Editing Fair Lawn, New Jersey (section)

==History and historical significance==
The first settlers of Fair Lawn were members of the [[Lenape]] tribe, of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], a group of hunter gatherers who eventually sold their land to incoming Dutch and Irish settlers and migrated to Pennsylvania. The new colonists turned the region, part of the [[New Barbadoes Township, New Jersey|New Barbadoes Township]], into five large farm lots, conjoined by two main roads—Paramus and Saddle River—and named it "slooterdam" (after a V-shaped [[sluice]]-like fishing [[weir]] built in the Passaic River by the Lenni Lenape). The name stuck until 1791. In the 1800s, these five lots became nine smaller lots, and three new roads—Fair Lawn Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, and Prospect Street—were constructed to encourage mobility between them. Eighty houses were built by 1861, and the renamed Small Lots, now a part of the Saddle River Township and home to multiple vegetable and fruit farms and dairies, became an agricultural community. Berdan Avenue, a new road located near five Berdan family farms, was soon added and Victorian homes were built alongside it and in nearby areas. The grandest of the estates, perched atop a hill by Small Lots Road was David Acker's estate "Fairlawn", from which the township gets its name (Images of America, Page 7) and is now the site of the borough's library.

Rapid suburban development of the town occurred in three sections: the River Road–Fair Lawn Avenue area known as "Memorial Park", the area at Lincoln Avenue and Wagaraw Road known as "Columbus Heights", and the area east of the railroad and south of Broadway, known as Warren Point. The development of this section was catalyzed by the "establishment of a post office, a railroad station, and a trolley to the Hudson River" (Images of America, Page 8).

In the 1900s, Fair Lawn residents were displeased about the schooling situation as part of Saddle River Township; the schools were either dilapidated or too far away for Fair Lawn residents, and citizens felt that they were not getting schools comparable to the tax money they were paying. As such, a movement to separate from Saddle River Township was born. Fair Lawn residents petitioned to the state, asking to incorporate as an independent borough, and in April 1924, the borough of Fair Lawn was voted into existence.

Fair Lawn is home to the following eight sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places:<ref>[http://www.nj.gov/dep/hpo/1identify/nrsr_lists/Bergen.pdf New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Bergen County], [[New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection]] Historic Preservation Office, last updated November 20, 2017. Accessed November 23, 2017.</ref>
* [[Garretson Forge and Farm|Peter Garretson House]], 4-02 River Road (1974)<ref>[https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/a4df1f94-f2fe-471c-9022-dd99bff71184 National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form for Peter Garretson House], [[National Park Service]]. Accessed September 16, 2017.</ref>
* Irregular pattern between Radburn Road and the Erie Rail Road tracks in Radburn (1975)
* G.V.H. Berdan House, 1219 River Road (1983)
* Richard J. Berdan House, 2407 Fair Lawn Avenue
* [[Cadmus-Folly House]], 19-21 Fair Lawn Avenue
* [[Naugle House]], 42-49 Dunkerhook Road – Built in the 1750s, the house was acquired by the borough.<ref>Diduch, Mary. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140815100005/http://www.northjersey.com/news/fair-lawn-to-fix-historic-naugle-house-1.1051876 "Fair Lawn to fix historic Naugle House"], ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', July 16, 2014, backed up by the [[Internet Archive]] as of August 15, 2014. Accessed September 16, 2017. "The council allocated $1,800 from its municipal open-space fund to fix the Naugle House. The stone residence, purchased by the borough in 2010, was built in the 1750s. It sits next to the Jacob Vanderbeck Jr. House – also known as the Vander Plaat House — another Colonial-era home that is not borough-owned."</ref>
* [[Jacob Vanderbeck Jr. House]], 41-25 Dunkerhook Road – Constructed in 1754, the house was named by Preservation New Jersey as one of New Jersey's 10 most endangered historic places<ref>Pries, Allison. [http://archive.northjersey.com/community-news/fair-lawn-home-named-one-of-n-j-s-10-most-endangered-historic-places-1.693801 "Fair Lawn home named one of N.J.'s 10 most endangered historic places"]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', May 22, 2013. Accessed May 28, 2017. "An 18th Century Dutch stone house that the borough declined last year to purchase has been named one of the state's 10 most endangered historic places by Preservation New Jersey.&nbsp;... The Jacob Vanderbeck Jr. House, also known as the Vander Plaat House, located off Dunkerhook Road sits on a three-acre parcel near the Naugle House – another Revolutionary War-era home that Fair Lawn purchased in 2010 for $1.7 million using municipal and county open space funds and state Green Acres money. The single-story home overlooking the Saddle River was built in 1754 and remained in the Vanderbeck family until 1800."</ref><ref>[http://www.preservationnj.org/site/ExpEng/index.php?/ten_most_13/index_detail/Jacob_Vanderbeck_Jr._House Jacob Vanderbeck Jr. House] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012045231/http://www.preservationnj.org/site/ExpEng/index.php?%2Ften_most_13%2Findex_detail%2FJacob_Vanderbeck_Jr._House |date=October 12, 2013 }}, Preservation New Jersey. Accessed September 16, 2017.</ref>
* [[Radburn station]], Pollitt Drive (1984)

Other sites, in addition to those listed above, are also considered historic by the Historic Sites Survey Committee of the Bergen County Historic Sites Advisory Board, including:<ref>[http://www.co.bergen.nj.us/DocumentCenter/View/1548#page=15 "New Jersey Register of Historic Places Listings and Other Determinations as of April 5, 2013 with Recommendations for Listing on the Register by the Staff of the Bergen County Historic Sites Survey, 1986, updated through June 10, 2013"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810182704/http://www.co.bergen.nj.us/DocumentCenter/View/1548#page=15 |date=August 10, 2016 }} [[Bergen County, New Jersey]], June 10, 2013. Accessed June 19, 2016.</ref>
* Henry A. Hopper House
* George Washington School (Recommended as a National Register possibility, but needs further documentation)
* Fair Lawn, Berdan, and Prospect Avenues, Plaza and Radburn Roads
* Peter Demarest House on Fair Lawn Avenue
* Warren Bronze and Aluminum Factory on Second Street

In July 1982, an [[NJ Transit]] train derailed and crashed into a pasta factory, killing the train's engineer. The derailment resulted from a group of teens who had tampered with the tracks. Two of the five youths charged with the crime were convicted of manslaughter for their roles in the incident and were given five-year sentences in a state correctional facility.<ref>Higgs, Larry. [http://www.nj.com/traffic/index.ssf/2017/11/the_deadliest_train_crashes_in_new_jersey_history.html "The deadliest train crashes in New Jersey history"], NJ Advance Media for [[NJ.com]], November 27, 2017. Accessed February 16, 2018. "An engineer was killed on July 7, 1982, when a commuter train operated by Conrail for NJ Transit crashed into a pasta factory after it derailed in Fair Lawn. Teenagers who tampered with a track switch were blamed for the crash. After the train was diverted from the Bergen Line and ran off the end of an industrial rail siding, the lead car traveled 60 feet into the building, killing the engineer and seriously injuring a 14-year-old boy, according to the National Transportation Safety Board."</ref>