DEMAREST, N.J.—High school graduation is a time of reflection and nostalgia. As the Northern Valley Regional high schools get ready for graduation exercises later this week (Old Tappan on Thursday and Demarest on Friday), here’s a look back at school days 60 years ago, courtesy of the 1959 Northern Lights yearbook.
Northern Valley Demarest (NVD) was still new at the time, having opened in September of 1955 in response to the post-war Baby Boom that had seen the region’s population rise drastically.
Before this, students from the seven Northern Valley towns attended high school in Closter (that building became Village Middle School after 1955), Dumont, or Tenafly.
A dedication in the yearbook notes that 1959’s seniors were the first to spend all four years at Demarest.
“Preceding classes spent part of their time in one of three high schools before entering Northern Valley,” it reads. “The Class of 1959 is the first graduating group to have been here for their full high school career. This, n the opinion of many, is one of our most important ‘firsts.’”
As the population continued to grow, the high school had to operate on split sessions in the early ’60s. Some kids attended school very early in the morning, and others didn’t get home until it was dark outside.
That all changed in March of 1962, when a new high school was built in Old Tappan. After that point, students from Old Tappan, Harrington Park, Northvale and Norwood attended classes at the NVOT campus on Central Avenue. Kids from Closter, Demarest and Haworth remained at NVD, the system that continues to this day.
