At its annual Awards Dinner on May 21, 2008, the Englewood Historical Society will present a plaque to the Englewood Board of Education for its preservation of the building which serves as its headquarters, now known as the Russell C. Major Liberty School. The building, constructed early in the twentieth century, is considered by the Society to be one of Englewood’s architectural and historical treasures. It is adjacent to Englewood’s most historic location, Liberty Square, as the area around the Monument is known to historians.

The building and the property on which it stands are now owned by the City of Englewood, as part of an agreement with the Board of Education at the time of the School Bond Referendum in 2004. The Board must vacate the property by 2010, and the City is expected to sell the property in order to pay off indebtedness incurred at the time of the agreement. The Society is endeavoring to build public awareness of the building’s value, and to encourage support for preserving the building exterior in any development on the site. The former Franklin School on Engle Street, now the Renaissance Center, and the former Roosevelt School on Broad Avenue, now condominiums, are previous examples in Englewood of the reuse of former school buildings while retaining their distinctive exteriors.

After the incorporation of Englewood in 1899, Liberty School was the first public building it invested in, making a statement about the new City’s priorities. Begun in 1901 and dedicated on September 6, 1902, the original Jacobethan Revival core of Liberty School was designed by Herbert C. Davis of Davis, McGrath and Kiessling. The additions and alterations to the building, which consist of the northern side section (1913), and the southern side section (1927), designed by noted architect Lawrence Licht, and the more recent one-story bay window projections on the east facade, complement the character of the core, so that the whole building looks symmetrical, coherent, and well-designed. Liberty School has been seen as architecturally significant since its construction. In 1909, it was featured in American Architect, one of the central publications in the field, and in 1981-2, the Bergen County Historic Sites Survey included it as one of the more notable buildings in the County.

In 1999, the building was renamed in honor of Russell C. Major, who had served on the Board of Education for 18 years, longer than anyone else, and was a leading figure in support of quality public education during those years.

In addition to the Liberty School, the Society will also present a plaque to the First Presbyterian Church of Englewood, which had been previously honored in 1994. The Awards Dinner, annually a major community event, is scheduled to start at 6 PM on Wednesday, May 21, at the Double Tree (Hilton) Hotel, just off Route 4 East in Fort Lee. Tickets are $50 and will be available at the door or by telephoning 201-568-9244.

On Wednesday, May 7, the Englewood Historical Society is sponsoring a presentation by prominent local historian and former Englewood resident Robert Griffin about the extraordinary life of William Walter Phelps. Phelps, who lived from 1839 to 1894, and was the son of a successful New York City financier, settled in Teaneck after the Civil War. He renovated an old farmhouse into one of the most beautiful and celebrated mansions of the era. He acquired substantial acreage which was devoted to the planting and growing of as many as 600,000 trees. He also served four terms as a New Jersey congressman, was appointed ambassador to Austria-Hungary, and later to Germany, and was an art collector. The Teaneck mansion was unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1888. The gatehouse in Mackay Park where our Recreation Department is located is the last remnant of his massive estate, which encompassed half of modern-day Teaneck and much of Englewood at the time of his death.

Griffin, now resident in Pennsylvania, is a professional genealogist, and was prominent in Bergen County historic circles for many years. His informative and well-researched historic presentations were popular during his residence here. The meeting will start at 7:30 PM in the Mackay Room of the Englewood Public Library.

At a meeting of the Englewood Historical Society on January 9, Sondra (Sandy) Greenberg, Mayor of Englewood in the years 1976-1982, will present a program on her seven eventful and historic years in office. Englewood’s only woman mayor was in office when major changes in our community took place. The decline in our downtown business district was reversed. The John Harms Center (now bergenPAC) opened. The new Public Safety Building was completed. The Englewood Historical Society was founded. Englewood’s form of government was modernized by a new City Charter.

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 PM, Wednesday, January 9, in the Mackay Room of the Englewood Public Library. The public is welcome.

Recent publicity about the office of Police Chief in Englewood has brought new focus to the important role which is played by our unelected City Manager. That role is established in our City Charter. The job is currently held by an interim Manager while the Council conducts a job search for a permanent appointee.

One of the more significant events in Englewood’s political history was the approval by the voters in 1979 of a revised City Charter, which, as the U. S. Constitution does for the government in Washington, establishes the structure of our local government. The new City Charter was the product of many months of work by a Charter Commission which had been elected in 1977. The Commission consisted of three Democrats and two Republicans, which coincidentally reflected the approximate population balance between the two parties at that time. Prior to its presentation to the voters, the new Charter also had to receive certification from Trenton that it conformed with State legislation applying to local government. A prime mover in the campaign for a new charter at the time was then City Council President Eamon Kelly, who was also elected to the Commission. A previous attempt to institute a new charter, led by then Mayor Ned Feldman, had been voted down in 1970.

In a letter to the public explaining the reasons for a charter change, the Commission wrote:

Under the present Charter, the Council serves both executive and legislative functions....it is the Council which must decide upon each and every aspect of the municipal life of the City. The Council can become immersed in endless detail and not have the proper time to devote to...major legislation and long range policy...

The Commission recommends that Englewood have a professional Manager, to be appointed by the Council and to serve at its pleasure.

The Manager is the chief executive and administrative officer of the City; all administration is centralized through his or her office.

The Manager will appoint and remove department heads with advice and consent of the Council; he or she will appoint to all subordinate positions.

The city manager form of government is not unique to Englewood. It is specifically offered under New Jersey law as an option for local communities. It is a common recommendation of good government advocates throughout the country, as a means of improving professionalism in government and reducing unduly political personnel policies. The League of Women Voters, for example, was a strong advocate of the Charter change. The rationale is that, like a business organization, municipal government has a personnel structure, income and expenses, and similarly requires good management to be successful. Opposition to the concept tends to come from persons or groups seeking to use political power for their own advantage.

The effectiveness of the manager form of government depends obviously on the competence of the manager, and also on the ability of the manager to work with and reflect the priorities of the elected mayor and council with which he or she must work. If those priorities change as a result of electoral changes, the manager must adapt or be replaced. If the elected officials are seriously divided on important issues, the manager’s job may be more difficult. On balance, since 1980, the manager form has worked well for Englewood.

The following was written by former President of the John Harms Center Norman Davis.

The building at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, which is today the Bergen Performing Arts Center, has an inspiring history. Built in the 1920s as a palace for vaudeville and silent movies, it had fallen on hard times and was threatened with demolition just fifty years later. In 1976, an eccentric Bergen County impresario named John Harms identified the theater's hall as having exceptional acoustics and decided to acquire it. Consequently, Harms spent the remainder of his life asking for contributions and selling tickets on the telephone. Eventually, he was able to put together a board of directors, raise enough money to save the building and begin presenting prestigious musical performers on its stage. I will never forget how awesome it was when Harms brought the famous Russian conductor, Rostropovich and his National Symphony Orchestra, to perform on the stage in Englewood. Somewhere, there's a picture of John Harms wearing his 1920s coonskin coat, having spent the evening outside collecting tickets because he couldn’t afford to hire somebody else to do it.

When I joined the board in 1980, the finances were still very much touch and go, and John’s management style left something to be desired. If it hadn’t been for the considerable efforts of my remarkably able and self-effacing fellow board member Berta Lewin, I doubt the theater would have survived. But survive it did, and following John’s death, we hired our first professional manager, strengthened the board and organized the first annual Griffin Ball to raise funds. An especially traumatic moment occurred when the manager walked into the theater one day after a heavy rain and found that the plaster on one of the theater's walls had totally collapsed. Thankfully, the Bergen County Freeholders stepped in, delivering an emergency $100,000 appropriation to repair the damage.

But enough of ancient history. Let’s fast forward to the 1990s, when Englewood’s downtown and the John Harms Center itself were enjoying something of a renaissance. The Harms Board had become one of the most prestigious in the area, attracting many persons of substance. With an expanded budget, staff and program, the Board decided to raise funds and embark on an ambitious renovation. The expansion program aimed to create a world class cultural facility with state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment. And that is exactly what they did at a cost of nearly $7 million. Unfortunately they overreached financially, and when contributions and ticket sales fell off after 9/11, the Harms Center was unable to pay its bills, forcing them to close its doors on April 14, 2003. Consternation is a mild word for the shock that was felt by the wide circle of people throughout northern New Jersey who had been patrons of the theater’s many programs, to say nothing of the impact on local businesses.

Enter Frank Huttle and his friends. To them, it was simply unthinkable that this world-class hall should be lost. Even before its doors were closed, plans were underway for its restoration. In short order, funds were raised, a new organization was formed, and the Harms debt was renegotiated with help from Bergen County. On August 23 of that year, the Bergen County Freeholders, chaired by Frank’s wife Valerie, met on the theater's stage and formally approved a $1.9 million loan, which enabled repayment of the Harms bank debt. That fall the theater reopened on a limited basis in its new incarnation as the Bergen Performing Arts Center. And then one year later, it was able to reopen with a full program and staff. To put all these pieces together required a truly extraordinary commitment of time, energy, imagination and determination. Today BergenPAC is Englewood’s crown jewel, the most prestigious cultural facility in northern New Jersey, and a major engine for cultural, educational and economic growth in the entire area.

No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.
- Maya Angelou

For a week in July during the hot summer of 1967, the name of Englewood, New Jersey, was probably mentioned more often by the world news media than at any time before or since. The events of that week bring little credit to any of the participants, and the memories are not pleasant to recall. Nonetheless, the psychological fallout from that week was an important element in the profound social and political changes which Englewood underwent in the '60s and '70s.

What happened in Englewood was, according to the report of the Governor’s Select Commission, "a racial disturbance," not a race riot. But it happened at the same general time as far more serious events in Newark and, to a lesser degree, Plainfield, and thus was viewed similarly. To the media in Bergen County it was the story. Looking back, it is plain that the media coverage, more than the "disturbance" itself, had major long-term consequences.

Prior to July, 1967, Englewood had developed a comprehensive plan for riot control, involving assistance to its Police Department from the County Police as well as other departments throughout the County. As a result of events elsewhere and rumors locally, tension had been rising in Englewood and police presence were increased. On July 21, outside police were brought in and patrols started in the area surrounding a local bar on the corner of Jay and William Streets where young African-American men often congregated. According to the Commission's report, "several Englewood citizens who (later) testified...believe that the police buildup was the immediate cause of the disturbance."

At 8:30 PM that night an alarm went off in a food market on William Street, apparently because a stone had broken its window. About 30 persons gathered at the scene, and the police responded immediately. Within minutes, a 20-man line of police armed with four-foot riot sticks cordoned off Jay Street, dispersing the crowd. According to the report, from the time the police arrived, they were "heavily besieged by rocks and bottles." In response, additional police arrived and confronted the crowd, which had now grown at a new location near Mackay Park.

Englewood Mayor Austin Volk arrived and spoke to the crowd, but the confrontation continued. Rocks were thrown at police cars, street lights and store windows. In the process of attempting to disperse the crowd, several people, including seven policemen were injured. Looting took place at two markets in the area and several store widows were broken on Palisade Avenue. Four adults and one juvenile were arrested and charged with loitering. On the four subsequent nights, as the police continued to patrol the area, fire bombing, looting and vandalism took place, but there were no further major confrontations.

As these events were taking place, a hotly fought political campaign was under way, with housing the main issue. For decades, seriously substandard housing had existed in areas of the 4th Ward. Federal assistance had been sought and granted for its removal and for the relocation of its residents to new public housing, but only on the condition that a portion of the new housing be located outside the 4th Ward. Englewood's Republican leadership had rejected this condition, whereas their Democratic opponents supported a new site in the 2nd Ward which is today Rock Creek Terrace.

Whether as a consequence of the July events or despite them, in November of 1967, a Democratic majority was elected to the Englewood City Council for the first time since 1911. Action was begun to implement the new housing, but all the pieces had not been put in place when two years later the Republicans regained power under the leadership of Mayor Ned Feldman. Nonetheless, Feldman favored the Democratic housing plan, and defying his own party, successfully lobbied the Nixon Administration, which had by then withdrawn its support, to restore Englewood’s funding. This led to a split in the Englewood Republican Party in 1971 and, up to that point, the only three-way election in Englewood’s history. The Democratic candidate for Mayor, Rev. Walter Taylor, was elected with only 38% of the vote. Although it was not known at the time, local Republicans had permanently lost control in Englewood.

The 1967 "racial disturbance" also had a seriously negative effect on the downtown shopping district centered on Palisade Avenue. As a regional shopping center already threatened by the Paramus malls, Englewood could ill afford the loss of customers who feared for their safety. In fact, once the housing issue had been settled, the health of the business district became a major focus of the local political leadership. The effects of that focus can be seen in our booming downtown today.

Within four months of July 1967, the local Republican party had lost a city-wide election for the first time in decades. Within ten years, they had lost the 1st Ward and after Joan Meltzer was elected in the 2nd Ward in 1979, all four Wards were represented by Democrats. African-Americans were included in the City’s leadership structure after the 1967 election, and along with white Democrats, led the City down new paths leading to the present day. Not only was the housing problem dealt with, but since then economic blight has been alleviated or eliminated in certain areas. Since those turbulent times, economic investment, with or without official encouragement, has exploded in our downtown. And today Englewood is considered a mecca for families and businesses. Whether or not you approve of all the changes, those who remember the old days will have to grant that a major transformation took place in Englewood, and that maybe the events of that hot summer forty years ago hurried the transformation along.

Former Mayors Volk and Feldman are still extant and living in Englewood.