1. The break down of how many Black Or African American people live in Paramus Borough, New Jersey in 2020, 2019 by gender, age and family size.
2. Find local African American Men groups in Paramus, New Jersey and meet people who share your interests. Join a group and attend online or in person events.
3. The Zabriskie Tenant House is one of the last surviving structures of a once-thriving African-American community dating back to the mid-19th century. Located at 273 Dunkerhook Road in Paramus, the building is a two-story sandstone and wood clapboard structure.

On April 4, 1922, the Borough was incorporated.

Find groups in Paramus, New Jersey about African American Women and meet people in your local community who share your interests.

US Census QuickFacts
Paramus Wikipedia Page

The area that became northern New Jersey was occupied for thousands of years by prehistoric indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter, it was settled by the historic Lenape people who gave this land its name. One of the earliest written versions of the name in 1708 called it Parames. Later it was referred to as Perampsus. Executive dating ketchikan news. Experts on the Lenni Lenape language say that Perampsus means literally “where there is worthwhile or fertile land” – the land was fertile; maize or corn was grown here; and wild turkeys were found in abundance. The Lenape language word for the area was anglicized to become the word Paramus. A large metal statue of a wild turkey in the Paramus Park mall commemorates this history.

Albert Saboroweski, whose descendants became known by the family name Zabriskie, emigrated from Poland via the Dutch ship The Fox in 1662. He settled in the Dutch West Indies Company town of Ackensack, today’s Hackensack, where he started a family. A son, Jacob, was captured by the Lenape and held for 15 years. When he was returned to his family, the Lenape explained to Saboroweski that they had taken the child in order to teach him their language so that he could serve as a translator. They granted Saboroweski approximately 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land which became known as the Paramus Patent.

During the American Revolutionary War, the county included both Tories and Patriots, with Patriots greatly outnumbering Tories. Although no major battles were fought in Bergen County, Paramus was part of the military activity, as colonial troops were stationed in Ramapo under the command of Aaron Burr. In 1777, the British raided the Hackensack area and Burr marched troops to Paramus, from where he attacked the British, forcing them to withdraw. General George Washington was in Paramus several times during the War: December, 1778; July, 1780; and, December, 1780. Following the Battle of Monmouth, Washington established his headquarters in Paramus in July 1778. Over the advice of his staff, Washington moved his headquarters to Westchester County, New York.

A section of Paramus known as Dunkerhook (meaning dark corner in Dutch) was a free African-American community dating to the early 18th century. Although historical markers on the current site and local oral tradition maintain that this was a slave community, contemporary records document that it was a community of free blacks, not slaves. A group of houses built on Dunkerhook Road by the Zabriskies in the late 18th / early 19th centuries were the center of a community of black farmers, who had been slaves held by the Zabriskie family.

At the turn of the 20th century, there was no town or borough specifically called Paramus. There was only Midland Township, which had been formed in 1871, but which had rapidly dwindled in size and population as sections of it broke away to establish their own towns. By the 1910’s, only Paramus and Rochelle Park, as they are referred today, remained. Rochelle Park was becoming a settled suburb, bordering, as it did, the more metropolitan Hackensack. Paramus, however, was still a rural area with some 1600 residents. Midland Township broke up, causing Paramus to separate from Rochelle Park, because of a disagreement about the public schools – residents in Rochelle Park wanted to consolidate the schools into one school in that part of the township giving Paramus students a lengthy commute. Residents of Rochelle Park blamed a proposal to install lights on their streets, toward which the Paramus farmers did not wish to pay taxes, for the disagreement and subsequent division of the township.

Often referred to as “the Crossroads of Bergen County” because it is crossed by New Jersey Route 4, New Jersey Route 17, and the Garden State Parkway, Paramus’ history began with a different type of retail. It was one of the truck farming areas that helped New Jersey earn its nickname as the Garden State. By 1940, Paramus’ population was just 4,000, with no town center and 94 retail establishments. Although the opening of the George Washington Bridge in 1931 and the widening of Route 17 and Route 4, made the area accessible to millions, it was not until the 1950’s that massive development hit this section of northern New Jersey.

During the 1950s and 60s, Paramus, lacking any master plan until 1969, was redeveloped into two shopping corridors when its farmers and outside developers saw that shopping malls were more lucrative than produce farming. It was a developer’s dream: flat cleared land adjacent to major arterials and accessible to a growing suburban population and the country’s largest city – with no planning restrictions. New York had a state sales tax, but New Jersey had none, so with the opening of Manhattan department stores in the Bergen Mall (1957), the Garden State Plaza (1957) and Alexander’s (1961), Paramus became the first stop outside New York City for shopping. From 1948-58, the population of Paramus increased from 6,000 to 23,000, the number of retail establishments tripled from 111 to 319, and annual retail sales increased from $5.5 million to $112 million. By the 1980s, when the population had increased slightly over 1960s levels, retail sales had climbed to $1 billion.

For additional history and facts on Paramus, the following books are available at the Paramus Public Library: Paramus a Chronicle of Two Centuries, Frederick W. Bogert, 50th Anniversary Commemorative Journal 1922-1972 and Paramus, New Jersey, and Applied Natural Resource Inventory. Fritz Behnke’s book, “Paramus, The Way We Were” is also available and can be purchased by contacting The Paramus Fritz Behnke Historical Museum at 201-445-1804.

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UPDATES:
July 2012: The Zabriskie Tenant House was demolished. A Patch article describes the day here.

2011: Ted Manvell, a neighbor to the Zabriskie Tenant House property and the advocate who initiated efforts to save the house, has filed suit against the Paramus Planning Board, Quattro IV, LLC, and the owner of 273 Dunkerhook Road, to void the planning board’s April demolition approval. The suit challenges the decision based on the lack of a review by the Paramus Historic Preservation Commission (as the commission has been established by municipal ordinance, but commissioners are currently not seated), and charges insufficiency in the Borough of Paramus’ efforts to come up with alternatives to demolition. The trial is scheduled for New Jersey Superior Court on September 9, 2011. There is an agreement “by consent” that the house will not be demolished pending the court’s decision. Ted has also set up an organization; Dunkerhook Stonehouse Preservation, LLC; to accept donations toward associated legal costs. Anyone wishing to contribute can send a check made out to the organization to 263 Dunkerhook Road, Paramus, NJ 07652.

9/2011: The New Jersey Superior Court has denied neighbor Ted Manvell’s appeal of the Paramus Planning Board’s April decision to approve the demolition of the Zabriskie Tenant House. However, Quattro IV, LLC has yet to proceed with the purchase of the property. A New York Times article describes the fight.

4/2012: Quattro IV, LLC has purchased the property. There is a discussion of relocating the Zabriskie Tenant House to the campus of Bergen County College. Dating now country walk florida. Freeholders are in talks with the developer about this alternative, which would save the house, although its historical context as the last remaining element of the Dunkerhook community would be lost.

African American Dating Paramus Nj News

7/13/2012: A backhoe showed up on the Zabriskie Tenant House property late yesterday. In the span of one hour this morning, the house was demolished. As far as advocates on site could tell, all of the house’s components and materials went into a dumpster.

DESCRIPTION:
The Zabriskie Tenant House is one of the last surviving structures of a once-thriving African-American community dating back to the mid-19th century. Located at 273 Dunkerhook Road in Paramus, the building is a two-story sandstone and wood clapboard structure. The original stone portion of the building has been dated to the late 18th century and is representative of 18th century Dutch stone houses prevalent throughout Bergen County. The house was expanded in the 1800s, with two subsequent additions constructed in the 20th century. The house shares a lot of just over an acre with two non-historic buildings. The development potential for this relatively large lot presents a significant threat to the Zabriskie Tenant House.

The building was constructed by well-known early area settler Andrew Zabriskie for his son, Christian. When descendants of the Zabriskie family relocated in 1820, the house was occupied by free African-American tenants descended from former Zabriskie family slaves. A larger free African-American community known as Dunkerhook (possibly a corruption of the Dutch “Donker Hoek,” meaning “dark corner”), developed along this stretch of Dunkerhook Road beginning in the 1830s. By 1860, six households with 43 residents and an AME-Zion Church and a cemetery occupied this area. Largely intact through the 1920s and 1930s, the community was essentially dispersed by the mid-20th century as historic structures were demolished and replaced with new residences.

The Zabriskie Tenant House is one of only two remaining structures from this community and is the more intact of the two buildings. 273 Dunkerhook, although enlarged, retains historic integrity. The original stone facades are in good condition, most of the masonry openings are original and unaltered. The interior retains historic beams, plasterwork, and trim. The building is maintained and structurally sound.

The history of slavery and subsequent freedom for African-Americans in New Jersey is a subject ripe for further study. The house at 273 Dunkerhook is a window into 19th century rural African-American life in Bergen County. The original stone structure is a fairly intact representative of one of Bergen County’s most important and earliest house types, and the 19th century addition reflects the progression of this type over subsequent years; in this case, the arguably more significant period of African-American tenancy. The house’s significance has been recognized by listings on the National Register of Historic Places and the Borough of Paramus Historic Sites Survey, and is included in a list of Paramus properties as part of a borough “Historic Preservation Zone.”

African American Dating Paramus Nj Municipal Building

The Zabriskie Tenant House is under imminent threat of demolition. A developer has a contract to purchase and subdivide the property to construct two new houses. The sale is contingent upon the approval of the demolition of 273 Dunkerhook and the approval of a proposed subdivision site plan by the Paramus Planning Board. Paramus has a historic preservation ordinance that provides for a historic preservation commission, but the commission is currently not seated. Concurrently, the planning board has, by statute, some responsibility for the maintenance of the historic character and value of the properties within the designated Paramus “Historic Preservation Zone,” which includes the Zabriskie Tenant House. However, in April, the Paramus Planning Board voted unanimously to accept the developer’s proposal for subdivision and demolition.

Preservation New Jersey encourages the potential developer of 273 Dunkerhook Road and Paramus leadership to further consider the historic significance of this landmark property. There are development approaches, such as an alternate subdivision plan retaining the historic house and allowing for new construction on a rear lot, which would avoid the loss of the Zabriskie Tenant House. The historic house could be sold to a preservation-conscious buyer and further protected with a preservation easement.

The proposed demolition of 273 Dunkerhook Road is emblematic of the threat to many older and historic houses in the state of New Jersey. The tearing down of sound housing stock for newer, larger residences is bad environmental policy and destroys the character and sense of place of communities. Additionally, this case reinforces the need for residents of each community to keep aware of their local ordinances. Paramus’ local preservation ordinance is of no consequence without a seated commission.

The Zabriskie Tenant House is a landmark of early Paramus and Bergen County settlement and one of a dwindling number of its age with documented African-American significance. Its loss would all but erase the evidence of the Dunkerhook community, an incomparable element of Paramus’ development. Preservation New Jersey urges all involved parties to thoroughly investigate options for saving the Zabriskie Tenant House. Further, the borough of Paramus should, in turn, use this situation as an opportunity to implement their historic preservation ordinance, helping to ensure a future for all of Paramus’ remaining historic landmarks.

CONTACT:
Peggy Norris
peggywnorris@gmail.com
(201) 316-3265

Darryl Harris (descendant)
dylhis@mac.com
(973) 460-6913

Ted Manvell (neighbor)
(201) 447-0944