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On
Thursday, August 30, 1894, a special election was held at the Public
House of John A. L. Blauvelt near the Mont Vale Depot of the
New Jersey
and New York Railroad to determine whether a Borough should be
formed. The inspectors of that special election reported "the
whole number of ballots cast containing the words 'For
Incorporation' is 49 ... 'Against Incorporation' ... none." On
the following day the results of that special election were
certified by the
County
Clerk
, and the Borough of Montvale was officially formed.
The
expenses incurred in the formation of the Borough were about one
hundred dollars, and this amount was raised by subscription in order
to comply with the law placing such costs on the petitioners.
In the early
1950s, the State determined to construct a major north-south highway
through
Bergen
County
and the rest of the state. It was originally to be called Route 101,
but was later changed to the
Garden State Parkway
. While the north end of the Parkway was not completed until 1957,
Mayor George Huff claimed, in an interview shortly before his death,
that he started working on changing the route of the Parkway and
locating an interchange in Montvale as early as 1953. Mayor Huff
also claimed that he personally obtained all of the land necessary
for the extension of
West Grand Avenue
from
Spring Valley Road
to
Chestnut Ridge Road
at no cost to the Borough, said road extension being completed in
1958.
The
construction of these two roads and the interchange connecting them,
plus a strong zoning ordinance updated and enforced down through the
years, are widely recognized as the principal reasons Montvale has
grown and prospered to such a great extent. Another less-well-known
factor which enhanced the development and growth of the Office and
Research (O&R)and Specialized Economic Development (SED)
Districts in the
Chestnut Ridge Road
area was the sale of the Borough's water distribution system in
1959. In 1929 the Borough took steps to provide fire protection and
a domestic water service. Water was purchased from
Park Ridge
, which began operating a municipal water system in 1925, and resold
to Montvale residents with little or no profit and insufficient
monies set aside to cover the costs of major repairs and system
replacement.
This
action did much to change the growth pattern of a community which,
at that time, was identified as the "second fastest growing
municipality in
Bergen
County
." It was mentioned earlier that the Borough's population had
grown 99% in the 1950s. That growth rate was almost equaled in the
1960's, as the population increased 98% to reach 7,327 residents in
1970, a figure that was not attained in either the 1980 or 1990
censuses.
Another
way to measure the Borough's growth is to look at the way the value
of land and improvements have appreciated over time as land
development occurred. In 1957, the year that Exit 172 was completed,
the net equalized value of real estate in Montvale was $15.2
million. Five years later in 1962 it had almost doubled to $29.5
million, and it doubled again five years later to $59.1 million in
1967. That same trend of almost doubling every five years was to
continue through the decade of the 1970's, as it went from $86.5
million in 1970 to $163.4 million in 1975 and $320.3 million in
1980.
Montvale
is home to the corporate headquarters of numerous major companies
including Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc., The Great Atlantic and Pacific
Tea Company, Benjamin Moore as well as the
U.S.
headquarters of Mercedes-Benz. Montvale is home to the operational
headquarters of Ingersoll Rand and both accounting firm KPMG and
Pentax have a large local presence. The international marketing and
commercial services headquarters of
Western Union
are also located in Montvale.
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