Centre Grove, NJ

Centre Grove is a Cumberland County census-designated place on the eastern side of Lawrence Township, with Millville directly to the east and Bridgeton about nine miles northwest. The 2020 census counted 1,281 residents. It is one of several named communities within Lawrence Township, which was formed in 1885 from parts of Fairfield Township and named for Captain James Lawrence, a War of 1812 naval commander. Centre Grove is not an incorporated town of its own; its local identity comes from the township roads, school district, and farm country around it.

Lawrence Township stretches from productive farmland and tidal marshes toward the Delaware Bay, and that mix gives Centre Grove a different setting from the nearby city edge. The township also includes Cedarville and Bay Point, along with smaller localities and waterways, while the Lawrence Township School District serves Centre Grove students. The township historical society in Cedarville keeps the older records and artifacts for all of these communities together. Centre Grove is a place where the map changes gradually: Millville's streets are close on one side, fields and marshland open out on the other, and the township name does most of the civic work.