Most activity focuses around the train station. The platform is technically in Aberdeen, where it has been for more than a year. The two towns share the platform, just as they shared the name of Matawan up until this century. It's hard to talk about Matawan without Aberdeen. They share the station, as well as the benefits and disadvantages, like the parking crunch, that come with the 3,400 commuters passing through each morning from surrounding towns.
Some residents cross town lines by walking through their houses.
But Matawan is the center, with its Main Street and Victorian-era houses. About 150 businesses call the heart of town home, says Virginia Lamb Falconer, president of the Downtown Matawan Alliance. When Falconer moved to Matawan more than three years ago, high school students would paint the windows of vacant businesses for the holidays. They used to do about nine windows. This year, they didn't have to do any.