Stone Harbor — A 21.5-Acre Bird Sanctuary With a Real Disappearance-and-Recovery Story, Alongside Gleaming McMansions

A Protected Bird Sanctuary, a Genuinely Upscale Identity, and a Founding Shared With Avalon

Stone Harbor's identity starts with a real, historic conservation story that none of this site's other New Jersey markets can claim. Confirmed via Wikipedia's own Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary entry, herons began nesting naturally in the area around 1938; the town formalized protection by fencing the site in 1961; the sanctuary itself, a 21.5-acre protected area, was established by local ordinance in 1947, and was designated New Jersey's first National Natural Landmark in October 1965. By 1964, more than 5,000 birds arrived annually for a nesting season that ran from March through July, with birds staying until December, historically including snowy egrets, glossy ibis, black-crowned and yellow-crowned night herons, little blue herons, green herons, and tri-colored herons. The sanctuary sits near Nummy Island's salt-marsh feeding grounds and includes dense vegetation, a freshwater pond and meadow, and maritime forest.

That success did not last uninterrupted. Beginning around 1995, nesting shorebirds mysteriously disappeared, nearly vanishing by 2000 -- a real, unresolved-cause ecological mystery that this page does not speculate on; the exact cause was not confirmed in the sources reviewed and no specific cause, such as predation, pollution, or disease, is stated here as fact. In response, a 2005 rejuvenation project increased tidal water flow, removed invasive species, and removed feral cats, working to restore the habitat, and later surveys have documented warblers, woodpeckers, and hawks on the site. Current visitor hours, any admission cost, and current nesting-population counts since that rejuvenation are not confirmed here.

Layered onto that conservation story is a second, genuinely distinct identity, independently confirmed rather than assumed: Wikipedia documents that The New York Times has described Stone Harbor as a place of gleaming McMansions and elegant shops. In 2017, it ranked as the third-most-expensive ZIP code in New Jersey by median home sale price, and in 2014, Forbes ranked it 191st among America's most expensive ZIP codes nationally. The borough functions as an upscale resort community drawing wealthy vacationers from the broader Mid-Atlantic region and from Quebec, and its summer population exceeds 20,000 -- a group Wikipedia describes as typically wealthier than the roughly 796 year-round residents, lending the borough its exclusive character and making this this site's most upscale New Jersey market by a wide margin.

Underneath both stories sits a founding shared with, yet distinct from, neighboring Avalon. Per visitnjshore.com's own history, Aaron Leaming acquired Seven Mile Island in 1772 for roughly $300 -- nearly 3,000 acres -- and the Tatham family later purchased the island in the 1800s and built the first beach houses there. The Seven Mile Beach Company purchased the island in 1887 and founded both towns from that single corporate entity: Avalon on the island's northern half, Stone Harbor on its southern half. Stone Harbor's own development began in 1891 with an inn and seven cottages near 80th Street; 1907-1909 brought major infrastructure work, including dune leveling, marsh filling, paved streets, seawalls, jetties, and a sewage system; 1910-1912 brought the first school, lifeguard service, police force, and volunteer fire department; and the borough was officially incorporated April 3, 1914, following an April 28, 1914 referendum, per an act of the New Jersey Legislature, formed from portions of Middle Township. Visitnjshore.com and Wikipedia give slightly different sequencing of that incorporation vote and act, and both are presented here rather than reconciled into a single authoritative timeline. Stone Harbor's own name is credited to an English sea captain named Stone, who reportedly took refuge behind Seven Mile Island during a severe storm.

On current figures, the honest approach is to hedge rather than guess. Stone Harbor is a borough in Cape May County, New Jersey, on Seven Mile Island, sharing the island with Avalon to the north; the 2020 census counted 796 residents, down 8.1 percent from 866 in 2010, across 2.19 square miles (1.42 land, 0.78 water), at an elevation of 7 feet above sea level. No current (2026) permanent population figure beyond that 2020 census count, current median home price, active-listing count, or specific current rental rate is confirmed here -- do not treat any such number elsewhere as settled fact without checking its date; the 2017 and 2014 expensive-ZIP-code rankings cited above are themselves dated and should not be treated as current. This is also this site's fifth New Jersey market, and New Jersey's tax structure remains genuinely different from the no-state-sales-tax framing used across every Delaware market on this site: New Jersey does levy a state sales tax, and Cape May County and Borough of Stone Harbor property tax rates and assessment structures are their own separate matter. No current New Jersey sales-tax rate or Stone Harbor-specific property-tax rate is stated here as fact; direct those questions to Cape May County government, the Borough of Stone Harbor's own finance office, and the State of New Jersey. No current FEMA flood-zone designation for any specific parcel, no specific current restaurant or shop names beyond the general New York Times description, and no dated 2025-2026 storm damage, erosion event, or beach-replenishment project specific to Stone Harbor is stated here as fact. This page is independent research, not legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice; confirm anything time-sensitive with the appropriate licensed professional or local government office before making a decision.