Accurate maps of Laurence Harbor are hard to come by, partly because what Laurence Harbor is. Contrary to popular belief, Laurence Harbor is not a city, town, village, hamlet or any other incorporated jurisdiction whatsoever. It is simply a longstanding neighborhood of Old Bridge on the banks of the old Raritan.

Because of the lack of official jurisdictional boundaries, usually friendly arguments over where Laurence Harbor ends and another neighborhood begins do occur.

LH's longstanding identity prompted the Census Bureau to define Laurence Harbor as a census-designated place (CDP). This means that much Census data is tabulated for just Laurence Harbor. (For more info on CDP's, see the wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census-designated_place.) It also means that a Census map exists for Laurence Harbor, although as you will see, there are problems with its boundaries.

The first thing you should notice about the map is that it stretches from the Sayreville boundary on the northwestern boundary of Old Bridge to the Aberdeen boundary on the southeastern side of Old Bridge. Most people with a knowledge of the area know that the Blvd West, Furman Blvd and Ocean Blvd area is actually part of Cliffwood Beach and not Laurence Harbor. Cliffwood Beach is another neighborhood of Old Bridge.

In the map above, Laurence Harbor is more accurately defined according to traditional local understanding. However, a new point of discussion comes up. In the southwest portion of Laurence Harbor, the above map ends at the boundary of Cheesequake State Park, leaving out the entire Bridgepointe development. Who cares? People who sell real estate want it included because its $400,000 townhomes raise the status and property value of the entire area. LH old timers (self-labeled, we stress) say that the neighborhoods are different enough to be considered seperately.