Information about Montclair

Montclair and the surrounding towns were part of the Lenape Indians’ homeland. In 1666, English settlers from Connecticut settled in this area and 13 years later, Dutch settlers acquired the land from the Lenape. The original boundaries ran from south of the Passaic River and east of the Watchung Mountain. The entire area came to be known as Newark.

In the late 1600’s, the Crane family settled in an area of what became Montclair (around Bloomfield Avenue). In the early 1700’s, the Speer Family settled in the area that became Upper Montclair. These settlements were all part of Newark.

In 1812, the area west of present day Newark separated and formed the township of Bloomfield. Montclair remained part of Bloomfield until 1868, when it left because of a disagreement about building a railway to west Jersey. Bloomfield did not see the need for a new line, because they already had a line that ran east from Bloomfield Avenue. The people of the Montclair felt an extended line would bring prosperity to the town, especially the less developed Upper Montclair section. So, Montclair formed their own town. The line was completed in 1873. It was known as the Greenwood Lake Line and included five stations in Montclair. This explains why Montclair has so many stations (it was their railroad).

The railway had some financial problems, but in the long run turned out to be a great benefit to the town. From the time the railway was completed until the 1930’s, the population of Montclair grew from 5,147 to 42,017.

The town began to lose its “country” feel after World War II. New suburbs started popping up in the areas to west of Montclair. Malls in these developing areas were opening and taking business from the town’s stores. Montclair faced many challenges the in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but was able to maintain the personality of the town as not another suburb and preserve the character of the older housing stock. Because of this trend, businesses returned and succeeded.

Montclair is home to more than 140 restaurants http://www.montclaireats.com/

Two movie theaters

The Clairidge Theater on Bloomfield Avenue http://www.clearviewcinemas.com/cgi-bin/locations.cgi?id=009&flag=diplay_theatre

The Bellevue Theater on Bellevue Avenue http://www.clearviewcinemas.com/cgi-bin/locations.cgi?id=003&flag=diplay_theatre

Several live performance and music theaters including the recently refurbished Wellmont Theatre http://www.wellmonttheatre.com/

The Montclair Art Museum http://www.montclairartmuseum.org/ with collections of American and Native American art

The Presby Memorial Iris Gardens http://presbyirisgardens.org/ one of the largest collections of Irises in the world

Van Vleck house and gardens http://www.vanvleck.org/

Clary Anderson Ice Skating Rink http://www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=clary and two natural skating areas

Three town pools and 26 tennis courts http://www.montclairnjusa.org/content/view/1636/274/

An active historical society - Montclair Historical Society - http://montclairhistorical.org/

Nationally recognized magnet school system www.montclair.k12.nj.us/

Fantastic main and branch library http://www.montclairlibrary.org/

275+ acres of township and county parks