Ramsey, NJ

The most noteworthy local historical site is the Old Stone House, which is, as its name describes, both old and constructed of stone, though its construction materials in the early 1700s also included hog’s hair. It was originally a Dutch farmhouse and served as a tavern during the Revolutionary War. Legend has it that Aaron Burr slaked his thirst at this site, on his way to courting the woman who would become his wife in Ho-Ho-Kus. The structure opened as a historic site in 1960 with a riveting display of old pitchers.

Ramsey is named after Peter J. Ramsey, a 19th-century landowner who died circa 1854, who had sold the land that became the site of a railroad station called “Ramsey’s” in 1848.

The Ramsey Farmers Market includes vendors offering locally sourced produce, foods, beverages and flowers at the Ramsey NJ Transit Station on Main Street every Sunday throughout the year.

Corporate residents of Ramsey have included:

• Flight Centre, parent company of Liberty Travel and GOGO Worldwide Vacations, was located at 69 Spring Street. The company announced in February 2016 that they were relocating to Montvale.
• Konica Minolta’s U.S. offices are in Ramsey.
• Okonite, based in Ramsey.

The most common industries for females in Ramsey, according to City-data.com, from 2008 to 2012:

• Health care and social assistance (22%)
• Educational services (16%)
• Finance and insurance (11%)
• Manufacturing (10%)
• Professional, scientific, and technical services (8%)
• Retail trade (8%)
• Other services, except public administration (5%)

The most common industries for males in Ramsey, according to City-Data.com, from 2008 to 2012:

• Finance and insurance (17%)
• Manufacturing (13%)
• Professional, scientific, and technical services (10%)
• Construction (9%)
• Retail trade (8%)
• Wholesale trade (7%)
• Educational services (7%)

Ramsey had an old-style downtown cinema with two screens. It closed in 2013, but reopened in 2014 after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised the funds needed for updated projection systems. However, it closed for good in 2020 due to hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ramsey has six houses of worship. These include: First Presbyterian Church, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, St. Paul’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, St. John’s Episcopal Church, and Grace Baptist Church.

Ramsey has about 153 acres (62 ha) of Green Acres land, which is land that is permanently preserved as open space in the borough. This is one of the reasons the town, while about 98.5% developed, has retained a “rural ambience”.

Ramsey Golf and Country Club, located on Lakeside Drive, has an 18-hole golf course, the Lakeside Grille restaurant, swimming pool, picnic area, playground, tennis courts and a banquet room.

Finch Park, located on Church Street, Gertzen Plaza, and Island Avenue, has a playground, picnic areas, eight baseball and softball fields, a street hockey rink, and basketball courts. There is a memorial for the attacks on September 11, 2001, with its own parking area located on Gertzen Plaza. The park is headquarters of the Ramsey Recreation Commission, and home fields of the Ramsey Baseball and Softball Association. In the summer months, the Rec Commission has a summer camp in Finch Park for Ramsey students in kindergarten to 7th grade.

The Ramsey Municipal Pool, located on East Oak Street, has a newly renovated pool and waterslides, a recreational field and pavilion, and beach volleyball and basketball courts.

Behind Ramsey High School, there are five tennis courts and a running track that are open to public use. The RHS football field and the newly built Creamer Field are two of the four fields with night lights in Ramsey, the other two are located at the MacFarran Field complex on Williams Drive, overlooking Route 17.

Behind Tisdale Elementary School, there are two softball fields that are open to the community.

Suraci Pond, located on Woodland Avenue, is a small lake with areas to fish, picnic benches, and hiking trails. A similar recreational area exists at Garrison Pond on Lake Street. An Eagle Scout Project from Ramsey’s Troop 31 installed picnic tables and restored the flower bed.

Ramsey has a highly educated population. Based on data from the American Community Survey, it was ranked as one of the top 15 most educated municipalities in New Jersey with a population of at least 10,000, placing No. 2 on the list. With 40.3% of residents having a bachelor’s degree or higher, the borough was second only to Hoboken (with 50.2%).

The Ramsey Public School District serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2017–18 school year, the district, comprised of five schools, had an enrollment of 2,804 students and 248.9 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.3:1. Schools in the district (with 2017–18 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Mary A. Hubbard Elementary School with 381 students in grades PreK–3, Wesley D. Tisdale Elementary School with 406 students in grades PreK–3, John Y. Dater Elementary School with 400 students in grades 4–5, Eric S. Smith Middle School with 742 students in grades 6–8 and Ramsey High School with 838 students in grades 9–12.

Students from Saddle River’s Wandell School attend the district’s middle school and then have the option of attending either Ramsey High School or Northern Highlands Regional High School as part of sending/receiving relationships with the Saddle River School District and each of the respective districts.

Ramsey High School was the 30th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine’s September 2012 cover story on the state’s “Top Public High Schools”, after being ranked 33rd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 13th in 2008 out of 316 schools.

Public school students from the borough, and all of Bergen County, are eligible to attend the secondary education programs offered by the Bergen County Technical Schools, which include the Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, and the Bergen Tech campus in Teterboro or Paramus. The district offers programs on a shared-time or full-time basis, with admission based on a selective application process and tuition covered by the student’s home school district.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark oversees the operation of the Academy of St. Paul, a K-8 school and Don Bosco Preparatory High School, an all-boys Roman Catholic high school for grades 9–12 founded in 1915 and overseen by the Salesians of Don Bosco. In 2015, the Academy of St. Paul was one of 15 schools in New Jersey, and one of six private schools, recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School in the exemplary high performing category by the United States Department of Education.

Roads and highways

As of May 2010, the borough had a total of 65.32 miles (105.12 km) of roadways, of which 51.82 miles (83.40 km) were maintained by the municipality, 11.45 miles (18.43 km) by Bergen County and 2.05 miles (3.30 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

A number of roadways serve Ramsey and its neighboring communities, providing the borough with easy driving access to New York State (including New York City) and other points within New Jersey. NJ Route 17 and County Route 507 intersect the areas east and north of Ramsey’s downtown business district, while Interstate 287 and U.S. Route 202 pass through the Darlington section of Mahwah to the west and the New York State Thruway (I-87/I-287) and NY Route 59 run through Suffern, New York to the north.

Public transportation

Ramsey has two NJ Transit train stations which provide mass transit access to and from Hoboken Terminal with connections available at Secaucus Junction to Penn Station New York in Midtown Manhattan and other NJ Transit lines. Located on Main Street just east of Central Avenue in the borough’s downtown area, the Ramsey Main Street station was constructed in 1868 by the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad and is the oldest operating passenger station in service in New Jersey. The Ramsey Route 17 station, which opened on August 22, 2004, is a park-and-ride facility and regional commuter hub located along Route 17 South in the northern section of town. Both of these stations are stops along NJ Transit’s Main Line and Bergen County Line.

Short Line provides bus service along Route 17 (with limited service at other local stops) to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.