Bloomingdale

History

Bloomingdale's Federal Hill was the site of the 1781 Pompton Mutiny, a winter revolt of Continental Army troops that was crushed by General Robert Howe on direct orders of General George Washington. Growth in Bloomingdale was driven by the development in the late 1860s of a rubber mill and other factories in neighboring Butler. The New Jersey Midland Railroad, later known as the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, laid tracks adjacent to the settlement, with a Bloomingdale station located in what today is Riverdale. The northern section of Riverdale and most of Butler were known as East Bloomingdale and West Bloomingdale respectively during most of the 19th century. Despite crossing a county border, they also shared a school district and residents considered the whole area as "Bloomingdale" until about 1881 when a Post Office named Butler was designated. This began a period of rivalry which caused a schism between the residents of Butler and Bloomingdale resulting in separate schools, churches and even town bands. Bloomingdale was incorporated as an independent borough on February 23, 1918, when Pompton Township was split up into three new municipalities along with Wanaque and Ringwood. Prior to that, the area was known as Bloomingdale throughout the 19th century and was initially a farming community starting about 1712 with the "Bloomingdale Forge" built shortly thereafter to take advantage of the iron in the hills. The business district along the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike and the Pequannock River began about the middle of the 19th century. Bloomingdale, like most municipalities in northeastern North Jersey, is a suburb of New York City. Some of the things that still link Bloomingdale to its past are its two churches (Methodist and Baptist), the Samuel R.…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 9.25 square miles (23.95 km2), including 8.80 square miles (22.79 km2) of land and 0.45 square miles (1.16 km2) of water (4.82%). Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the borough include Cold Spring Lake, Glenwild Lake, Iosco Lake, Lake Kampfe, Morse Lakes, Mothers Lake, Pompton Junction, Star Lake and Twilliger Lake. The borough borders Pompton Lakes, Ringwood, Wanaque and West Milford in Passaic County and both Butler and Riverdale in Morris County.

Race & ethnicity