The Wildwoods

The Wildwoods sign, on the boardwalk in Wildwood.

The Wildwoods are a group of five communities (four distinct municipalities and one census-designated place) in Cape May County, New Jersey. These are situated on the Island of Five Mile Beach, a barrier island facing the Atlantic Ocean. These Jersey Shore communities have relatively small year-round populations that swell significantly during the summer with vacationers.^[1]

Wildwoods Communities

While the communities have no shared governance (other than Cape May County), with each community reporting to a different local government, the term is often used to refer collectively to the area.

From north to south, the five communities are:

• North Wildwood (2010 Census population: 4,041)^[2]
• West Wildwood (pop. 603)^[3]
• Wildwood (pop. 5,325)^[4]
• Wildwood Crest (pop. 3,270)^[5]
• Diamond Beach (pop. 136),^[6] a census-designated place in Lower Township

Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District[]

Doo-wop styled Wawa Food Market.

The Wildwoods is home to over 200 motels, built during the Doo-Wop era of the 1950s and 1960s,^[7] in an area recognized by the state of New Jersey known as the Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District.^[8] The term doo-wop was coined by Cape May's Mid-Atlantic Center For The Arts in the early 1990s to describe the unique, space-age architectural style, which is also referred to as the Googie or populuxe style.^[9]

See also[]

For other groups of similarly named municipalities in New Jersey, see:

• The Amboys
• The Brunswicks
• The Caldwells
• The Oranges
• The Plainfields
• The Ridgefields

References[]

Coordinates: 38°59′42″N 74°48′32″W / 38.995°N 74.809°W / 38.995; -74.809