July 2018

160 161 W edged between the nearby sub- urbs of Montclair and Bloomfield in Essex County,New Jersey, and bordering the city of East Or- ange to it south, the Borough of Glen Ridge is a 1.5-square-mile slice of territory, about three miles long and no more than six blocks wide.Named after the glen next to the ridge formed byToney’s Brook, Glen Ridge traces its beginning to 1666, when 64 Connecticut families led by Robert Treat bought land from the Lenni Lenape Native Americans and named it New Ark to reflect a covenant to wor- ship freely without persecution. At the time, the area included the future towns of Bloomfield, Montclair, Belleville, and Nutley. When Bloomfield was estab- lished in 1812, Glen Ridge was a section “on the hill” composed mostly of farms and woodlands with the exception of a thriving GLEN RIDGE BOROUGH A BEDROOM COMMUNITY AND MORE GLEN RIDGE BOROUGH AT A GLANCE GLEN RIDGE BOROUGH WHAT: A borough of 7,600 WHERE: Essex County, New Jersey WEBSITE: www.glenridgenj.org