History
In the late 19th century, the Ramapo Valley was developed for large estates by many wealthy families. The Theodore Havemeyer family arrived in the 1870s. Havemeyer, a founder of the American Sugar Company, purchased and renovated a home on Route 202 across from what is now the college and developed his one thousand plus acres into a farm. In 1889 he had a mansion built on the property for one of his daughters. The mansion and about 700 acres were later purchased by Stephen Birch, president of the Kennecott Copper Company.
In 1968, the Department of Higher Education authorized establishing a new state college in Bergen County, due to its increasing population and suburbanization. The criteria for the new college's location were sufficient land for the construction of current needs and future expansion, and close to at least one major highway. The location of existing public and private institutions in the state were also taken into consideration. The college was planned to serve economically deprived students from urban and rural areas, as well as the full range of middle-class families.
George Potter was appointed the first President of the college before a location had been determined. After many board meetings, it was decided that Mahwah would be the location for the new college. Although the land was further north than originally intended for the campus, its proximity to routes 17 and 287 made the Birch Estate an attractive site and few state colleges have such mountains in the background. The Birch property was finally purchased in "November 1972 for $3,133,000 or a little over $10,000 an acre (with $215,000 of total going toward the mansion and other site improvements). Thus, the total cost of the land acquisition was nearly $4,000,000 out of the $15,000,000 allocated for building Ramapo College."
A small 18th-century Dutch colonial home of a pioneer settler on the property was adapted as the president's house. The campus extended on either side of Route 202. Today the former Birch Mansion is used as the administration building of the college.
Read more about this topic: Ramapo College
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