Fernandes says.

Once someone settles in Shrewsbury, they rarely want to leave, which means homes don’t often find their way onto the market. When they do, they’re snapped up quickly, so it’s essential to act fast if looking to buy. Although it’s a small area, Fernandes says that home prices vary quite a lot, starting at around the $500,000 mark and climbing up to about $3 million. No matter the price of their home, though, many residents are happy to live in such a beautiful and historic community close to so many amenities, especially given how much love is poured into it by its residents.

“I love it,” Fernandes says. “I’m a little biased, maybe, because I live there, but I do. I love it.”

Video By

Jonathan Bradley