1 10 5 https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/535c49ce55259305c8b6bae529f2ba24.jpg 128936b8986d2c90c9e41d5fd31e5cbf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Organizations and Institutions Organizations and Institutions A group of individuals cooperating under similar beliefs to reach an agreed-upon goal. Metadata for organizations and institutions provides information for the basis of an investigation into the creation, purpose, beliefs, and actors involved in an organization and institution. Date Started 1910-10-29 Type of Institution Social Welfare Source of File Attached “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Urban_League">National Urban League</a>.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 May 2024. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource National Urban League (NUL) Description An account of the resource The National Urban League is a civil rights organization that advocates for African American rights, fighting against racial discrimination. The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negros was founded in 1910 by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Hayes and it merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negros and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women. The organization provides many services such as job training, housing and community development, workforce development, educational opportunities, and voting assistance. Programs were developed to fight for health, employment, and housing equity. The organization has been involved in politics, protests, and social work throughout its history to achieve its mission. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Urban_League">National Urban League</a>.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 May 2024. “<a href="https://nul.org/mission-and-history">Mission and History</a>.” Nul.Org. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ludder, Rachelle Subject The topic of the resource Activism, African-American African American Civil Rights Race Social Welfare Social Work https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/349568cb3da374916450ad276882225b.jpg 605e9c82cf80d193364a4c4c9d908d75 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Organizations and Institutions Organizations and Institutions A group of individuals cooperating under similar beliefs to reach an agreed-upon goal. Metadata for organizations and institutions provides information for the basis of an investigation into the creation, purpose, beliefs, and actors involved in an organization and institution. Date Started 1909 Type of Institution Social Welfare Ethnic Source of File Attached <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAACP">“NAACP.”</a> Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 June 2024. <div></div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Subject The topic of the resource Activism, Civil Rights Activism, African American Description An account of the resource The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an interracial human rights organization. The mission of the organization was to abolish segregation and discrimination. It was founded in 1909 by a group of people including W.E.B. DuBois, Ida Bell, Wells-Barnett, and Mary Ovington. It gained traction due to the 1908 Springfield Race Riots in Illinois. Some founding members were involved with the Niagara Movement led by DuBois. Some of the most notable actions of the movement were its activism in Supreme Court cases that fought against Jim Crow Laws and Lynching in the 1910s and 1920s. The creation of the NAACP Defense and Education Fund in 1939 which litigated the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ending racial segregation in schools. They also won the 1946 Morgan v. Virginia, which ended segregation for interstate travel. The organization was extremely active and crucial during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The organization remains one of the oldest and most influential multiracial institutions. It continues to recognize and fight for political, educational, social, and economic rights and the elimination of race-based discrimination. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Association-for-the-Advancement-of-Colored-People">“National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.”</a> Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 June 2024. <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/national-association-advancement-colored-people-naacp">“National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).”</a> The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. <div></div> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ludder, Rachelle African American Civil Rights Race Segregation https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/dfa2456d75fde3291c08e36d08c062af.jpg e0f0d8786db4d21cdc0e92f9830e7657 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Organizations and Institutions Places A fixed location. Metadata for a place provides descriptive information that is the basis of discovery of the creation, purpose, and agents associated with a place. Date Started 1916 Source of File Attached "1,200 Families Share In Work of Federation." The Record, 14 Sep. 1934, p.21. Type of Place Community Centers Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Memorial House The Social Service Federation's Memorial House Subject The topic of the resource Social Services Social Welfare System Description An account of the resource Memorial House stood for decades as the physical and symbolic center of organized social work in Englewood. More than simply a clubhouse, it functioned as a gathering place, training ground, educational center, and stabilizing force in the city’s working-class neighborhoods. Yet to understand Memorial House fully, it must be seen not only as a Progressive reform institution but also as a racialized space operating within the segregated geography of early twentieth-century Englewood. Established in the 1910s under the direction of the Social Service Federation, Memorial House emerged from earlier boys’ and neighborhood club efforts that sought to provide structure, recreation, and moral guidance to Englewood’s youth. By the early 1920s, it had become the home base for dozens of boys’ and girls’ clubs operating under Federation supervision. At one point, more than six hundred young people were affiliated with twenty to thirty clubs using the building’s facilities. Each club maintained its own officers and identity, but all functioned within a coordinated framework designed to promote responsibility and civic engagement. But the membership of those clubs reflected the racial realities of the city. Memorial House was repeatedly described in the press as located in Englewood’s “Negro section,” and certain troops and organizations were explicitly identified as “colored.” Girl Scout Troop 5 of Memorial House, for example, was publicly described as a Negro troop. Boy Scout Troop 21 was similarly identified as the Memorial House “colored” troop. These labels were not incidental; they reflected the accepted racial order of the time. Memorial House provided structured opportunity to Black youth in a city where housing patterns and schooling reinforced separation. The programming at Memorial House reflected Progressive Era ideals. Boys were trained in athletics, scouting, and gymnastic work, while girls and women participated in classes in domestic economy, cooking, and sewing. The building was not conceived as a charity in the passive sense; members paid modest dues, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability. Organizers believed that giving young people a stake in their own clubhouse helped prevent idleness and delinquency. Contemporary accounts credited Memorial House with contributing to Englewood’s comparatively low levels of juvenile mischief by keeping youth productively engaged. For Black youth especially, these programs carried additional weight. Memorial House offered access to leadership training, public performance, and organized civic identity in an era when many mainstream institutions were either informally closed to them or socially segregated. When Memorial House’s Girl Scout troop won first place in an inter-troop song festival—performing a Negro spiritual before a large audience—the achievement was celebrated publicly. Yet the reporting made clear that the troop was racially designated. Success occurred, but within clearly defined racial boundaries. Recreation itself could expose those boundaries. One article described the Memorial House Negro Band practicing in MacKay Park until a nearby white resident complained about the noise, prompting police intervention and the band’s relocation within the park. The episode illustrates both the vibrancy of Black youth culture centered at Memorial House and the constraints placed upon it in shared public spaces. Holiday programs reveal another side of Memorial House’s mission. Christmas celebrations for the Newsboys’ Club and other youth groups filled the house with music, recitations, and shared meals. The Social Service Federation’s family welfare committee organized the distribution of Christmas boxes to families who might otherwise have gone without holiday cheer. Clothing, bedding, toys, and books were collected and distributed quietly through the Neighborhood House and Memorial House networks, emphasizing dignity alongside assistance. These welfare efforts were particularly significant in Englewood’s Black neighborhoods, where economic opportunity was limited by discrimination and where housing conditions were frequently scrutinized in public health debates. During annual Negro Health Week observances, Memorial House served as a central site for baby clinics, hygiene lectures, and educational programming. Physicians examined hundreds of Black preschool children there; nurses administered vaccinations; ministers preached health sermons in local Black churches in coordination with the programs. The building became a bridge between Black residents and municipal institutions such as the Board of Health and Englewood Hospital. Vocational classes for “colored women,” conducted in cooperation with the Board of Education, further illustrate this dynamic. While framed as educational uplift, such programs also reflected the limited employment avenues available to Black women at the time. Memorial House thus functioned simultaneously as a site of empowerment and as an institution shaped by the paternalistic racial assumptions of Progressive reform. Financial stability was an ongoing concern. Periodic appeals asked Englewood residents to support the Federation’s expanding work, particularly as it sought to consolidate activities under one roof. At times, local athletic and civic associations stepped forward to help sustain Memorial House when benefactors withdrew or funds ran short. Campaigns emphasized that housing all services—boys’ clubs, girls’ clubs, nursery programs, family welfare work—within Memorial House would increase efficiency and strengthen the city’s social infrastructure. For Black residents, centralization also meant the preservation of one of the few dedicated institutional spaces serving their community. By the mid-1920s, plans were announced to enlarge and remodel the building. The expansion aimed to centralize Federation operations that had previously been scattered in rented quarters, including the earlier Neighborhood House on Humphrey Street. The remodeling included interior reconfiguration and new additions, reflecting both growth and confidence in the Federation’s long-term mission. Notably, the contract for improvements was awarded locally—an unusual decision at the time—which reinforced the building’s identity as a community-supported institution rooted in Englewood itself. Memorial House also served as a forum for public engagement beyond youth programming. Social workers were honored there; civic leaders met to discuss policy; interracial reform efforts intersected with Black uplift movements; and organizations such as the Urban League collaborated in health and welfare initiatives. Though under the supervision of the Social Service Federation, Memorial House operated as a vibrant, semi-independent social center—a place where Englewood’s young people gathered nightly for study, debate, recreation, and cultural development. In essence, Memorial House embodied the Federation’s philosophy: prevention rather than punishment, organization rather than neglect, and community responsibility rather than isolated charity. But it also embodied the racial contradictions of its time. It was a place where Black children could develop leadership and pride, where health inequities were addressed, where music, scouting, and dramatics flourished. Yet it existed within a segregated civic structure that labeled, categorized, and geographically confined. Memorial House was not merely a building. It was the practical expression of Englewood’s early twentieth-century belief that strong neighborhoods were built through structured opportunity and sustained civic care. At the same time, it was a lens through which to see how race shaped access to that opportunity — and how, within those constraints, a Black community built resilience, culture, and institutional life of its own. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Hope Running High At Memorial House." The Record, 2 Dec. 1971, p.10. "1,200 Families Share In Work of Federation." The Record, 14 Sep. 1934, p.21. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ludder, Rachelle African American Community Centers https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/830cceacf18a861471ffd3357ad7b915.jpg 8ca83436d3c9abb3e65fa272e1793f99 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Organizations and Institutions Organizations and Institutions A group of individuals cooperating under similar beliefs to reach an agreed-upon goal. Metadata for organizations and institutions provides information for the basis of an investigation into the creation, purpose, beliefs, and actors involved in an organization and institution. Date Started 1900 Type of Institution Social Welfare Source of File Attached "Social Service Federation Flourished For 50 Years." The Record, 5 Oct. 1950, p. 23. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Social Service Federation Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Social Service Federation Flourished For 50 Years." The Record, 5 Oct. 1950, p. 23. Subject The topic of the resource Activism, Social Welfare Social Welfare System Description An account of the resource The Social Service Federation of Englewood emerged from the civic reform spirit that characterized the turn of the twentieth century. Its roots trace back to 1898, when members of the Woman’s Club of Englewood organized boys’ clubs to provide structured recreation and moral guidance for local youth. In 1900, the addition of a day nursery expanded the mission beyond boys’ programming and marked the beginning of a broader commitment to family support. In May 1900, a group of public-minded citizens formally organized what became known as the Civic League, headquartered at 32 North Dean Street in the city’s first “Neighborhood House.” From the outset, the organization sought to address the social needs of a growing industrial community. In 1907, the Bureau of Associated Civic Relief was created as a clearinghouse for Englewood’s charitable efforts, investigating needy cases and coordinating assistance among agencies. A playground was opened at MacKay Park in 1908, reflecting early concern about youth welfare and juvenile delinquency. By 1912, several related efforts—including tuberculosis relief and family aid—were consolidated under the Civic Association banner. The organization steadily expanded its reach. In 1914, it helped secure the appointment of a physical director for Englewood’s public schools. In 1916, Memorial House opened as a community center for boys and girls, a forward-looking effort to combat juvenile delinquency through recreation and supervision. Six years later, the Civic Association and Memorial House merged their activities to form the Social Service Federation of Englewood, unifying multiple strands of charitable and civic work under one umbrella. By mid-century, the Federation stood as one of Englewood’s most important social institutions. Supported largely through the Community Chest, it sponsored or coordinated agencies such as the Englewood Urban League, the Bergen County Tuberculosis and Health Outpatient Department at Englewood Hospital, and the Englewood Thrift Shop. Its services included home economics assistance, family counseling, youth recreation programs, and the operation of Camp Englewood at Lake Tiorati, which provided summer experiences for underprivileged children. During World War II, Memorial House even served as a casualty training station. The Federation’s growth mirrored the city’s own development. Leaders such as Dwight W. Morrow, Daniel E. Pomeroy, and other prominent citizens supported its mission, but its strength ultimately lay in the volunteers and families it served. By its fiftieth anniversary in 1950, local observers credited the Federation with helping to create “a cleaner Englewood” and fostering improved community living through coordinated social services. The 1950s brought structural change. Clinical counseling and family advocacy programs eventually spun off into a separate organization—Family Service of Bergen County, headquartered in Hackensack—reflecting the professionalization of social work. Decades later, in 1997, the two agencies reunited, and in 2002 adopted the name Bergen Family Center, acknowledging both their shared history and their countywide scope. Today, as Bergen Family Center marks more than 125 years of service, it stands as Bergen County’s oldest continuously operating family service agency. Its evolution—from boys’ clubs to day nursery, from Civic League to Social Service Federation, and finally to a modern countywide nonprofit—reflects more than organizational change. It tells the story of a community adapting to new social challenges while sustaining a long tradition of compassion, civic responsibility, and collective care. “Lowly Birth of Social Service Federation Dramatized in Skit at 50th Annual Session.” The Record (Hackensack, NJ), April 28, 1950. “Social Service Federation Flourished for 50 Years: Group Started at Turn of Century as Civic League Now Furnished City With Much.” The Record (Hackensack, NJ), October 5, 1950. <div class="resource-meta media-object-section"> <div class="description full"> <div class="resource-meta media-object-section"> <div class="description full">Partly written by OpenAI. (2026, February 13). ChatGPT (GPT-5.2.) [Large Language Model] https://chat.openai.com/chat.</div> </div> </div> </div> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ludder, Rachelle Social Welfare Social Work https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/62bf3299d657884184970d704e6a4674.jpeg a927178a7a4da7a3ca87349cb64efd59 https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/7c8997c1d9d81f1b6ee2b3ebd63464b7.jpg 6a9ce1b9ea0b324ba183bbed356ae575 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Organizations and Institutions Places A fixed location. Metadata for a place provides descriptive information that is the basis of discovery of the creation, purpose, and agents associated with a place. Type of Institution Government Community Source of File Attached Kim, Linsey. "American Legion Henry Douglas Post 58." Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Legion Henry Douglass Post 58 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.legion.org/history">“History.”</a> The American Legion. <div></div> Subject The topic of the resource Government Agencies World War I Veterans Description An account of the resource American Legion Henry Douglas Post 58 is the American Legion post located in Englewood, New Jersey. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Ludder, Rachelle Military