Camp Merritt: Bergen County’s WWI Army Base

On Thursday October 26, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. Peggy Norris and Joe Suplicki, historians for the Village of Ridgewood will present this lecture. Part of the Mahwah Museum Lecture Series, the lecture will take place at the Ramapo Reformed Church, 100 Island Rd., Mahwah.

Admission is $3, free for museum members. Contact programs@mahwahmuseum.org for reservations or call 201-512-0099. Refreshments will be served afterwards.

Camp Merritt was the transit camp for more than one million soldiers on their way to battlefields in Europe and returning to their homes across the United States.  This temporary city leaves few traces on our landscape today, but its history can be told in maps, photos, and stories. The Camp Merritt monument in Cresskill is the most visible reminder today of the important role Bergen County played in World War I. Peggy Norris is the vice president of the Bergen County historical Society and Joe Suplicki is on Ridgewood’s Historic Preservation Commission and the board of the Ridgewood Historical Society. Peggy’s grandfather, a farm boy from Ohio, passed through Camp Merritt. Illustrations come in part from his collection of postcards, now in the Bergen County Historical Society Library.

This lecture is hosted by Mahwah Museum, located at 201 Franklin Turnpike.  The Museum will reopen on September 30, 2017 featuring the new exhibits Kilmer: The Man and WWI Sarajevo to Versailles as well as the continuing exhibits Mahwahs Herstory: The Changing Roles of Women in Mahwah’s History, and Medicine in Mahwah. Permanent exhibits are Les Paul in Mahwah and The Donald Cooper Model Railroad, which is open weekends 1-4 pm. The Museum is open weekends and Wednesdays from 1-4 pm.; admission $5 for non-members, members and children are free.Visit mahwahmuseum.org or call 201-512-0099 for information on events, membership and volunteering.