[23] The earliest inhabitants of present-day Ewing Township in the historic era were Lenni Lenape Native Americans, who lived along the banks of the Delaware River.

Their pre-colonial subsistence activities in the area included hunting, fishing, pottery-making, and simple farming.

One of the earliest European settlers was William Green, and his 1717 farmhouse still stands on the campus of The College of New Jersey.

[28] Portions of Trenton Township were incorporated as Ewing Township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 22, 1834, posthumously honoring Charles Ewing for his work as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

The sections near the city border are distinctly urban, but most of the township is suburban residential development.

The main commercial district extends along North Olden Avenue Extension (County Route 622), originally constructed to connect north Trenton residences with the now-closed General Motors Inland Fisher Guide Plant.

From 1953 until 1997, Ewing was the home of Naval Air Warfare Center Trenton, encompassing 528 acres (214 ha) on Parkway Avenue.

[33] A charity to end homelessness acquired the base at no cost in October 2013 in a process involving the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Mercer County and Ewing Township.

[40] Watercourses in Ewing include the Delaware River along its western boundary and the Shabakunk Creek in the eastern and central portions of the township.

The township has a number of distinct neighborhoods, including Agasote,[41] Altura,[42] Arbor Walk,[43] Braeburn Heights,[43][44][citation needed] Briarcrest,[43][45] Briarwood,[43][46][47] Cambridge Hall,[43] Churchill Green,[48][49] Delaware Rise,[43][50][51][52] Ewing,[41][53] Ewing Park,[54] Ewingville,[43][55][56] Fernwood,[41][57] Ferry Road Manor,[58] Fleetwood Village,[43][50][59][60] Glendale,[41][43][57] Green Curve Heights,[61] Hampton Hills,[43][59][62] Heath Manor,[63] Hickory Hill Estates,[43][59][64] Hillwood Lakes,[65][66][67][68] Hillwood Manor,[43][59][69] Mountainview,[41][43][50] Parkway Village,[41][43][59] Prospect Heights,[41][43][70] Prospect Park,[70][71] Scudders Falls,[41][43][72] Shabakunk Hills,[43][73] Sherbrooke Manor,[43][59][74] Somerset,[41] Spring Meadows,[43][75][76] Spring Valley,[43] Village on the Green,[43][50][59][77] Weber Park,[70][78] West Trenton,[41][43][79] Whitewood Estates,[50] Wilburtha[41][43][80] and Wynnewood Manor.

[101] Ewing Township is governed under the Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, within the Mayor-Council plan 2 form of New Jersey municipal government, as implemented as of January 1, 1995, based on the recommendations of a Charter Study Commission.

[7][104][105] As of 2024[update], the Mayor of Ewing Township is Democrat Bert H. Steinmann, whose term of office ends December 31, 2026.

[112][113][114] For the 119th United States Congress, New Jersey's 12th congressional district is represented by Bonnie Watson Coleman (D, Ewing Township).

[119] As of 2025[update], the County Executive is Daniel R. Benson (D, Hamilton Township) whose term of office ends December 31, 2027.

[166] The Ewing Public Education Foundation, established in 1995, is an independent, not-for-profit citizen's organization whose mission is to mobilize community support, concern, commitment and resources to help improve the quality of education in Ewing Township.

EPEF provides grants to Ewing Township Schools for innovative educational programs through fund-raising activities, and corporate and institutional sponsorship.

The Foundation also seeks to match corporate and organizational donors with teachers to fund additional projects of mutual interest.

[167] Eighth grade students from all of Mercer County are eligible to apply to attend the high school programs offered by the Mercer County Technical Schools, a county-wide vocational school district that offers full-time career and technical education at its Health Sciences Academy, STEM Academy and Academy of Culinary Arts, with no tuition charged to students for attendance.

[172] It serves 175 hearing-impaired students on a campus covering 148 acres (60 ha) that was opened in West Trenton in 1926.

[173][174] The school was established in Ewing through the efforts of Marie Hilson Katzenbach and was renamed in her honor in 1965.

This single-gender school offers an education to young women from sixth to twelfth grade.

[179] Ewing Township is traversed by multiple main roadways, as well as by a passenger rail line and is the location of an airport.

Originally part of Interstate 95, it was constructed as a four-lane facility in the 1960s, and widened to six lanes in the 1990s, with the exception of the Scudder Falls Bridge over the Delaware River.

From there, travelers use U.S. 1 or Interstate 195 and the New Jersey Turnpike to reach the next major destination northwards, New York City.

The southern section, Daniel Bray Highway, is a 55 mph (89 km/h), divided four-lane facility with at-grade intersections and traffic lights, and was constructed in the 1950s.

The northern section, River Road, is a 45 mph (72 km/h), undivided two-lane facility whose construction as a state highway dates from the 1930s.

NJ Transit has proposed a new West Trenton Line of its own, that would stretch for 27 miles (43 km) from the West Trenton Station to a connection with the Raritan Valley Line at Bridgewater Township, and from there to Newark Penn Station in Newark.

The airport has 100,000 takeoffs and landings annually, and is served by Frontier Airlines, which offers nonstop service to and from 10 different locations nationwide.

Originally important to commerce and trade, the advent of railroads caused the canal's commercial demise.