Montvale Borough Hall is located at 12 Mercedes Drive, Montvale, NJ 07645.
Phone: 201‑391‑5700.
Beginnings [1]
In 1871 the New Jersey and New York railroad extended the Pascack Valley Line to Montvale, the last station on the line in New Jersey. Up to that point in time, Montvale was predominantly an agricultural community. Vegetable and fruit farmers proliferated throughout the community.
The farmers of Montvale laid out farm paths and roads, all or parts of which continue to serve today's municipality as paved streets. About 25 buildings and related structures appear along these roads on the 1840 map. Montvale retains some of its early architectural settlement heritage in three extant early stone houses: The Eckerson House on Chestnut Ridge Road, the Nicholas Holdrum-Van Houten Home on Spring Valley Road, and the Forshee-Van Orden House on Summit Avenue.
Walker's 1876 Atlas, which was published five years after the Pascack Valley Line reached Montvale in 1871, shows fewer than 75 buildings in Montvale, most of them located in the east half, along East and West Grand Avenue and Kinderkamack and South Kinderkamack Road. Clearly, the railroad was having an impact on Montvale as an agricultural community, by now encouraging new residential/commercial development along the roads that were close to the station and tracks.
During the late 19th to early 20th centuries some Bergen County municipalities, including those in the northern Pascack Valley, became popular as country retreats/summer resorts for urban dwellers in New York City, who could now reach the Valley via the railroad. This popularity encouraged suburban development both in the County and in the largely rural Pascack Valley. Many of the Pascack Valley farming communities established municipal governments around the turn of the century.
The Borough was incorporated on August 31, 1894 . It was formed from parts of Washington Township and Orvil Township. (Orvil Township had been formed from parts of Hohokus and Washington Township in 1885, and Hohokus itself had been formed from Franklin Township in 1849.)
Nearby Towns: Allendale Boro • Closter Boro • Ho-Ho-Kus Boro • Montebello Vlg • New City • New Hempstead Vlg • Norwood Boro • Oradell Boro • Orangetown Town • Ramsey Boro • Saddle River Boro • Washington Twp • Woodcliff Lake Boro •