In Midland Park, N.J., a 199-year-old mill that gave rise to a silk-manufacturing business homes antiques shops and reward outlets. The miniature windmill outdoors the brick municipal constructing evokes a Dutch heritage nonetheless in proof. 9 homes of worship proceed a convention of churchgoing within the 1.5-square-mile borough.
“I name it ‘the without end city,’” stated Patrick O’Hagan, a retired actual property agent and former mayor of this decidedly old school Bergen County group, who has been a resident for 52 years. “In some locations, you see homes flip over each seven to 10 years. However right here, folks purchase a home and keep.”
One consequence is that only a handful of properties are in the marketplace at any given time. One other is that the inhabitants of about 7,000 has a multigenerational taste, with many who have been raised right here placing down roots.
That appeals to Melissa Quinn, who stated that Midland Park — 25 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan — reminds her of her native Howard Seashore, Queens, the place she grew up amongst prolonged household.
Ms. Quinn, 40, and her husband, Brian Quinn, 39, a Con Edison utility employee, beforehand lived in a Queens co-op with their two youngsters. When it got here time to purchase a home, they appeared east, to the South Shore of Lengthy Island, earlier than pivoting to Bergen County, the place Ms. Quinn’s brother lives. In 2018, the Quinns paid $500,000 for a three-bedroom Dutch colonial in Midland Park. Quickly after, Ms. Quinn opened a hair studio inside strolling distance.
“The faculties have been our most important concern in the home search,” she stated. “However I like that Midland Park is household oriented and right down to earth. Most people we come throughout are common hardworking folks, not white collar to the purpose the place we don’t slot in.”
Certainly, Midland Park’s median family earnings of $129,148 is among the many lowest in prosperous northwest Bergen County.
Amy and Jimmy Fells each grew up within the borough, as did their fathers. They’re now of their second Midland Park house, a three-bedroom split-level they purchased a yr in the past for $595,000. The home, which has a household room, workplace, three-season enclosed porch and “teenage hangout basement” commandeered by their two sons, is twice the scale of their earlier residence of 20 years.
Ms. Fells, 49, who teaches elementary faculty in Ho-Ho-Kus, and Mr. Fells, 54, a sewage plant supervisor for the village of Ridgewood, didn’t contemplate leaving Midland Park. The small class sizes within the native colleges and their brief drives to work saved them there. So did the comfortable familiarity.
“I can go wherever on the town and run into somebody who is aware of me, who is aware of my husband, who is aware of my brothers — it’s comforting,” Ms. Fells stated.
Her husband added a good-natured flip facet: “Typically that’s not nice, as a result of everybody is aware of your online business.”
What You’ll Discover
Midland Park is wedged between the bigger suburbs of Ridgewood to the east and Wyckoff to the west. Scores of residential cul-de-sacs and an absence of freeway visitors — Routes 17 and 208 are greater than a mile away — make for an unhurried tempo.
Most commerce, together with two supermarkets, is scattered alongside or simply off Godwin Avenue, the primary thoroughfare. A small enterprise district thrives within the Wortendyke part, named for the household whose textile operations attracted immigrants from the Netherlands. The 1850s Wortendyke practice depot, which final noticed passengers 65 years in the past, now homes a pottery studio, and a vivid purple caboose has been repurposed as a hot-dog stand.
The borough’s housing inventory is primarily single-family properties, with a preponderance of early 1900s colonials, in addition to midcentury Cape Cods and split-levels, all on tree-lined streets. Home and lot sizes are usually smaller than in Ridgewood or Wyckoff, however fastidiousness is the norm.
“We’ve got our code officers exit, and in case your grass is simply too excessive and also you don’t lower your hedges, we word that,” stated Harry Shortway Jr., the mayor.
In a group that has seen little important residential or business improvement lately, this spring’s relocation of the Dunkin’ doughnut store — from 80 Godwin Avenue to 195 Godwin Avenue — was huge information. As for urgent points, Mr. Shortway stated the borough desires the county to decrease the 40 m.p.h. pace restrict on a stretch of Godwin Avenue, which is a conduit for pass-through visitors.
What You’ll Pay
Single-family properties in Midland Park begin within the $400,000s — a value level unavailable in Ridgewood or Wyckoff — and barely crack the $1 million mark.
“The city was found in the course of the pandemic,” stated Christine Odell, a borough resident who’s an actual property agent with Keller Williams Village Sq., in Wyckoff. “Individuals who couldn’t discover properties in neighboring cities discovered Midland Park to be stuffed with a variety of properties with attraction, character and elegance.”
However stock is low, and homes don’t linger in the marketplace. On Might 31, the web site of the New Jersey A number of Itemizing Service confirmed six single-family homes on the market, from a two-bedroom Cape Cod in want of updating, listed for $449,000, to a Nineteen Sixties four-bedroom bi-level on a 3rd of an acre, listed for $849,000.
From Might 1, 2022, to April 30, 2023, 64 single-family homes offered at median value of $585,525, nearly unchanged from the earlier 12-month interval, when 75 homes offered at a median value of $584,000, in accordance with the itemizing service.
The typical residential property tax in 2022 was $12,993, about 4 p.c above the county common.
The Vibe
From the day by day youngsters’s occasions on the library to the annual Group Day truthful and the Memorial Day Parade, Midland Park is wealthy with the trimmings of small-town suburbia. The parade has particular resonance: The borough misplaced eight servicemen within the Vietnam Conflict, one of many highest per-capita tolls within the nation.
Bringing a tight-knit group even nearer is the Midland Park Kids’s Love Fund, which helps native households by way of crises and emergencies. This yr, the group and a separate GoFundMe drive raised greater than $50,000 for a household who misplaced their 16-year-old son in a home hearth, stated Noreen Desbiens, a chairwoman of the Love Fund: “That generosity says loads about this city — neighbor serving to neighbor.”
With Godwin Avenue main proper into Ridgewood, a serious eating vacation spot, Midland Park residents needn’t go far for dinner out. However there are selections inside the borders, notably a pair of white-tablecoth Italian spots, Arturo’s and Fiona’s Ristorante.
The Colleges
The general public faculty district enrolls 865 college students in three colleges: Godwin Elementary for these in prekindergarten by way of second grade; Highland Elementary for third by way of sixth grade; and Midland Park Junior/Senior Excessive College for seventh by way of twelfth grade. Three-quarters of the scholars determine as white; 16.4 p.c as Hispanic; 2.7 p.c as Asian; and 1 p.c as Black.
Within the 2021-22 faculty yr, common SAT scores have been 563 in studying and writing and 535 in arithmetic, versus state averages of 538 and 532.
Parental involvement is a trademark of the college system, with two organizations — Midland Park Public Training Basis and Midland Park Performing Arts Mother and father — elevating cash for applications.
A non-public possibility is Japanese Christian College, which has a Midland Park location for college kids in preschool by way of second grade; the opposite campuses are in Wyckoff (higher elementary/center faculty) and North Haledon (highschool.)
The Commute
New Jersey Transit’s No. 164 bus begins and ends its route at Veterans Plaza within the Wortendyke part of the borough. The push-hour experience to the Port Authority terminal in Manhattan takes about an hour and prices $7 one-way or $199 for a month-to-month move.
Many rail commuters use the station in Ridgewood; from there, New Jersey Transit trains attain Penn Station in Manhattan in about an hour, together with the switch in Secaucus. The fare is $9.75 a technique or $298 month-to-month.
The Historical past
Tons of of Midland Park residents rode buses to Brooklyn on June 15, 1938, to observe the Dodgers play the Cincinnati Reds — not as a result of it was Ebbets Discipline’s first-ever evening sport, however as a result of an area boy, Johnny Vander Meer, was Cincinnati’s beginning pitcher. 4 days earlier, the 23-year-old lefty had no-hit the Boston Bees. Vander Meer did the identical towards the Dodgers and stays the one Main Leaguer to hurl consecutive no-hitters. The morning after his Ebbets Discipline feat, Vander Meer ducked out of the household house at 43 Rea Avenue to go fishing. The ball discipline on Dairy Avenue is known as for baseball’s “Dutch Grasp,” and the “Welcome to Midland Park” street indicators proclaim: “House of Johnny Vander Meer.”
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