Junior College of Bergen County
College in Bergen County, New Jersey (1933–1953)
The Junior College of Bergen County (also known as Bergen Junior College and Bergen College) was an educational institution founded in 1933 in Hackensack, New Jersey; it later moved to Teaneck, New Jersey. It was the first coeducational junior college in New Jersey. In 1953, it merged with Fairleigh Dickinson College.
History
In 1933, the Board of Education of the Englewood Public School District in Englewood, New Jersey, suggested establishing a junior college in Bergen County. The proposed college would provide the first two years of a college education at an affordable and convenient location for local students. However, efforts to establish the college in public school buildings in Englewood, Hackensack, and Ridgewood were not successful.
In July 1933, officials with the Hackensack Y.M.C.A. announced it was going to rent facilities to Charles L. Littel for the junior college. The Y.M.C.A. had four classrooms, a boardroom, a cafeteria, gymnasium, and study spaces that could be used around the Y's schedule. Chairs for students were provided by Littel, the former principal of Teaneck High School, who was also leading the effort to start the junior college.
The college opened on September 13, 1933, and had fifty students.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Junior College of Bergen County” as college in Bergen County, New Jersey (1933–1953). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as college in Bergen County, New Jersey (1933–1953). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q124362653. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933 and 1953.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Junior College of Bergen County”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Junior College of Bergen County primary sources, Junior College of Bergen County archive and Junior research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Junior College of Bergen County” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.