The Caldwells
The Caldwells
The three western Essex County communities known as “The Caldwells” include Caldwell, North Caldwell and West Caldwell. The Caldwells boast some famous citizens past and present. It’s the birthplace of Grover Cleveland our 22nd and 24th President, the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and also the first to openly admit he had an illegitimate child. Also the birthplace of G. Gordon Liddy and actress Camryn Manheim, current residents include Supreme Court Justice Samuel Aliot and musician Wycliff Jean. And of course, TV’s Tony and Carmella Soprano live in North Caldwell where the series often films.
West Caldwell is the largest in both population, 11,200 and land area, 5.28 square miles. Caldwell and North Calwell have about 7400-7500 residents each. Caldwell encompasses 1.2 square miles and North Caldwell 3 square miles. Caldwell has a quaint downtown area located along Bloomfield Avenue while West Caldwell’s more modern commercial buidlings are centered around the Bloomfield Avenue-Passaic Avenue intersection and include strip malls. More rural North Caldwell has just a small commercial section, a bank and a couple of retail shops, on the north side of Bloomfield Avenue between Verona and Caldwell.
All three were originally part of land known as the Horse Neck Tract purchased from the Lenape Indians in 1702 which also included the towns of Verona, Fairfield, Cedar Grove, Essex Fells and Roseland as well as parts of Montclair, Livingston and West Orange. In 1787 the name was changed to Caldwell in honor of Revolutionary War patriot Reverend James Caldwell. Over the next few decades areas of the town broke off to form separate communities. West Caldwell was the last to separate in 1904.
While each of the Caldwells is a separate town with its own government, Caldwell and West Caldwell share a school system as well as a great deal of services. The Caldwell-West Caldwell Public School system includes four elementary (three in West Caldwell and one in Caldwell), one middle (Caldwell) and one high school (West Caldwell). North Caldwell has its own K-6 school district and is part of the Western Essex Regional School District from grades 7-12 which also serves the towns of Essex Fells, Roseland and Fairfield.
Town websites: www.caldwell-nj.com; www.westcaldwell.com
School websites:
North Caldwell K-6 www.ncboe.org
Caldwell-West Caldwell www.cwcboe.org
West Essex Regional www.westessex.org
