Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey in the 1920s

Work

Commuters and servants

Montclair is already one of northern New Jersey's important commuter suburbs⁷, with daily life organized around stations and the New York connection. At the same time, the Black YWCA served domestic servants arriving in Montclair for work⁶, showing the household labor behind the suburb.

Who lived here

Growth and migration

The town has 28,810 people in 1920¹, and its rapid growth continues through the decade. Newcomers include African Americans in the Great Migration and Italian immigrants concentrated near Pine Street and Glenridge Avenue⁷.

Home & table

Houses and apartments

Montclair is filling in fast: South End blocks with a few houses in 1906 become neighborhoods of twenty or more homes by 1933². Apartment living is visible too, with Union, Roosevelt, Clairview, and other apartment houses² near South Fullerton and South Willow.

Money

Cars enter the budget

A household with enough money can shop near the terminal for Ford, Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler, Nash, DeSoto, or Packard². Local grocery costs are harder to pin down because no open online source checked here gives a full 1920s Montclair price list.

Faith

Churches shaped standards

A National Register history describes Montclair as an upper-income suburban enclave where Protestant community standards shaped the public tone⁷. In Upper Montclair, the Congregationalists' stone church at 160 Cooper Avenue was part of the village landscape by the later 1920s.

In the air

Progressive institutions

Local reform ideals appear in institutions: the Carnegie library at Church Street and Valley Road³ and the park-and-memorial landscape at Edgemont. The decade also brings national arguments over women's voting rights after the Nineteenth Amendment and Prohibition.

Law & power

Segregated civic life

African American women created their own institution when they purchased the Crane House in 1920 as a segregated YWCA⁶. That YWCA was unusual because it was rooted in Montclair's own Black leadership⁶, rather than controlled by a white YWCA.

Roads & news

Paper, rail, trolley, bus

News and strangers arrive through rail stations, streets, and The Montclair Times^4,5. Local movement changes in 1925 when the trolley is replaced by a bus system⁷.

Year by year

1. 1920The federal census counted Montclair at 28,810 people. here¹
2. 1920African American women purchased the Crane House for Montclair's segregated YWCA. here⁶
3. 1920The Nineteenth Amendment made women's suffrage a national constitutional rule. the country
4. 1922The Wellmont and Clairidge theaters opened on Bloomfield Avenue. here²
5. 1925Montclair dedicated its World War I memorial in Edgemont Park. here²
6. 1925The trolley was replaced by a bus system in Montclair. here⁷
7. 1927Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic, a world event widely followed in American newspapers and radio talk. the world
8. 1929The Wall Street crash began the Great Depression, a national financial shock felt in commuter suburbs tied to New York business. the country

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• The 1920 federal census counted Montclair town at 28,810 people, up from 21,550 in 1910. from the sources¹
• The census reported Montclair in 1920 by wards, with Ward 2 the largest at 7,328 people and Ward 4 at 6,812. from the sources¹
• Montclair nearly doubled in population between 1910 and 1940, from about 21,000 to about 40,000. inferred²
• A National Register history calls Montclair one of the first important commuter suburbs in northern New Jersey. from the sources⁷
• Lackawanna Terminal was built in 1913, and Spring Street was renamed Lackawanna Plaza. inferred²
• The Greenwood Lake Railroad reached the Upper Montclair area in 1873, turning the former Speertown area toward suburban commuting. from the sources⁷
• By the 1933 atlas, apartment buildings near South Fullerton and South Willow included Union Apartments, Roosevelt Apartments, Clairview Apartments, and others. inferred²
• Along Orange Road in the South End, blocks with only a handful of houses in 1906 had become neighborhoods of twenty or more homes by 1933. inferred²
• Between 1906 and 1933, the area around Lackawanna Plaza became a hub for automobile dealers, including Ford, Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler, Nash, DeSoto, and Packard. inferred²
• The Wellmont and Clairidge theaters opened on Bloomfield Avenue in 1922. inferred²
• The Wellmont was one of three theaters permitted to operate in Montclair in the 1920s and staged live performances before converting to talking pictures. inferred³
• Edgemont Park became the site of Montclair's World War I memorial, dedicated in 1925. inferred²
• Montclair's main Carnegie library at Church Street and Valley Road was built in 1904. inferred³
• By the 1920s, Upper Montclair's Bellevue Avenue and Valley Road had half-timbered facades, a rustic post office, and an English-village commercial appearance. from the sources⁷
• Montclair's trolley route up Bloomfield Avenue connected Glen Ridge with Caldwell, and another route ran up Valley Road to Upper Montclair. from the sources⁷
• The trolley was replaced by a bus system in 1925. from the sources⁷
• The 1920s brought important new commercial structures in Montclair's central business district. from the sources⁷
• Francis Nelson designed the Upper Montclair branch library at 185 Bellevue Avenue, and by 1925 Upper Montclair had nearly acquired its later familiar appearance. from the sources⁷
• In 1920, African American women in Montclair purchased the Crane House as headquarters for a segregated YWCA. inferred⁶
• The Montclair YWCA had been started in 1912 by Alice Hooe Foster, the first African American woman to graduate from Montclair High School. inferred⁶
• The Crane House YWCA served as offices, dormitories, and a social center for African American women, including domestic servants arriving in Montclair for work. inferred⁶
• A National Register history says many African Americans in Montclair became house servants, while others had acquired property before the 1920s. from the sources⁷
• Before the turn of the century, large numbers of Italian immigrants came to Montclair, and by the early twentieth century many lived near Pine Street and Glenridge Avenue in small vernacular houses and low-rise apartments. from the sources⁷
• The Montclair Times began in February 1877 and was still the town's established local newspaper in the 1920s. from the sources^4,5
• No open online source checked here gives a full 1920s grocery price list specific to Montclair. not known
• As across New Jersey after 1920, women in Montclair who met age and citizenship rules could vote in federal elections under the Nineteenth Amendment. inferred

Sources

1. Population: New Jersey. Number of Inhabitants, by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions, 1920. United States Census Bureau, 1920
2. 1906 to 1933: a time of growth and change in Montclair. Montclair History Center, 2020
3. Montclair Town Center Walking Tour. Montclair History Center, 2018
4. The Montclair Times (Montclair, N.J.) 1877-Current. Library of Congress
5. History of Montclair Township, State of New Jersey. LDS Genealogy, 1894
6. Crane House and Historic YWCA. Montclair History Center
7. Montclair Multiple Resource Area National Register Nomination. National Park Service, 1986

Montclair in other decades

Nearby, about the same time