There was a time when the people of Bloomingdale, which at that time included the north end of Riverdale (“East Bloomingdale”) and most of Butler (“West Bloomingdale”), desired to form a new county. They envisioned taking parts of five counties to form “Pequannock County” — with Bloomingdale as the county seat, of course.

This effort failed, but ultimately Bloomingdale would become an independent borough when Pompton Township was broken up in 1918.

A companion article in the same 1879 newspaper explained why Bloomingdale anticipated a bright future accompanied by both industrial and residential growth.

Here’s a then-and-now of a portion of Bloomingdale’s busy Main Street, also known as the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike, which dates back to colonial days.

I’m not sure just how long this building served as Bloomingdale’s municipal HQ, but long after a new municipal building was constructed, this one is still in use — and largely unchanged from back then.

 

Federal Hill is well known to history buffs. It was used as a lookout by Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War.  It bore witness to the infamous Pompton Mutiny.

Centuries later, it was the site of a German Bund camp during World War II; more on that later.

Since then, however, it’s been fodder for a quarry. Much of it has been devoured, and what’s left will disappear in time.