Map - Harding Township, New Jersey (Township of Harding)

Harding Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. It is located in the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The township was formed as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on September 1, 1922, from portions of Passaic Township (since renamed as Long Hill Township), based on the results of a referendum passed on May 9, 1922. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of the township was 3,871, an increase of 33 (+0.9%) from the 2010 census count of 3,838, which in turn reflected an increase of 658 (+20.7%) from the 3,180 counted in the 2000 census.

The long-established hamlets of New Vernon and Green Village (also within Chatham Township) are both located in Harding Township. The township is home to the private club community Mount Kemble Lake, a former summer colony developed in the 1920s.

Described by The New York Times as "one of the most restrictive and elegant of New Jersey's residential suburban areas" and as an "affluent Morris County township", the community has been one of the state's highest-income municipalities. Harding Township had a per capita income of $109,472 and was ranked first in New Jersey based on data from the 2006–2010 American Community Survey from the United States Census Bureau, more than triple the statewide average of $34,858. Based on data from the ACS for 2014–2018, Harding Township ranked sixth in the state with a median household income of $183,587 and had almost half of households earning more than $200 thousand annually.

The 07976 ZIP Code for New Vernon was named one of the "25 Richest ZIP Codes" in the United States by Forbes magazine in 2006. Many relatively unchanged large country estates that have been passed down through several generations attest to the wealth of many of its residents. Some have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and some have nonprofit support organizations that assure the retention of the original nature of the properties.

After the retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier, a mighty glacial lake called Glacial Lake Passaic formed in this area that, about 15,000 to 11,000 years ago, extended for 30 mi in length and was 10 mi wide. The lake finally drained when a blockage of the Passaic River reopened. The Great Swamp is the remnant of the lake bottom and portions of the swamp lay in what now is the township. Once the lake drained, higher areas became a wooded area that was used for hunting, fishing, and farming by Native Americans. At the time of colonization by the Dutch it belonged to the Lenape tribes, but British colonists did their best to displace them westward.

Much of what now is known as Harding was an agricultural community with roots stretching as far back as the early 18th century. Bypassed by colonial turnpikes, revolution era canals, and railroads laid in the Victorian era, the area remained a rural backwater. For almost two centuries of European occupation, its open and rolling landscapes reflected its agricultural use, as land had been cleared for cattle pastures, orchards, and fields of grain. The Great Swamp, the wooded slopes of the Watchung Mountains, and those near Jockey Hollow also were used by local farmers for wood supply. The communities of Green Village, Logansville, New Vernon, and Pleasantville were the village centers in this agricultural community.

Wealthy urban residents from Manhattan and Newark bought farmland, enlarged old farmhouses, and landscaped the grounds. The movement to establish Harding Township was driven by local property owners who wanted to maintain a bucolic community without suburban development.

The township was created in 1922 from the northern half of what was then Passaic Township (present day Long Hill Township) and it was named after the incumbent President of the United States, Warren G. Harding.

The New Vernon Neighborhood Restrictive Agreement was established in 1928 by estate owners under which they agreed to voluntarily place restrictive covenants on their land that would require future owners of the properties to maintain the rural nature of the area. This voluntary effort to limit development and save the pastoral qualities of over 1,000 acre across Harding Township influenced subsequent zoning codes, which emerged several decades later, and helped preserve the landscape to the present day.