Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey in the 1910s: what life was like

Looking around

You stand in a town at the base and on the slopes of the Orange Mountains², where the ground rises from the lower streets toward Upper Montclair. The place is a residential suburb of New York and neighboring cities², not a factory town, though work is still everywhere in houses, shops, schools, hospitals, and rail yards. Turn toward the tracks and the new Lackawanna terminal shows Doric columns, green-tile roof, brickwork, and marble-concrete trim³. Beyond it are autos and parking facilities for commuters³, a sign of local wealth. Along many streets stand two-story-and-attic frame cottages for one family, with good-sized yards⁷. In the poorer fourth ward, the view tightens into . Milk wagons must carry licensed, inspected milk, because .

Yore

What the sources say

Montclair had 21,550 people in the 1910 federal census. from the sources^1,2

In 1911, Montclair was described as lying at the base and on the slopes of the Orange Mountains, from about 217 to 665 feet above sea level. from the sources²

The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica called Montclair a residential suburb of New York and other neighboring cities. from the sources²

Montclair was served in the early 1910s by the Erie Railroad, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railway, and electric lines to Caldwell and Newark. from the sources²

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western completed its Montclair terminal in 1913. from the sources³

The 1913 railroad station had Doric columns, a green-tile roof, tapestry-bond brickwork, and marble-concrete trim. from the sources³

A National Register nomination says the 1913 Lackawanna terminal provided for automobiles and that its parking facilities were usually filled. from the sources³

Montclair’s institutions listed in 1911 included Mountainside Hospital, the State Normal School opened in 1908, Montclair Academy, a public library, and two orphan asylums. from the sources²

The State Normal School at Montclair was operating in the 1910–1911 school year as a teacher-training institution. from the sources⁵

The Montclair Art Museum opened in 1914 with American and Native American art collections given by local patrons including William T. Evans and Florence Rand Lang. inferred⁶

In 1910, after native-born whites, Montclair’s largest population groups were Black residents at 11.5 percent and Italians at 7 percent, with another 2.8 percent native-born of Italian parentage. from the sources⁴

A 1912 federal infant-mortality study estimated Montclair’s population at about 24,000 and its assessed property valuation at $40,319,062. from the sources⁴

The same study said Montclair’s most common house type was a two-story-and-attic frame cottage for one family, with a good-sized yard. from the sources⁷

The fourth ward had Montclair’s main housing problem in 1912: congestion, overcrowding, houses in bad repair, occasional basement tenements, and dirty yards. from the sources⁷

Montclair had 133 tenement houses on December 31, 1912, including 20 ordinarily classed as apartment houses. from the sources⁷

Among babies visited in the 1912 infant-mortality study, 135 lived in homes renting for under $15 a month, 76 in homes renting for $15 to $30, 32 in homes renting for $30 or more, and 119 in owned homes. from the sources⁸

Montclair’s Board of Health supervised milk by laboratory analysis and dairy inspection, testing 307 samples from 11 town supplies in 1912. from the sources⁹

In 1913, among U.S. cities of 20,000 to 30,000 population, Montclair ranked fourth in per-capita spending on health and sanitation and first among New Jersey cities of that size. from the sources⁹

The fourth ward’s 1912 infant mortality rate was 130.4 per 1,000 births, compared with 84.6 for Montclair as a whole. from the sources⁷

In 1912, Montclair’s Board of Health reported 76 privies on unsewered streets and 26 privies on streets that already had sewers. from the sources⁸

Montclair had an annual Bach festival first held in June 1905, showing an organized local musical culture before and during the 1910s. from the sources²

The town’s Board of Health used birth registration for school admission, proof of working age, voting age, marriage, inheritance, and eligibility for some public offices. from the sources⁹

No digitized source opened here gives a full occupational breakdown for ordinary Montclair workers in the 1910s. not known

No source opened here identifies every church or synagogue active in Montclair during the 1910s. not known

Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey in the 1910s

Looking around

Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey in the 1910s

Looking around

Work

Commuters and service work

Who lived here

Black and Italian Montclair

Home & table

Cottages and tenements

Money

A rich town, unequal rents

What people feared

Babies, milk, sanitation

Law & power

Health officers watched homes

In the air

Civic improvement and art

Roads & news

Railways brought the outside

Year by year

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

Sources

Montclair in other decades

Nearby, about the same time

Did someone of yours live here?