Glen Rock

History

Glen Rock was formed on September 14, 1894, from portions of Ridgewood Township and Saddle River Township during the "Boroughitis" phenomenon then sweeping through Bergen County, in which 26 boroughs were formed in the county in 1894 alone. The main impetus for the break from Ridgewood Township was the decision to have Glen Rock students attend a new school closer to the center of Ridgewood instead of their one-room schoolhouse located at the intersection of Ackerman Avenue and Rock Road. The borough was settled around the Glen Rock, a large boulder in a small valley (glen), from which the borough gets its name. The rock, a glacial erratic weighing in at and located where Doremus Avenue meets Rock Road, is believed to have been carried to the site by a glacier that picked up the rock 15,000 years ago near Peekskill, New York, and carried it for to its present location. The Lenape Native Americans called the boulder "Pamachapuka" (meaning "stone from heaven" or "stone from the sky") and used it for signal fires and as a trail marker. The borough was the site of one of Bergen County's most serious public transportation accidents. In 1911, a trolley operator for the North Jersey Rapid Transit Company, one day away from retirement, died in a crash with an opposing trolley around the intersection of Prospect and Grove Streets that was caused by signal problems. In addition to the death of the opposing trolley operator, 12 people were injured. This crash in part hastened the demise of this transportation mode which ran from Elmwood Park, New Jersey, to Suffern, New York, and competed with the Erie Railroad. The right of way for this trolley line was purchased by the Public Service Enterprise Group and is still visible today.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 2.72 square miles (7.04 km2), including 2.70 square miles (7.00 km2) of land and 0.01 square miles (0.04 km2) of water (0.51%). The borough borders the municipalities of Fair Lawn, Paramus and Ridgewood in Bergen County, and Hawthorne in Passaic County.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Ridgewood High School
  High · RIDGEWOOD · 1,746 students · 12.7:1 ratio
• Hackensack High School
  High · HACKENSACK · 1,745 students · 12.7:1 ratio
• Fair Lawn High School
  High · FAIR LAWN · 1,624 students · 13.6:1 ratio
• Hackensack Middle School
  Middle · Hackensack · 1,363 students · 10.8:1 ratio
• Northern Highlands Regional High School
  High · ALLENDALE · 1,287 students · 11.6:1 ratio
• Teaneck High School
  High · TEANECK · 1,271 students · 11.8:1 ratio
• Bergen Arts and Sciences Charter School
  Other · GARFIELD · 1,253 students · 15.3:1 ratio
• Ramapo High School
  High · FRANKLIN LAKES · 1,243 students · 10.9:1 ratio