The town was originally called Delaware Township, and the name Cherry Hill was chosen by the township’s citizens in a non-binding referendum in 1961, and was officially adopted November 7, 1961. Cherry Hill had been the name of Abraham Browning’s farm on Route 38 opposite the site where the Cherry Hill Mall would be built. The farm property was approximately what became Eugene Mori’s Cherry Hill Inn and is now an AMC-Loews movie theater complex.

Mori, the largest developer in the town from the 1940s to the ’60s, used the Cherry Hill name on many of his properties, including the Cherry Hill Inn, Cherry Hill Lodge (now a nursing home), Cherry Hill Apartments (now renovated as the Cherry Hill Towers), and the Cherry Hill Estates housing development, where the streets are named after thoroughbred race courses. Thus, it has been suggested he (Mori) had a vested interest in getting the town named Cherry Hill.

Another motivation for the name change was a desire for the township to have its own post office. However, there were other places in New Jersey named Delaware, New Jersey. The postal service suggested a name change, and Mayors Christian Weber and John Gilmour, whose administrations came during the renaming decision, agreed.

I don’t know of any cherry orchards here, but there are definitely lots of cherry trees and they are beautiful in bloom. Chapel Avenue is lined with cherry trees near the high school.