Founding year: the first Palisades Park post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1899.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Palisades Park’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Palisades Park is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #415 of 468 in New Jersey. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Palisades Park’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 Palisades Park’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (12% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1899 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Palisades Park’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Until the 1980s, Palisades Park was overwhelmingly white, a mix of blue-collar workers and professionals whose families originated largely from Italy, Croatia, Germany, and Greece. Its houses were inexpensive, and it had a number of vacant shops and offices. In the 1990s, a continuous stream of Korean immigrants emerged into Palisades Park. A substantial number of affluent and educated Korean American professionals have settled in Bergen County since the early 2000s and have founded various academic and communally supportive organizations, including the Korean Parent Partnership Organization at the Bergen County Academies magnet high school and the Korean-American Association of New Jersey. Approximately 120 Korean stores were counted in Palisades Park in 2000, a number which has risen significantly since then, featuring restaurants and karaoke (noraebang) bars, grocery markets, educat…
Passages that mention Palisades Park, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Bergen county, New Jersey1900 · page 555Read the page →
Read the text
The village of Palisades Park was founded by Benjamin W. Hitchcock, who built the depot about 1888, and afterwards sold it to the railroad. There are one or two stores in the place; also a Union Chapel, the ground for which was given by Henry and John Brinkerhoff, the chapel being dedicated on March 8th, 1898. John Blackstrom, the first storekeeper, is still trading here. The new school house was erected in 1894. F. B. Armstrong, the principal, is assisted by three teachers.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
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
Palisades Park, 1889 to 1956
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Palisades Park. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1956Central Park sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Palisades Park.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewBritish cruiser Inflexible, 1909
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Palisades Park’s page.
The Palisades Park post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1899.
How does Palisades Park rank for history?
Palisades Park is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #415 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.
How old are the homes in Palisades Park?
11% of Palisades Park’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.0 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (11), the Library of Congress (1), 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 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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