Founding year: the first Edgewater post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Edgewater’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Edgewater is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #300 of 468 in New Jersey. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Edgewater’s overall grade.
New Jersey towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Jersey town has 3.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Edgewater’s 5.4 sits near the middle of its state (57% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Edgewater’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Algonquian people, primarily Lenape, lived in the area prior to Dutch colonisation in the 17th century. David Pietersz Devries (also transliterated as David Pietersen de Vries), the first European settler, bought 500 acres (202 ha) of land from the Tappan tribe and established the settlement of Vriessendael in what is now Edgewater. A historical plaque placed in Veteran's Field by the Bergen County Historical Society names Vriessendael as the first known colony in Bergen County with a founding date of 1640. Parts of Vriessendael were destroyed in 1643 during Kieft's War in reprisal for the massacres of Lenape people taking refuge at Pavonia and Corlears Hook. In pioneer days, River Road was known as the Hackensack Turnpike, and Ox [sic] Hill Road was an important route to the top of the Palisades Cliff. While Oxen Hill Road still exists as a thoroughfare, another Colonial hallmark and m…
Passages that mention Edgewater, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Bergen county, New Jersey1900 · page 490Read the page →
Read the text
as early in this direction. Overpeck Creek is navigable for small vessels as far up as the nothern boundary of the township. Originally the township of Ridgefield included the villages of Fairview, Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia, Nordhoff, Shady Side, Edgewater, Fort Lee, Taylorsville, Coytesville, Ridgefield Park and Bogota, but now the boroughs of Undercliff, Palisades Park, Bogota, Leonia, Fairview, Ridgefield and the village of Ridgefield Park and Overpeck township have been taken away leaving but a small portion of the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Edgewater, 1800 to 1968
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Edgewater post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Edgewater rank for history?
Edgewater is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #300 of 468 in New Jersey. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Edgewater?
6 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Alcoa Edgewater Works (listed 1978, the first), and 1 structure. 8 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Edgewater?
11% of Edgewater’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1992.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (10), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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