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Lesley and Chris Jones see a bit of North Ferriby, the English village where they used to live, in Allendale, the manicured New Jersey suburb where they put down roots.
Ms. Jones’s description of North Ferriby — “a cute little town” — also applies to their new surroundings. While northern Bergen County can’t match the bucolic Yorkshire countryside, Allendale, with some 6,800 residents over three square miles, claims its version of a pub: the boisterous Allendale Bar & Grill, at the heart of the three-block-long downtown.
The Joneses’ careers brought them to the States in 2008. Ms. Jones, 51, is a scientist and a stay-at-home mother to two daughters. Mr. Jones, 48, is a research-and-development vice president for a multinational consumer products company with offices in Bergen County. In 2018, after renting houses in the area and two brief transfers back to Europe, the couple paid $1.32 million for a five-bedroom Dutch colonial of the same vintage as their former Edwardian home in England.
“What we liked about Allendale is that it’s not too big, and it’s walkable,” Ms. Jones said. “Everything’s close by, and you see people out and about, walking or cycling, which you don’t necessarily see in towns such as Upper Saddle River” — a nearby borough where the family had rented — “where there are no sidewalks and things are more spread out.”
Ms. Jones ticked off how long it takes to get to places on foot: less than 10 minutes to their daughters’ middle school and five minutes to the high school they will attend; 12 minutes to restaurants; 15 minutes to the borough-owned wilderness area, a favorite hiking spot. “And if you’ve exhausted everything you want to do in town,” she said, “it’s seven minutes to the train station.”
Twenty-five miles from Midtown Manhattan, Allendale has a median household income of $170,968 and is less diverse than the county as a whole, at 85.5 percent white, 11 percent Asian, 2.5 percent Hispanic or Latino and 1 percent Black. Once covered by orchards and strawberry fields, the former summer resort area was developed largely after 1950. Housing styles range from Victorian to contemporary, with colonials and split-levels in abundance. Many homes are set back on at least half an acre.
“People are mindful of what their houses and neighborhoods look like, and there aren’t a lot of tear-downs,” said Allendale’s mayor, Ari Bernstein, who grew up in the borough and moved back to raise a family. “This is a low-profile town, and we’re happy to be that way.”
Elissa and Michael Connors, 44 and 46, have plans for the six-tenths of an acre they acquired when they closed last year on a five-bedroom expanded ranch for $1.13 million: The former Upper West Siders will be installing a seasonal ice rink in the backyard for their two children.
Outgrowing a three-bedroom apartment and motivated partly by the pandemic, the couple, who both work in finance, looked to Bergen County because their 10-year-old son plays on a traveling ice hockey team there. That friends from hockey live in town helped convince the family to choose Allendale over larger and more bustling Ridgewood, four miles away.
“The community has been the best part of the move, because there are tons of families with kids our age,” said Mr. Connors, who volunteers with the high school hockey team in anticipation of his son’s involvement.
He described Allendale as “under the radar” because of its size: “We didn’t know it well until our friends moved here. I always say, ‘It’s by Ridgewood.’”
What You’ll Find
Just off Route 17, a state highway and major shopping corridor, Allendale is bordered by Ramsey to the north, Saddle River to the east, Waldwick and Wyckoff to the south and Mahwah to the west. The main arteries of Franklin Turnpike and Crescent Avenue run north-south and intersect, but it is West Allendale Avenue that serves as downtown. Brick sidewalks, decorative lampposts and vintage architecture lend charm to the compact business district, a blend of professional offices, restaurants and specialty shops. The New Jersey Transit station and commuter parking are adjacent. So is a strip mall anchored by an Acme supermarket.
Two pieces of open space are prominent. The 71-acre Crestwood Park has a private lake and three beaches, as well as sports fields and a barn-turned-pavilion. And the 107-acre swath of woods, wetlands and water called the Celery Farm has no amenities but walking trails and bird-observation platforms. Nearly 250 species have been sighted over the years.
“Some people see this as a park,” said Jim Wright, a nature writer and a volunteer who helps maintain the Celery Farm, and whose backyard borders it. “We gently say, ‘It’s not a park; it’s a nature preserve.’” The presence of minks and red-shouldered hawks, among other wildlife, make that clear, as does the prohibition of dog-walking, biking, jogging and fishing.
“It may be within earshot of Route 17,” Mr. Wright said, “but it’s a treasure.”
What You’ll Pay
Patricia Davis, a borough resident and an associate real estate agent with Keller Williams Village Square Realty, in Ridgewood, said many Allendale buyers begin looking in Ridgewood before “gravitating up the train line to Allendale, when they realize they can get more house and land for their money, a small-town atmosphere and the same great schools.”
According to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service, 98 single-family houses sold in Allendale in 2021, at a median price of $885,000; in 2020 and in prepandemic 2019, the median sale prices were $795,000 and $715,000. The median sale price of the 22 units sold last year in the borough’s eight condominium communities was $567,500.
A mid-February check of the multiple listing service found 12 properties on the market, from a three-bedroom, circa-1950s split-level, being sold as is for $515,000, to a century-old, six-bedroom colonial in the French country style, listed for $2.995 million.
In 2021, Allendale homeowners paid an average of $16,206 in property taxes, 30 percent higher than the county average.
The Vibe
Although it is not on the scale of Ridgewood, downtown Allendale supports a lively fine-dining scene featuring Italian, Japanese, Indian and steakhouse cuisine, along with the American pub fare at the 87-year-old Allendale Bar & Grill, or AB & G, the borough’s de facto gathering and football-watching spot and a popular place for a drink after getting off the train.
An even older local institution is the Holiday Observers, a citizens’ group formed amid the patriotic fervor in the weeks after the end of World War I. The group mounts such events as an Easter egg hunt, Fourth of July celebration and fireworks, Labor Day weekend water festival and Halloween parade.
“Their members are literally responsible for neighborhoods, and go to every home in their sector selling tickets and soliciting donations,” said Fred Litt, a 42-year borough resident, a downtown business owner and the author of a history of Allendale. “The Holiday Observers touch every aspect of life here.”
The Schools
Public school students attend Hillside Elementary School through third grade, Brookside School for fourth through eighth grade, and Northern Highlands Regional High School. The high school, on Hillside Avenue in Allendale, enrolls 1,400 students and also serves the towns of Ho-Ho-Kus, Saddle River and Upper Saddle River. Average SAT scores in 2019-20 were 614 in reading and writing and 631 in math, versus 536 in each subject statewide.
While the high school is known for rigorous academics — 24 Advanced Placement courses are offered — it also is a football power. Last year, the Highlanders brought an undefeated record into the regional championship game, but came up short.
In a referendum to be held on March 8, voters in the high school district will decide on an $8.83 million capital project plan that calls for the construction of a field house and the renovation of the athletic fields, the planetarium, the TV studio and other interior spaces.
The Commute
From the Allendale train station on New Jersey Transit’s Main-Bergen County Line, the trip to Penn Station in Manhattan takes 60 to 70 minutes; the fare is $11.75 one way or $336 monthly. From the Route 17 park-and-ride station in Ridgewood, ShortLine buses reach the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan in a little under an hour; the fare is $9.30 one way or $253.05 for a 40-trip, 90-day pass.
The History
Allendale is named for Joseph Warner Allen, who surveyed the route of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad, which commenced service in 1848. Four decades later, Henry J. Appert, a Swiss immigrant, drained a bog for the cultivation of onions and celery. The business — Allendale Produce Gardens, or the “celery farm” to locals — supplied wholesale markets and Campbell Soup Company. The borough acquired the site in the early 1980s for the creation of the nature preserve. The body of water at its center is Lake Appert.
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