Editing Paramus, New Jersey (section)

==History==
===Pre-settlement===
The area that ultimately became the present-day [[North Jersey]] had been occupied for thousands of years by prehistoric [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]]. At the time of European encounter, it was settled by the [[Lenape]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. The [[Lenape language]] word for the area, ''Peremessing'', which meant that it had an abundant population of [[wild turkey]], was [[anglicisation|anglicized]] to become the word "Paramus".<ref>Citizens Semi-Centennial Assoc., 1919, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QUYVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA3 ''Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey, Past and Present''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930142338/https://books.google.com/books?id=QUYVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=September 30, 2023 }}, p. 3. Accessed October 6, 2019. "The name 'Paramus' is said to be derived from the Indian 'Peremessing', descriptive of the fact that the country abounded in wild turkey. The first white settlers called it 'Peremesse' from which the transition was gradually made to the present form, Paramus."</ref><ref name=Thinking>Cheslow, Jerry. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/15/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-paramus-in-shopping-mecca-houses-sell-well-too.html "If You're Thinking of Living In/Paramus; In Shopping Mecca, Houses Sell Well Too"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424054227/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/15/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-paramus-in-shopping-mecca-houses-sell-well-too.html |date=April 24, 2017 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 15, 2001. Accessed May 23, 2012.</ref> A large metal statue of a wild turkey in the [[Paramus Park]] mall commemorates this history.<ref name=Thinking/> Another alternative derivation is that the word means "pleasant stream".<ref>Hutchinson, Viola L. [http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=25 ''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151115082401/http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=25 |date=November 15, 2015 }}, New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed November 13, 2015.</ref>

===18th century===
[[Albrycht Zaborowski]], whose descendants became known by the family name "Zabriskie",<ref>The [[Zabriskie House (Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey)|Zabriskie House]], built in 1796 in nearby [[Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey]], is an area landmark.</ref> immigrated from Poland via the Dutch ship ''Deb Ves''<ref name=Wearimus>{{Cite web |url=http://stilltitled.com/2011/07/21/paramus-or-land-of-the-wild-turkey/ |title="Paramus, or land of the wild turkey" |date=July 21, 2011 |access-date=July 22, 2011 |archive-date=May 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507064553/http://stilltitled.com/2011/07/21/paramus-or-land-of-the-wild-turkey/ |url-status=live }}</ref> in 1662. He settled in the [[Dutch West Indies Company]] town of Ackensack, site of the present-day [[Hackensack, New Jersey|Hackensack]]. 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 {{convert|2,000|acre|km2}} of land which became known as the "Paramus Patent".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zDEUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA322 ''History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, New Jersey''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930142339/https://books.google.com/books?id=zDEUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA322#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=September 30, 2023 }}, pp. 321–322. Accessed October 6, 2019.</ref>

During the [[American Revolutionary War]], the county included both [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] and [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]], with Patriots "greatly outnumbering" Tories.<ref>''Ridgewood Past and Present,'' p. 4</ref> 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]].<ref>Hamilton, Alexander. ''The Papers of Alexander Hamilton,'' Columbia University Press, 1977, p. 296. While stationed in Ramapo, Burr met the woman he later married. The 1782 ceremony was held in Paramus.</ref> In 1777, the British raided the Hackensack area and Burr marched troops to Paramus, where he attacked the British, forcing them to withdraw.<ref>''Ridgewood Past and Present,'' p. 7.</ref> General [[George Washington]] was in Paramus several times during the War: December 1778; July 1780; and, December 1780.<ref>''Ridgewood Past and Present'', p. 6</ref> Following the [[Battle of Monmouth]], Washington established his headquarters in Paramus in July 1778.<ref>Bake, William Spohn. ''Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775, to December 23, 1783'', [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.|J. B. Lippincott Company]], 1892, p. 137</ref> Over the advice of his staff, Washington moved his headquarters to [[Westchester County, New York]].<ref>Leiby, Adrian Coulter. [https://books.google.com/books?id=gRPUUwPFmNgC&pg=PA158 ''The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930142339/https://books.google.com/books?id=gRPUUwPFmNgC&pg=PA158#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=September 30, 2023 }}, p. 158. [[Rutgers University Press]], 1980. {{ISBN|9780813508986}}. Accessed October 6, 2019.</ref>

A section of Paramus known as ''Dunkerhook'', meaning ''dark corner'' in [[Dutch language|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 people of color|free blacks]], not slaves.<ref>[http://www.lutins.org/dunkerh.html Dunkerhook: Slave Community?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927081728/http://www.lutins.org/dunkerh.html |date=September 27, 2006 }}, accessed November 11, 2006.</ref> A group of houses built on Dunkerhook Road by the Zabriskies in the late 18th to early 19th centuries was the center of a community of black farmers, who had been slaves held by the Zabriskie family.<ref>Cardwell, Diane. [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/nyregion/zabriskie-tenant-house-in-paramus-may-soon-come-down.html "For House Telling Paramus's History, End May Be Near"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123024030/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/nyregion/zabriskie-tenant-house-in-paramus-may-soon-come-down.html |date=November 23, 2018 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 27, 2011. Accessed December 25, 2011. "The two houses, at 273 and 263 Dunkerhook, and a third one down the road and just over the line in Fair Lawn, were originally built, historians say, by one of the founding families of Bergen County, the Zabriskies. The house at 273 Dunkerhook dates to around 1790; the one at 263 Dunkerhook dates to 1803. As the Paramus houses passed from the Zabriskies to black farmers believed to be former Zabriskie slaves, they helped seed a thriving black settlement of several houses and a church that lasted into the 1930s."</ref>

===20th century===
In 1909, the Arcola Country Club and golf course was created in 1909 and the neighborhood by that name grew around it.<ref>Craffey, Jim. [https://www.arcolacc.org/About_Arcola.aspx How Arcola Came To Be - An Abridged History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227181256/https://www.arcolacc.org/About_Arcola.aspx |date=February 27, 2022 }}, Arcola Country Club. Accessed March 18, 2022.</ref> Farview Avenue, located at the highest elevation in Paramus, has a clear view of the [[Manhattan]] skyline.<ref>Staff. [https://www.nytimes.com/1928/03/28/archives/flat-in-jersey-city-resold-to-investor-patrick-j-kennedy-acquires.html "Flat In Jersey City Resold To Investor; Patrick J. Kennedy Acquires the Comfort Apartment on Bergen Avenue. Acreage Deal At Paramus Two Yonkers Plots Are Included in Westchester Transfers—Building Projects."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722101938/https://www.nytimes.com/1928/03/28/archives/flat-in-jersey-city-resold-to-investor-patrick-j-kennedy-acquires.html |date=July 22, 2018 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', March 28, 1928. Accessed December 25, 2011. "Conrad Roes bought fourteen acres on the west side of Farview Avenue, Paramus, in Bergen County. The property is said to have the second highest elevation in the county and overlooks the Manhattan skyline."</ref>

Paramus became one of the [[truck farming]] areas that helped New Jersey earn its nickname as the "Garden State".<ref>Satterthwaite, Ann. ''Going Shopping: Consumer Choices and Community Consequence'', Yale University Press, 2001, p. 256</ref> By 1940, Paramus' population was just 4,000, with no town center and 94 retail establishments.<ref>Going Shopping, p. 256.</ref> Although the opening of the [[George Washington Bridge]] in 1931 and the widening of [[New Jersey Route 17|Route 17]] and [[New Jersey Route 4|Route 4]] (which intersect in southern Paramus), made the area accessible to millions, "it was not until the 1950s that massive development hit this section of northern New Jersey".<ref name="Going Shopping p. 257"/>

During the 1950s and 1960s, 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.<ref name="Going Shopping p. 257"/> "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".<ref name="Going Shopping p. 257"/> New York had a state sales tax, but New Jersey had none, so with the opening of Manhattan department stores in the [[Bergen Town Center|Bergen Mall]] (1957), the [[Garden State Plaza]] (1957) and [[Alexander's]] (1961), Paramus became the "first stop outside New York City for shopping".<ref name="Going Shopping p. 257">Going Shopping, p. 257</ref>

From 1948 to 1958, the population of Paramus nearly quadrupled, from 6,000 to 23,000, while the number of retail establishments tripled from 111 to 319, and annual retail sales increased twenty-fold in nominal dollars, from $5.5 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|5.5|1948|fmt=c|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to $112 million (equal to ${{Inflation|US|.112|1958|fmt=c|r=1}}&nbsp;billion in {{Inflation/year|US}}).<ref name="Going Shopping p. 257"/> By the 1980s, when the population had increased slightly over 1960s levels, retail sales had climbed to $1 billion.<ref name="Going Shopping p. 257"/>

===21st century===
Paramus was the scene of one of the worst [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S.]] when an outbreak at the New Jersey Veterans Home resulted in 74 deaths, all former soldiers through May 2020, with some 60% of the home's 314 residents being infected.<ref>Tully, Tracey. [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/nyregion/new-jersey-military-veterans-home.html "‘The Whole Place Is Sick Now’: 74 Deaths at a Home for U.S. Veterans"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523175438/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/nyregion/new-jersey-military-veterans-home.html |date=May 23, 2022 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', May 10, 2020, updated September 25, 2020. Accessed May 25, 2022. "But nowhere has the devastation been starker than at the New Jersey Veterans Home at Paramus, a state-run home for former members of the U.S. military, where on Tuesday 74 deaths had been linked to virus.... The virus has swept through the facility, which in late March had 314 residents, infecting 60 percent of its patients."</ref>