In the centuries prior to industrial development, the Passaic River and Watchung Mountains were major geographic landmarks amidst the untouched wilderness.

This vantage point over the valleys east to Manhattan had a strategic value for Lenni Lenape warriors, and later George Washington's troops during the American Revolution.

[citation needed] The Native Americans were hunter-gatherer tribes who would overlap territories and occasionally had tribal wars, but did not "own" land.

The area on Main Street now known as "Tory Corner" was called Williamstown, after two brothers Nathaniel and Benjamin Williams.

[30] Almost immediately, Orange began fragmenting into smaller communities, primarily because of local disputes about the costs of establishing paid police, fire and street departments.

[30] West Orange (including what had been the briefly independent municipality of Fairmount) was incorporated as a township on April 10, 1863, and was reformed as a town on February 28, 1900.

[37] Rock Spring is located at the bottom of the Turtle Back Rocks—currently at the corner of Northfield Avenue and Walker Road, West Orange.

By the 19th century, visitors from New York City would come to West Orange to drink the water from this spring for its supposed curative powers.

West Orange became a resort or country retreat—with boating, fishing, and an Amusement Park at Crystal Lake near Eagle Rock Reservation.

[41] Thomas Edison's Laboratory, currently a National Historical Park, was where he developed the inventions that earned more than 1,000 patents, including the light bulb, stock ticker and recorded sound.

Eventually the industry spread to Fort Lee, New Jersey, in 1907, which offered inexpensive land for movie production studios that could be located in close proximity to New York City.

In the 1960s, "white flight" from the 1967 Newark riots and Civil Rights Era led to further settlement of West Orange.

The 1970 opening of Interstate 280 made West Orange a popular "bedroom community" suburb for commuters to New York City.

The West Branch of the Rahway River originates at Crystal Lake and passes through the township in South Mountain Reservation.

[48][49][50] Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Crestmont, Crystal Lake, Llewellyn Park, Pleasantdale, and Saint Cloud.

Main Street, in this section, is home to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, as well as the municipal building, police headquarters, and a branch post office.

The Victorian enclave of Llewellyn Park, one of America's first planned residential communities, is also located on the First Mountain, having been created in 1853 as a site for country homes for the wealthy from New York City.

[citation needed] Beyond the high ridge traced by Prospect Avenue, West Orange becomes a patchwork of post-World War II suburban neighborhoods, interspersed with pockets of older Victorian homes, as well as golf courses, professional campuses, and shopping centers.

Pleasantdale, a walkable business district in this part of the township, includes a number of restaurants, office buildings, stores, and houses of worship.

[60][61] Developed by Sol Atlas,[68] Essex Green Shopping Center is an outdoor mall with stores that include ShopRite, restaurants and an AMC Theatres Fork and Screen dine-in movie theater.

[4] Members of the Township Council are Michelle Casalino (2028), Asmeret Ghebremicael (2026), Joe Krakoviak (2028), Joyce L. Rudin (2028) and Susan Scarpa (2026).

[78][79][80][81][82] In September 2015, the Township Council selected Michelle Casalino to fill the seat expiring in December 2016 that had been held by Patty Spango until her resignation from office.

[102] For the 2024-2025 session, the 27th legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by John F. McKeon (D, West Orange) and in the General Assembly by Rosy Bagolie (D, Livingston) and Alixon Collazos-Gill (D, Montclair).

As of 2025[update], the County Executive is Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. (D, Roseland), whose four-year term of office ends December 31, 2026.

[105] Essex County's Commissioners are: Robert Mercado (D, District 1 – Newark's North and East Wards, parts of Central and West Wards; Newark, 2026),[106] A'Dorian Murray-Thomas (D, District 2 – Irvington, Maplewood and parts of Newark's South and West Wards; Newark, 2026),[107] Vice President Tyshammie L. Cooper (D, District 3 - Newark: West and Central Wards; East Orange, Orange and South Orange; East Orange, 2026),[108] Leonard M. Luciano (D, District 4 – Caldwell, Cedar Grove, Essex Fells, Fairfield, Livingston, Millburn, North Caldwell, Roseland, Verona, West Caldwell and West Orange; West Caldwell, 2026),[109] President Carlos M. Pomares (D, District 5 – Belleville, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Montclair and Nutley; Bloomfield, 2026),[110] Brendan W. Gill (D, at large; Montclair, 2026),[111] Romaine Graham (D, at large; Irvington, 2026),[112] Wayne Richardson (D, at large; Newark, 2026),[113] Patricia Sebold (D, at-large; Livingston, 2026).

[159] Thomas Edison's Black Maria, the first movie studio ever, was located on Main Street and Lakeside Avenue.

From the late 1960s/early–1970s until the early 1990s UHF TV channel 68 maintained their offices, studios, and transmitter at 416 Eagle Rock Avenue.

After Channel 68 moved to West Market Street in Newark, and their transmitter to the Empire State Building in Manhattan, NBC owned and operated stations WNBC-TV Channel 4 and WPXN-TV Channel 31 (NBC later sold its interest in WPXN's parent Paxson Communications) moved into the Eagle Rock Avenue complex operating backup transmitter facilities in case of a catastrophic event such as the destruction of their main transmitters at the World Trade Center which occurred during the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In late 2020, Family Radio permanently closed its West Orange studios and began to operate from their transmitter facilities, WFME-AM in Maspeth, Queens in New York (In February 2021 the AM station ceased broadcasting temporarily after the land the transmitter was on was sold[160][161]) and WFME-FM near Bedford, New York.

Verizon Communications, going as far back as the mid to late 1950s and early 1960s when it was New Jersey Bell, operated an analog central office and later fiber optics facilities on Prospect Avenue near the Essex Green Shopping Center and a fiber optics and satellite transmitter facility which was originally owned and operated by MCI Inc. until it was acquired by Verizon in 2006.