Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1814.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bergen’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bergen is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bergen’s overall grade.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bergen’s 80.9 sits above most of its state (73% of New York towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±10.0 points). Two sources give 1801.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Bergen’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bergen is one of the mid-sized towns in Genesee County. It was part of the Triangle Tract and the 100,000 Acre Tract (or the Connecticut Tract) in the Morris Reserve. It is a portion of the triangular tract sold to Le Roy and others from the Morris Reserve, and it contains two tiers of lots from the Connecticut tract. The latter are in the western part of the town. The community was named for a city on the west coast of Norway.
Passages that mention Bergen, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Bergen county, New Jersey1900 · page 490Read the page →
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The early settlements of Ridgefield township antedates even the organization of Hackensack township in 1693, and of the county of Bergen in 1675. There seems to have been no town or village compactly built, like the village of Bergen, but there were settlements both of Dutch and English in and about what was subsequently known as English Neighborhood prior to 1675. The Westervelts, the Zimermanns, the Bantas, and the Blauvelts, all coming from Holland, settled in the middle of the seventeenth, century in that locality. The ancestors of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Bergen county, New Jersey1900 · page 27Read the page →
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"In 1682 Bergen County embraced onl}7 the territory between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, from Constable's Hook up to the province line — a narrow strip of land alongthe west side of the Hudson, at no place over five or six miles wide, and from twenty-five to thirty miles in length. The old township of Bergen, from the date of its charter, in 1658, comprised the southern portion of this strip of territory, as far up as the present northern boundary of Hudson County ; and the settlements above that, being regarded as "outlaying plantations," were attached
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Genealogical history of Hudson and Bergen counties, New Jersey1900 · page 132Read the page →
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of his race and early displayed those intellectual qualities which have since won for him so much distinction in the affairs of life. He was educated in the common schools, at Columbian Academy, and at District School No. 1 in the Town of Bergen. He commenced his business career as clerk in the grocery store of Jacob Van Winkle, of Bergen Square, in 1865. Five years later, or in 1870, he entered the Provident Institution for Savings in Jersey City, with which he has ever since been actively identified, having filled important positions in all the departments up to
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
Bergen, 1801 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1885Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 viewWardvilleAndBergenCornersInTownOfBergenNY1854, 1854
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Bergen’s page.
In 1801, according to Wikidata. Bergen’s post office opened in 1814, and the census of 1820 counted 2,438 people here.
How does Bergen rank for history?
Bergen is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns. 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 Bergen?
53% of Bergen’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.0 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 (9), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
Date?
2024
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