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Borough of Little Ferry |
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IN THE BEGINNING… Little Ferry was
first a part of New Barbados. Little Ferry later was a part of Lodi
Township when the Township was formed in 1825. Incorporated in 1894, the
Borough was named after the rope-drawn Little Ferry that crossed the Hackensack
River between 1659 and 1826. A bridge was built in 1828 connecting Little
Ferry and Ridgefield Park via Bergen Turnpike, a toll road. One of the
four tollhouses along its route is the present location of Tracey's Restaurant. The Ferry played
an important part in the revolution. It was used on November 20, 1776, by
a detachment of Washington's troops who were fleeing the advancing British
Army. The troops marched up what is now Washington Avenue and Liberty
Street, into Hackensack to join the other troops. Until the
1860's, Little Ferry was sparsely settled. The 1839 Coast Guard map and
the 1861 G.M. Hopkins map show very few buildings and
only four streets: LIBERTY STREET, WASHINGTON AVENUE, RIVERSIDE
AVENUE AND BERGEN PIKE. There doesn't appear to be any building from
this era still standing. EARLY INDUSTRY… The first to
realize the value of the clay was Mrs. Elizabeth Sutliff Dufler, a freed black
slave who in 1847 bought 10 acres along the river. She sold clay to
potteries in Newark and Jersey City. Little Ferry's
first industry came in 1866, when a blasting oil company built its first
sizable high pressure explosives factory here. In 1870, it
self-destructed so completely that no one today knows where it was. In 1870, a clay
bank was opened by Depeyster and Stagg. Two houses associated with these
names stand on Riverside Avenue. In 1872, Cole
and Showers opened the first brickyard. The brick industry expanded
rapidly after the Mehrhof brothers took over the yard. By 1882, Mehrhof's
Brickyards were the second largest in the country, producing more than
2,200,000 bricks a year. An 1876 map shows Little Ferry as being called
FREIBURG, probably due to the large German population at the time. By 1904, Little Ferry had eight
brickyards in operation. The business declined after World War I.
In 1923, there were only four yards. The last yard burned down in
1956. Today the only evidence of the brick industry is the existence of
three lakes--WILLOW, INDIAN and the lower end at of end of Mehrhof
Road. COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT…. The Wilson
School was opened in 1875 on Lodi Street, now Main Street. Very small at
first, it expanded in 1907 as the population grew. It was closed in 1981
and demolished in 1985. Memorial School opened its doors on February 3,
1969. The first Post
Office was in a country store operated by James Pickens, also the founder of
our first school in 1875 and the Congregational Church. The very old
houses in the town were made up of wood since bricks were mainly produced for
export. James Pickens
became the first Mayor in 1894 when the Borough of Little Ferry was
incorporated. The Czechs began
coming to town in the early 1890's. The first Czech Sokol, called T.J.
SOKOL, was erected on the corner of Main Street and Garden Street in
1897. The present structure was built in 1911 after a fire destroyed the
first one. Around the turn of the century, many Czech families opened
small pearl button shops on their property. They employed many towns’
people and prospered for around fifty years. In 1900 a new
steel bridge was constructed to replace the old wooden one. A trolley ran
along Bergen Pike from 42nd Street Ferry in Weehawken through Little Ferry and
into Hackensack. The Bergen Pike Toll was eliminated in 1915. Between 1890 and
1930, there was a large building boom with many buildings constructed to meet
the growing population. In 1907, the Hose Company was organized:
Washington School was built in 1914; Saint Margaret of Cortona R.C. Church in
1912; the Hook and Ladder Company in 1923; the Congregational Church in 1923;
and the Little Ferry Free Public Library in 1929. In 1934, Route 6
(now Route 46) and the Route 6 Bridge came through, making the borough
more easily accessible to people. In 1940, the Bergen Pike Bridge was
demolished. After World War II, the Route 46 strip became a thriving used
car center. As the
population grew, the farms disappeared and garden apartments sprang up.
Industries began coming in, particularly along Bergen Pike and Industrial
Avenue. Valley Fair and the Outdoor Drive-In at that site were
built in the 1960's. In 1986, some of
the older homes and empty tracts of land became condominium sites. The
drive-in became Waterside Village. The D.O. SOKOL HALL on Washington
Avenue, site of numerous semi-pro basketball games, was sold to a sportswear
firm. As we begin the
21st Century, we look back when we became a Borough in 1894 and James Pickens
became our first Mayor, from the small population of mostly Germans and
Czechs, to our current Mayor, Mauro D. Raguseo, and to our larger population of
many different ethnic backgrounds. We remember the many people who made
our Borough what it is today, as we continue to grow and prosper and strive for
a better community for many generations. FUN FACTS…. |
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