Brookdale is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

(CDP) in Bloomfield Township, located within Essex County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, United States. It is generally considered to be the part of Bloomfield north of Bay Avenue, As of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...

, the CDP's total population was 9,239.DP-1 - Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data for Brookdale CDP, New Jersey
,

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

. Accessed November 6, 2012.

History

The original English name of Brookdale was Stone House Plains. "Stone House" referred to a rock formation known as the stone house or great rock, supposedly once suitable as a shelter, just north of the present-day intersection of Bellevue Avenue and Newell Drive. The rock was still present in 1802 but was removed not long afterward.Folsom, Joseph F
''Bloomfield, old and new: an historical symposium''
pp. 167-168. Local resident Lewis Cockefair, born 1826, was used extensively as a source, and he evidently did not have first-hand knowledge of it. "Plains" referred to the

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

s of the segment of the Yantecaw River which passes through the area. Farmhouse, Stone House Plains

Within a decade or so of the turn of the 18th century, settlers, possibly including Abraham Van Giesen, had begun to populate the area along Bellevue Avenue. By about 1750, two brothers, Garrabrant and Teunis Garrabrant, born in 1723 and 1726, respectively, to Cornelius and Jannetje (Pier) Gerbrandsen in Bergen (now

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Brookdale Park, Bellevue Avenue, and Broad Street. Circa 1730, Alexander Cockefair, born about 1696 in

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...

, purchased a "plantation" roughly bounded by the

Yantacaw Brook Yantacaw Brook is a tributary of the Third River in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The brook rises in Montclair and then continues into the Third River in Bloomfield, New Jersey and then into Belleville and Nutley, where it enters th ...

, and modern-day Broad Street and Watchung Avenue. The Sigler and Coeyman families also had very early farms in Stone House Plains. Descendants of these families operated farms, mills, and other businesses in the area for over two centuries.

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

was the primary language for many residents through the 18th century. In 1795, the Dutch Reformed Church of Stone House Plains (now Brookdale Reformed Church) was formed, creating a spiritual and social focal point for the community. The original church edifice was built in 1802; it burned and was rebuilt about 1857. The Morris family, which operated mills just south of Brookdale, made a mill pond on the Yantacaw Brook. In the mid-1800s, residents established the first school. In 1873, on the eve of US mail delivery service, the community voted to change the name to Brookdale. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, much of the farmland was developed into residential housing. The Clark Thread Company bought the Morris Pond (now Clark's Pond) and built an adjoining thread-coloring factory, later occupied by the Scientific Glass Company. Portions of the Cockefair farm were converted into a golf course and a junior high school (now Bloomfield Middle School). Essex County acquired and built Brookdale Park. In 1968, the petrochemical engineering firm Lummus Company set up in northern Brookdale."A Brief History of Bloomfield"
, Township of Bloomfield, New Jersey, December 8, 2014. Accessed June 14, 2016.

Geography

According to the

, the CDP had a total area of 1.607 square miles (4.163 km²), including 1.603 square miles (4.152 km²) of land and 0.004 square miles (0.011 km²) of water (0.26%).Gazetteer of New Jersey Places

. Accessed July 21, 2016.US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990

. Accessed September 4, 2014.

Demographics

Census 2010

References

{{Authority control Bloomfield, New Jersey Census-designated places in Essex County, New Jersey