Glen Rock, New Jersey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Glen Rock, New Jersey
Borough
Glen Rock's eponymous boulder at the intersection of Rock Road and Doremus Avenue
Seal
Location of Glen Rock in Bergen County highlighted in red (left). Inset map: Location of Bergen County in New Jersey highlighted in orange (right).
Glen Rock, New Jersey Location in Bergen County, New Jersey Show map of Bergen County, New Jersey Glen Rock, New Jersey Location in New Jersey Show map of New Jersey Glen Rock, New Jersey Location in the United States Show map of 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  (2020)
• Total	12,133
• Estimate  (2023)	12,076
• Rank	208th of 565 in state 28th of 70 in county
• Density	4,488.7/sq mi (1,733.1/km2)
• Density rank	134th of 565 in state 34th 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
FIPS code	3400326640
GNIS feature ID	0885233

Glen Rock is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 12,133, an increase of 532 (+4.6%) from the 2010 census count of 11,601, which in turn reflected increased by 55 (+0.5%) from the 11,546 counted in the 2000 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 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. Originally, the borough was to be named "South Ridgewood", but in order to prevent confusion with the neighboring Ridgewood Village, resident Monsieur Viel suggested the alternative name of Glen Rock.

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 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 2.72 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%).

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

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

Demographics

2010 census

The 2010 United States census counted 11,601 people, 3,917 households, and 3,290 families 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 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 or Latino of any race were 4.54% (527) of the population.

Of the 3,917 households, 46.3% had children under the age of 18; 75.4% were married couples living together; 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present and 16.0% were non-families. Of all households, 14.2% 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.

30.0% of the population were 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, the population had 94.5 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older 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.

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.

Arts and culture

Musical groups from the borough include the indie-rock band Titus Andronicus.

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 terrorist attacks.

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. The operation of the district is overseen by a nine-member board of education. As of the 2022–23 school year, the district, comprised of six schools, had an enrollment of 2,620 students and 222.9 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.8:1. Schools in the district (with 2022–23 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Richard E. Byrd School with 269 students in grades K–5, Central Elementary School with 339 students in grades K–5, Clara E. Coleman School with 351 students in grades K–5, Alexander Hamilton Elementary School with 281 students in grades K–5, Glen Rock Middle School with 621 students in grades 6–8 and Glen Rock High School with 729 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".

Transportation

Route 208 southbound in Glen Rock

Glen Rock–Main Line station

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.

Public transportation

Glen Rock has two 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

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

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. As much as 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, making it the county's first district to do so.

The Jewish community is centered around the Glen Rock Jewish Center which offers prayer services and Jewish education.

Notable people

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

See also

In Spanish: Glen Rock (Nueva Jersey) para niños