HUBBARD OR KYRILLOS? SIGN BATTLE ON RED BANK-MIDDLETOWN BRIDGE

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By BRIAN DONOHUE

What do you call the bridge that carries Front Street over the Swimming River between Red Bank and Middletown?

Choose carefully. Your answer to this question could put you on one side or the other in a mysterious duel that has seemingly played out in the dark of night over the past week by factions wielding wrenches and screwdrivers. Oh, and probably a stepladder.

At right, one of two signs that were installed – and then removed – last week with the name “Hubbard’s Bridge. On the left, the sign on the westbound side of the bridge bearing the bridge’s official name since 2018. (Photos by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.) Here’s the story: In 2018, the bridge, long referred to colloquially and listed on maps as “Hubbard’s Bridge” or “Hubbard Bridge” was officially renamed the Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos Bridge after the former longtime Republican state senator.

But Hubbard loyalists have not gone quietly.

Dr. William H. Hubbard (left) was a doctor in Red Bank in the 1800’s. Joseph Kyrillos, right, served in the NJ State Senate from 1992 to 2018, when the bridge long referred to as “Hubbard’s Bridge” was renamed after him.

After some time, it disappeared.

Then, last week, Hubbard’s Bridge signs appeared again.

This time, a pair of metal, professional-grade signs were bolted to poles on each side of the bridge reading “Hubbard’s Bridge since 1878.”

redbankgreen, alerted to the signs by a renowned Red Bank fisherman, inquired Tuesday with a spokesperson for Monmouth County (which has jurisdiction over the roadway) asking whether the County had installed the signs.

Wednesday night, we received a one-sentence reply: “The County did not install those signs.”

(Borough Manager Jim Gant said no one from the borough had installed the signs either.)

Sometime between Wednesday evening and your intrepid reporter’s morning cross-bridge constitutional the next day, the two Hubbard’s Bridge signs had been taken down.

Two emails sent Thursday and again Friday inquiring of the county spokesperson whether county officials had removed the signs went unreturned.

The bridge was officially named after Kyrillos in 2018 as a nod to his role in securing funding for its reconstruction a few years earlier.

The history of the Hubbard name is slightly murkier, but far deeper.

**An 1851 Map from the site oldmapsonline.org showing J&Js S Hubbard as landowners on the Middletown of what came to be known as Hubbard’s Bridge until a 2018 renaming.**

Our research (with help from the Red Bank Public Library) indicates the bridge is likely named after one or more members of a prominent local family, whose members include Dr. Jacobus Hubbard, a Revolutionary War surgeon who lived in Holmdel and is buried just down the road at Faiview Cemetery in Middletown.

His physician grandson, William H. Hubbard, was born in 1812 and had a practice in Red Bank, records indicate.

Another apparent descendant, dentist Charles Hubbard, later had an office on Front Street in Red Bank in the late 1800’s. Later, a Thomas Hubbard was commodore of the Monmouth Boat Club from 1913 to 1931. An 1851 Map (see above) indicates the land at the foot of the Middetown side of the bridge was owned by “J & Js S Hubbard.”

For the full story on the signs installation and removal and more history of the bridge’s names, watch the video above.

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.