Montclair Information - Natalie Farrell

Can one of the Top 10 Best Places for the Rich and Single also be a great family town? Yes, Montclair is! Whether you live in a downtown apartment or a hilltop mansion, you’ll love this vibrant community.

Montclair is a destination & a Saturday night on Bloomfield Avenue offers a choice of a concert, an indie movie, a jazz club and a selection of great restaurants. On Sunday you might do brunch on Church Street then head over to the Montclair Art Museum to see the Georgia O’Keefe show. In the summer you can watch a minor league baseball game at Yogi Berra Stadium, where you might see Yogi himself.

When Money picked it for the rich and single crowd they said, â€œDon’t let its tree-lined streets fool you: Montclair isn’t your typical bedroom community. The township boasts a vibrant arts and culture scene that makes it one of the most sought-after locales for white-collar professionals working in Manhattan. Sounds like a good place to raise a family to me!

Commute

You can expect an easy commute from a town that was formed because residents wanted a second train line. Montclair waved good-bye to Bloomfield in 1868 and got the second line. The two lines have long since been connected; there are a total of 7 train stations serving Montclair, all on the NJ Transit Montclair-Boonton Line taking passengers to Hoboken and Penn Station. Monthly roundtrip commuter tickets are $193. A jitney runs to the Bay Street station and DeCamp buses take you to Port Authority.

There is a private parking deck downtown and several town-operated lots at the train stations; commuters will need a permit.Easy access to Route 280 and the Garden State Parkway ease the commute to Newark and points north, south or west of Montclair.

If you’re lucky enough to work in the town, it’s a great place for walking and bicycling too!

Eats

This is a restaurant town! Start with breakfast (if you’re lucky enough to get a seat). Raymond’s on picturesque Church Street offers the best hot chocolate and great service. Or head up Bloomfield Ave towards the Art Museum for Toast, another great place for a hearty breakfast. From June through November, you’ll want to go to the great Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning & with a great mix of vendors selling everything from tacos to tomatoes. It’s located on Walnut Street, another area with great choices of breakfast, bakery and bread shops. The new Red Eye Cafe serves great coffee and an interesting menu in a friendly and cozy space.Restaurants are clustered downtown on Bloomfield Avenue and the streets running off of it. Montclair is the only town in New Jersey with 3 top restaurants & Blu, CulinAriane and Fascino & listed on the Top 25 Restaurants in NJ Monthly magazine.

Travel the world & you could pick a restaurant a week and work your way around & there’s Indian, Ethiopian, Thai, Chinese, French, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Greek and Cuban food.And there’s also a wide selection in Upper Montclair, a great downtown in its own right & with everything from Starbucks to fine dining. There’s even an ice cream farm, Applegate Farms makes 60 flavors in a 1840s barn.

Neighborhoods

For pure Wow! factor you can’t beat a drive along Upper Mountain Avenue which runs close to the western border of town. You’ll see one mansion after another, with varying styles of architecture from a castle-like Tudor to an Asian pagoda. Montclair experienced a great building boon & of prestigious homes and more humble ones & between 1880 and 1930, when the population went from 5,000 to over 40,000 (current population is 37,000).Photo 4The great mix of architecture and the large parks, scattered around town, make every neighborhood a great place to live. Montclair is only 6 square miles so everyone is close to shops, playgrounds, schools, streams, restaurants and a train station.

There are lots of historic homes here and if you’re an architecture buff (or an architect) you’ll recognize names like McKim, Mead, and White and Henry Hudson Holly (he also designed Glenmont, the home of Thomas Edison, a national park site open to the public, in nearby West Orange).

Montclair has six historic districts and 92 individually listed landmarks! Impressive for a town that’s anything but â€œquaint.Upper Montclair, in the northwest part of town, has its own identity and its own zip code. It has the feel of a great small town, with shops and restaurants along Valley Road and Bellevue Avenue. It has a train station and, at the northernmost point, Montclair State University.

You may find yourself living next door to one of the celebrities who call Montclair home. You may know Stephen Colbert as a TV host but some children in town know him as their religious education instructor! Make sure you’re looking good when you head to the grocery store, you might run into make-up maven Bobbi Brown. Look up to spot Bill Bradley, former basketball star, US Senator and presidential candidate. Hear a shuffle? Maybe it’s Savion Glover.

Schools

Montclair public schools have been the subject of many news stories on racial balance in education. Back in 1977 a system of magnet schools was set up to enrich the curriculum and create racial balance. This system is still in place. There are 7 elementary schools, each with a magnet theme. Parents choose the school for their child and bus service is provided for schools that are not in walking distance.

Bradford, The University Magnet & kindergarten through 5th grade
Bullock, Environmental Science & kindergarten through 5th grade
Edgemont, Montessori & kindergarten through 5th grade
Hillside, Gifted and Talented & 3rd to 5th grades
Nishuane, Gifted and Talented & kindergarten through 2nd grade
Northeast, Global Studies & kindergarten through 5th grade
Watchung, Science and Technology & kindergarten through 5th grade

There are three middle schools for 6th & 8th graders, Glenfield (Visual and Performing Arts), Mount Hebron (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) and Renaissance at Rand (Liberal Arts).

Montclair High School with almost 2000 students is situated on a campus that includes an ampitheatre, brook and park. Notable graduates include actress Christina Ricci and former NY Giant David Tyree.Private High Schools include Immaculate Conception High School, a Catholic coed school, Lacordaire Academy, a Catholic girls’ school, Deron for special education and Montclair Kimberley Academy (MKA). MKA has 3 campuses in town, primary, middle and high school. There is also a private, Catholic elementary school, St. Cassian.

Family Fun

History, arts, sports, natureâ€¦it’s all here. The newly created film festival is added to a long list of choices for fun and entertainment all year long. With two thriving town centers and two nature reservations, a university, a baseball stadium, 18 parks and several museums, you’ll never be bored! As they say in Montclair, â€œWhere the Suburb Meets the City.Montclair Art Museum is home to world-class artist’s works, like the current Georgia O’Keefe show and the Warhol and Cezanne shows in recent years. Art classes for children and adults and regularly scheduled events make the Museum a real part of the community.

Wellmont Theatre is a great old art deco space where you might go to see Montclair resident Stephen Colbert or hear Alanis Morissette or Dwight Yoakam.

There’s a movie theatre on Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair which show an interesting mix of movies including documentaries and small scale indie films. Another theatre is located in Upper Montclair. Both locations are operated by Clearview Cinemas.

The town of Montclair provides public facilities for sports including baseball and soccer fields, 18 public tennis courts, 4 skating rinks (two are indoor) and 3 swimming pools. Lessons and leagues are available for all ages.

Neither the Montclair Golf Club nor the Upper Montclair Country Club are in Montclair but they are among many private clubs close by.

One of the prettiest and most unique events in Montclair is the annual iris show. Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Upper Montclair shows off its 14,000 iris when they are in bloom every May and June. First planted in 1927, the Gardens recently became a county park.The Van Vleck family left their mark on the town, the home designed by the architect Joseph for his brother is the centerpiece of Van Vleck House and Gardens. Joseph’s son, an architect turned horticulturist, created the Howard Van Vleck Arboretum on the grounds of the Art Museum.

The Montclair Historical Society operates 4 house museums with events throughout the year.

If your kind of shopping is a casual stroll, stopping in at small boutiques, cafes and antique shops & Montclair is your town. Church Street is an award winning, picturesque one-block shopper’s oasis. But there’s more & at the top of the street, where Church meets Bloomfield Avenue, you’ll find Anthropologie. Head in the opposite direction and there’s Urban Outfitters. Upper Montclair has it own charm and a number of notable retailers including Gap and Williams Sonoma.

The Montclair Book Center is New Jersey’s counterpart to Manhattan’s Strand. You may want to stop in after your yoga, pilates or spin class & there are many choices for exercise. If you prefer a game of soccer, there’s the Soccer Dome. Children can choose from numerous athletic programs including http://www.montclairlacrosse.com/.

The YMCA has two facilities in Montclair with a full range of family activities year round.

Natalie Knows...Montclair

Commute

Eats

Neighborhoods

Schools

Family Fun

Natalie Farrell

The Buying & Selling Process