CRESSKILL, N.J.—Happy birthday, Cresskill! The borough formed on May 11, 1894, 125 years ago this week.
The fledgling community was by no means unique—27 Bergen County municipalities formed in the same year. But why?
In 1894, a piece of legislation called the Township School Act was passed. In an effort to equalize education opportunities, it consolidated individual community school districts into larger township districts.
Back then, Cresskill, Tenafly, Oradell, Bergenfield, Dumont, New Milford and part of Englewood Cliffs were all part of a much larger territory called Palisades Township.
As a side effect of the School Act, the consolidated township school district took on the debts of the individual districts that were now under its purview. Being saddled with debts from neighboring communities wasn’t something taxpayers were prepared to accept.
The new law had a loophole: “Each city, borough and incorporated town shall be a school district.” A community could shed responsibility for the regional school debt, as well as gain more local control over tax dollars, if it broke away to form an independent municipality.
As a result, communities scrambled to incorporate as municipalities in a move that historians refer to as “Boroughitis.”
In Cresskill, a number of citizens petitioned a Bergen judge to allow the community’s incorporation as “The Mayor and Council of the Borough of Cresskill.” (Incidentally, that was the official name of the borough until 1903 when it was shortened to simply “The Borough of Cresskill.”)
On May 11, a referendum vote to form Cresskill was successful. Citizens W.A. Tallman and Christie Westervelt co-signed a document attesting, “We hereby certify that the whole number of ballots cast was 64, 14 against incorporation, giving a majority of 36 for incorporation.”
Those numbers aren’t a misprint on our part. Apparently in all the excitement, Tallman and Westervelt didn’t double-check their math when they took down the figures. Fortunately their oversight didn’t matter much: the majority had still voted for incorporation.
Did you know? The Tenakill Brook, which flows through the middle of town, was known for having beds of wild watercress. This, combined with the Dutch word “kil” (meaning brook), gave rise to the name Cresskill.