Glen Rock, New Jersey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Glen Rock, New Jersey
Borough
Borough of Glen Rock
Glen Rock's eponymous boulder is located on the intersection of Rock Road and Doremus Avenue.
Map highlighting Glen Rock's location within Bergen County. Inset: Bergen County's location within New Jersey
Glen Rock, New Jersey Location in the United States
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Bergen
Incorporated	September 14, 1894
Named for	Prominent glacial erratic
Government
• Type	Borough
• Body	Borough Council
Area
• Total	2.72 sq mi (7.04 km2)
• Land	2.70 sq mi (7.00 km2)
• Water	0.01 sq mi (0.04 km2)  0.51%
Area rank	364th of 565 in state 35th of 70 in county
Elevation	131 ft (40 m)
Population  (2010 Census)
• Total	11,601
• Estimate  (2019)	11,707
• Rank	209th of 566 in state 28th of 70 in county
• Density	4,275.2/sq mi (1,650.7/km2)
• Density rank	139th of 566 in state 35th of 70 in county
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (Eastern (EDT))
ZIP Code	07452
Area code(s)	201 Exchanges: 444,445,447,652
FIPS code	3400326640
GNIS feature ID	0885233

Glen Rock is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 11,601, reflecting an increase of 55 (+0.5%) from the 11,546 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 663 (+6.1%) from the 10,883 counted in the 1990 Census.

The borough has been one of the state's highest-income communities. Based on data from the American Community Survey for 2013-2017, Glen Rock residents had a median household income of $162,443, ranked 6th in the state among municipalities with more than 10,000 residents, more than double the statewide median of $76,475.

Glen Rock was voted one of the best places to live in New Jersey for its low crime rate, good schools, close proximity to New York City and its high property values, including in 2018, when Niche ranked it the 19th best place to live in New Jersey.

History

Glen Rock was formed on September 14, 1894, from portions of Ridgewood Township and Saddle River Township, "that being the year the county went crazy on boroughs". The borough was formed 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.

Glen Rock was settled around a large boulder in a small valley (glen), from which it gets its name. The boulder, weighing in at 570 short tons (520 t) 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 20 miles (32 km) 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 2.738 square miles (7.091 km²), including 2.714 square miles (7.028 km²) of land and 0.024 square miles (0.063 km²) of water (0.89%).

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the borough include Ferndale.

The borough borders Fair Lawn, Paramus and Ridgewood in Bergen County, and Hawthorne in Passaic County.

Demographics

2010 Census

As of the census of 2010, there were 11,601 people, 3,917 households, and 3,290 families residing in the borough. The population density was 4,275.2 per square mile (1,650.7/km²). There were 4,016 housing units at an average density of 1,480.0 per square mile (571.4/km²)^*. The racial makeup of the borough was 87.16% (10,111) White, 1.37% (159) Black or African American, 0.09% (10) Native American, 9.09% (1,054) Asian, 0.03% (3) Pacific Islander, 0.62% (72) from other races, and 1.66% (192) from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.54% (527) of the population.

There were 3,917 households out of which 46.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 75.4% were married couples living together, 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16.0% were non-families. 14.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 3.28.

In the borough, the population was spread out with 30.0% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 19.7% from 25 to 44, 32.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.2 years. For every 100 females there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and old there were 90.1 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $140,882 (with a margin of error of +/- $13,445) and the median family income was $160,360 (+/- $10,024). Males had a median income of $110,506 (+/- $13,238) versus $64,250 (+/- $11,788) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $61,013 (+/- $6,466). About 1.1% of families and 1.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.6% of those under age 18 and 2.2% of those age 65 or over.

Same-sex couples headed 20 households in 2010, an increase from the 15 counted in 2000.

Transportation

Route 208 southbound in Glen Rock

Roads and highways

As of May 2010^[update], the borough had a total of 44.67 miles (71.89 km) of roadways, of which 35.23 miles (56.70 km) were maintained by the municipality, 8.87 miles (14.27 km) by Bergen County, and 0.57 miles (0.92 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Glen Rock is served by Route 208, which runs southeast to northwest from Fair Lawn to Oakland.

The Glen Rock Main Line station

Public transportation

Glen Rock has two separate NJ Transit train stations: Glen Rock–Main Line station on the Main Line located at Rock Road and Main Street, and Glen Rock–Boro Hall station on the Bergen County Line at Harding Plaza between Maple Avenue and Rock Road. Both lines provide service to Hoboken Terminal, with transfers available at Secaucus Junction to Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan and to most of NJ Transit's other train lines.

NJ Transit provides bus service to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on the 148 (on Route 208), 164, and 196 (also on Route 208) bus lines, service to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station on the 175, and local service on the 722 (on Lincoln Avenue) and 746 bus lines.

Culture

In October 2005, many scenes of prominent locations in town were shot for the film World Trade Center, starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Oliver Stone, with Glen Rock having had 11 residents who were killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Hendrick Hopper House is a historic building located on the corner of Ackerman and Hillman Avenues. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as site #83001526.

Glen Rock is home to an architecturally prominent Sikh gurudwara; while up to 90% of the borough's Indian American constituency was estimated by one member in 2014 to have moved to Glen Rock within the preceding two-year period alone. In February 2015, the Glen Rock Board of Education voted to designate the Hindu holy day Diwali as an annual school holiday.

Economy

Glen Rock's central business district is situated on a roughly 0.2 mile (0.3 km) stretch of Rock Road between the borough's two train stations. Long-standing businesses include the Glen Rock Inn, a bar and restaurant in operation since 1948, and the Rock Ridge Pharmacy, opened in 1950.

Corporate residents of Glen Rock include Genovese & Maddalene, an architectural firm that specialized in designing churches.

Education

The four Glen Rock public elementary schools: (clockwise from top left) Richard E. Byrd School, Alexander Hamilton School, Central Elementary School, Clara E. Coleman School

The Glen Rock Public Schools serve students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2019–20 school year, the district, comprised of six schools, had an enrollment of 2,567 students and 224.9 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.4:1. The operation of the district is overseen by a nine-member board of education.

Schools in the district (with 2019–20 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Richard E. Byrd School with 272 students in grades K-5, Central Elementary School with 345 students in grades K-5, Clara E. Coleman School with 318 students in grades K-5, Alexander Hamilton Elementary School with 279 students in grades K-5, Glen Rock Middle School with 601 students in grades 6-8 and Glen Rock High School with 715 students in grades 9-12.

Public school students from the borough (and all of Bergen County) are eligible to attend the secondary education programs offered by the Bergen County Technical Schools, which include Bergen County Academies in Hackensack and the Bergen Tech campuses in Teterboro and Paramus. The district offers programs on a shared-time or full-time basis, with admission based on a selective application process and tuition covered by the student's home school district.

Academy of Our Lady is a Catholic school for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade that is affiliated with St. Catharine's Roman Catholic Church located in Glen Rock and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in neighboring Ridgewood, and is operated under the supervision of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. In September 2013, the school was one of 15 schools in New Jersey to be recognized by the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, which Education Secretary Arne Duncan described as schools that "represent examples of educational excellence".

Notable people

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Glen Rock include:

• Camille Abate, attorney and Democratic Party politician.
• Kim Barnes Arico (born 1970), women's college basketball coach who is the head coach of the University of Michigan women's basketball team.
• Larry Arico (born 1969), former head college football coach for the Fairleigh Dickinson University–Florham Devils and William Paterson University Pioneers football programs.
• Guy W. Calissi (1909–1980), New Jersey Superior Court judge.
• Keith Cardona (born 1992), goalkeeper for the Indy Eleven of the North American Soccer League.
• Michael Cavanaugh (born 1972), vocalist and musician, star of the Broadway musical Movin' Out.
• Michael Fine (born 1954), doctor, medical reformer (The Nature of Health), novelist (Abundance) and short story writer (Bull, Rhode Island Stories).
• Daniel Flaherty (born 1993), actor who has appeared on the MTV show Skins as well as in films and commercials.
• Pauline Flanagan (1925–2003), actress.
• Bob Franks (1951–2010), member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey.
• Gurbir Grewal (born 1973), Attorney General of New Jersey since 2018, who is the first Sikh American state attorney general in the United States.
• Valerie Harper (1939–2019), actress best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the spin-off series Rhoda.
• Bud Hedinger (born 1947), Orlando, Florida radio personality.
• George Hotz (born 1989), first person to unlock iPhone for use with carriers other than AT&T.
• John Houghtaling (1916–2009), who created the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed in the basement of his home in Glen Rock.
• Julia Meade (1925–2016), film and stage actress who was a frequent pitch person in live commercials in the early days of television.
• Paul Melicharek (born c. 1991), football defensive lineman who has played professionally for the Green Bay Blizzard and Lehigh Valley Steelhawks.
• Samuel Petrone (born 1989), professional soccer forward who has played for the Swedish team Mjällby AIF.
• Warren Ruggiero (born 1966), American football coach who is offensive coordinator for Wake Forest.
• Julie Spira, author.
• Paul Stekler (born 1953), documentary filmmaker (George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire, Eyes on the Prize II) and chair of the Department of Radio Television Film at the University of Texas.
• Patrick Stickles (born 1985), musician and the lead singer, frontman and songwriter of the punk rock band Titus Andronicus.
• Charlie Tahan (born 1997), child actor in the 2007 film I Am Legend.
• Daisy Tahan, child actor who appeared in Nurse Jackie.
• Titus Andronicus, indie-rock band
• Ludovicus M. M. Van Iersel (1893–1987), recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in France during World War I.
• Floyd Vivino (born 1951), actor also known as Uncle Floyd, lived and went to school in Glen Rock.
• Jimmy Vivino (born 1955), leader of The Basic Cable Band, the house band on the TBS late night program Conan.
• Adrian Wojnarowski (born 1969), sportswriter for ESPN who wrote for The Record from 1996 to 2006.
• Will Wood, alternative rock singer-songwriter and keyboardist.
• Michael Zegen (born 1979), actor best known for his role as Joel Maisel on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Images for kids

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  The Hendrick Hopper House, a historic home on the National Register of Historic Places, is located on Ackerman Avenue in Glen Rock.

See also

In Spanish: Glen Rock (Nueva Jersey) para niños