|
|
Leonia
is a borough in
Bergen County
,
New Jersey
,
United States
. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was
8,914. It is located near the western approach to the
George
Washington
Bridge
.
Leonia
was formed as the result of a referendum passed on December 5, 1894,
from portions of
Ridgefield
Township
. Portions of Leonia were taken on February 19, 1895, to form the
Township
of
Teaneck
.
New
Jersey Monthly
magazine ranked Leonia as its 31st best place to live in its 2008
rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in
New Jersey
.
One of
the highest streets in Leonia, towering over the
Hackensack
Valley
, is Oratam Terrace, named after Leonia's oldest and perhaps noblest
inhabitant, Chief Oratam. Oratam was the leader of the Lenni Lenape
Indians in
Northern New Jersey
at the time the European settlers arrived in the 1600's. He was a
contemporary of Tammany, the great Lenape leader who negotiated with
William Penn in
Philadelphia
. William Penn thought the Lenape Indians were one of the lost
tribes of
Israel
and treated them with the greatest respect.
The
earliest European settlers in the Leonia vicinity arrived some
twenty years after the Pilgrims first celebrated Thanksgiving at
Plymouth Rock. At that time, there were about 1,000 Lenape Indians
living in a village just north of the Glenpointe Hotel. The Lenape
were peaceful, friendly Indians who spent their lives farming,
fishing and hunting. Each tribe had its own hunting and fishing
grounds. The foundation of the Lenape government was liberty and the
early settlers found them very friendly and fair. Most
of the descendants of the "original Leonians" now live on
reservations in
Kansas
and
Oklahoma
.
During
the Great Depression of the 1930's, a time when many Americans,
including artists and writers, were out of work, the
US
government paid these unemployed writers to write the history of
their communities. In the book written about
Bergen
County
was this description of Leonia and its neighbors: "Wealthy and
patrician
Englewood
is the heart of the area. Adjacent places are Tenafly and Englewood
Cliffs, inhabited chiefly by people of large means. And on the south
is Leonia, noted as an art center."
Although
there are artists who continue to live here, there are few visible
reminders of Leonia's famed Art Colony, since most of the early
studios and schools have been demolished or burned. But the works of
Leonia's famous artists grace the walls of Leonia's library,
schools, churches, banks and meeting halls as well as the great
galleries of the world.
|
