Despite that unpleasant occurrence, the second year of the borough's existence was viewed with general satisfaction. It had proven itself capable of self-government. Mayor Struyk's second annual message on March 16, 1903 reported that Prospect Park "had done well in a financial way" as well. The Mayor also prophesied an imminent increase in population, which would bring additional advantages and decreased costs, and recommended a gradual system of permanent improvements to be carried out economically. His own words best evidence the spirit with which the entire citizenry was endowed:
"Honest differences of opinion will, of course, from time to time, arise among us, but the aim of all is the welfare of our borough."

Election of a full school board of nine members on March 17, 1903 indicates that one-year terms had been given to the first school commissioners, as in the case of the Councilmen. Jacob Doele, Gerrit Planten and Adrian Struyk were elected for three-year terms; William F. Lambert, Fred C. Brooks and Leonard Bosschieter, for two years; and Thomas Fraser, Conrad Hurtz and Garret Sandhuisen, for one year. Since that election three members have been elected annually to three-year terms.

Community progress went on. Edward W. Garrison was named principal of the school in April 1903, succeeding Mr. Thurston, whose one year under the borough Board of Education had been a troublous one. At the same meeting, the board renamed it the Prospect Park Borough School. A dedication program of Haledon School No. 5 on January 30, 1895, which listed the Prospect Park School as "No. 6," indicates that it had been designated at its establishment as District No. 6. From requisitions sent by Mr. Thurston to supervising principal Grundy for supplies, and from pencilled memoranda which were found in the Haledon School, there are indications that the school was identified later as No. 3 of Manchester Township. Apparently this latter designation followed the uniting of all schools of the township under a single Board of Education.

With Mr. Garrison's advent as principal, the board established an eighth grade and junior high school in the borough, under a plan instituted by Mr. Garrison and which was continued for three years.

The following March Mayor Struyk, in his annual message, recommended the erection of a building to serve as Borough Hall, fire house and jail as well as for educational purposes. The Board of Council acted on the recommendation immediately, the same night calling a special election for May 31 at which the voters were to decide on a proposed bond issue of $15,000. That issue was divided in three parts: $5,000 for construction of a combined town hall, engine house, jail and recorder's court; $2,000 for the purchase of fire-fighting equipment; and $8,000 for street improvements. The Board of Council minutes show that the voters rejected the first two propositions, but favored issuance of $8,000 in street improvement bonds. 

With the improvement program, finances became straightened  but the borough fathers refused to be confounded by the situation. Recorded minutes of the years of 1905-06 show the use of scrip in the meeting of obligations. Also, Mayor Struyk proved his faith in the community by personally lending money for payment of bills.

On August 9, 1906, the Board of Council adopted a resolution providing for installation of eight fire hydrants. The first of these was installed on July 23, 1907, and the number was shortly increased to twenty-two hydrants. Thus, the laying of water mains for this purpose made city water available to the majority of homes in the developed section of the community. A second bond issue of $5,000 was floated and sold on November 6, 1906 to the Hamilton Trust Company of Paterson.

Because the school attendance had risen to 400 pupils, the Board of Education was now confronted with the problem of proving additional facilities. The original frame building, erected over fifteen years before, was not adequate despite several additions. The enrollment increased so rapidly that another teacher was added, and Principal Garrison found it necessary to teach a class.

In 1907, the voters approved the erection of a brick addition to the old school. Principal Edward W. Garrison's ability as an educator was recognized by the then Governor of the State who appointed him County Superintendent. Mr. Somers Ingersoll succeeded him as our principal.

Prospect Park Borough School was not alone in its growth. Just across the line in Paterson, the North Fourth Street Christian School had increased its enrollment from about 100 at its founding in 1895 to 300, most of whom were from Prospect Park. In 1907 the Christian School Society, which operated the school, purchased a plot at Halpine and North Fourth Streets and erected thereon its present building. A roll call of 440 pupils marked its dedication.

Prospect Park's first big fire loss occurred in April of 1911, when the original frame part of of school building went up in flames, though the brick portion was saved. The story goes that a child, sent to a wardrobe for punishment, became resentful instead of penitent and thereupon built a fire in a corner of the cloakroom. This was about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and the school was in full session. The flames spread rapidly throughout the wooden structure. However, upon the fire alarm being sounded, all the teachers and pupils marched out of the burning school building in good order, just as though it were but another fire drill. The emergency was met squarely. The voters quickly approved the $25,000 bond issue asked by the Board of Education to erect another brick addition to replace the burned portion of the school.

The two brick portions, thus built, constitute the present school, comprising twenty-one classrooms, the principal's office and the teacher's room. In 1928 the auditorium was added and since then many improvements were made, such as the popular manual training class now taught by Mr. Walter Macak and sewing class taught by Miss Florence Cooper.

Not until the 1910 census was an official separate count taken of inhabitants of the Borough of Prospect Park. Tabulation placed the population then at 2,719.

The peaceful atmosphere of the borough, the quiet home life of its people and in particular their devotion to religion, mostly Reformed and Christian Reformed, attracted persons of Dutch birth and extradiction including many immigrants newly arrived from the Netherlands. Prospect Park thus really became a Holland community, where almost everyone was of Dutch birth or decent, and the Dutch language was understood and spoken by almost all the people. To the extent that this has continued is illustrated by what occurred at a meeting of the Prospect Park Borough Council in 1945 - a property owner wrote a letter in Dutch to the Borough Council complaining about a tax assessment. The clerk read the letter, and it was understood by all at the Council table including the Mayor, the six councilmen, the Borough Engineer and the Borough Attorney.

By 1910 the Hopper Tract was fairly well developed with graded, curbed and guttered roads, and new homes principally of the self-sustaining, two-family type.

Adjoining sections began to feel Prospect Park's progressive influence. Houses sprang up on the Graham tract to the North, which had been sub-divided in 1909. This section was more familiarly known as the "bull lots," because herds of beef cattle, shipped from the west, grazed on its pasture land waiting consignment to the slaughterhouse. Its corners also afforded baseball diamonds, where the youth of the entire community played and both fire companies held exciting contests. Its bordering woods with patches of red cedars, clumps of white birches and big maples and majestic oaks were the scenes of joyous picnics and the hunting grounds for the boys of the neighborhood.

It is interesting to note that the two fire companies were the moving forces of political rivalries. The contests were limited to the primaries, as the Borough voters almost unanimously supported the straight Republican ticket from the beginning. But the Presidential Election of 1912 marked a temporary departure from straight Republican following. Theodore Roosevelt, who had left the Republican fold to run as a candidate on the "Bull Moose" Progressive ticket, carried the Borough. With his return to the Republican Party after his defeat, the Borough voters did likewise.

That election also had returned Mayor Struyk to office for his seventh consecutive term. But he was not to serve it, for shortly after election he fell ill and on December 12, 1912 that true Christian gentleman went to the great beyond.

The entire community mourned his passing, for his absolute honesty, his devotion to good government without waste or extravagance and his sound and impartial judgement, had justly earned him the respect of all. He was truly "the father of our Borough." Shortly after his death what was then Oak Street was, in his memory, changed to Struyk Avenue.

The leadership qualities of Lambertus Touw, who was chosen Mayor to fill the vacancy created by Adrian Struyk's death, were put to a test in the first year of his incumbency with the outbreak of the great Paterson Dyers' strike in the Summer of 1913. Because many of the borough residents were employed in the dye shops, Prospect Park became involved. To keep peace and avoid violence deputies patrolled the borough's streets. The high light of the strike was the so-called "Battle of Muh's Hill." To prevent the striking workmen from molesting the non-strikers as they came over the Sixth Avenue Bridge at East Main Street to their homes in and through the borough, a police force was present there. The strikers had gathered in force on what was then the Muh's property, which was open ground between North Eighth Street and East Main Street. Somehow a real clash between the strikers and the police ensued, resulting in many painful injuries and a number of arrests. Thirteen weeks of this strike ended in a settlement, and the borough resumed its peaceful existence.

As cisterns and a few wells were the sources of the water used by the Prospect Park residents before city water became available it had to be used sparingly. The use of City water brought with it the problem of sewage disposal. During Mayor Struyk's terms of office the streets of the borough were curbed and guttered with blue stone flags, with the expectation that this would carry off the waste water. Instead it collected in the gutters in stagnate, smelly pools. In 1903 the State Legislature had passed an act providing for the building of a trunk sewer to carry the sewerage from municipalities in the Passaic Valley to sea via Newark Bay. Because of the magnitude and expense of the undertaking few of the smaller  enmunicipalities hadtered into the trunk sewerage system, which was completed and in operation when Lambertus Touw became mayor. Mayor Touw saw the value to Prospect Park of obtaining the right to empty its sewerage into the trunk sewer. To gain this right the borough had to obtain the consent of each of fifteen municipalities extending from Paterson City to Newark, and also to purchase from each of them a part of its share in the sewer's capacity. This was a long and arduous task and was handled by Mayor Touw with rare skill and great tenacity. He personally interviewed the officials of these fifteen municipalities and attended more than seventy meetings of official bodies before the task was accomplished. The borough obtained the trunk sewer rights as a cost to the borough which even then was very reasonable and, in comparison with the cost of the erection and maintenance of a sewer disposal plant which would otherwise have been necessary, has proven to be a real bargain for the people of Prospect Park. In obtaining the use of the trunk sewer Mayor Touw made the greatest single contribution ever made by any official to the progress of Prospect Park and the welfare of its people.

As soon as Prospect Park got the right to use trunk sewer the Council passed an ordinance to lay sewers throughout the borough and requiring that all sewer facilities in properties be connected therewith. $52,993.50, which was the contract price for laying the sewers in the borough's streets and making the connection with the trunk sewer at the river, seemed a large sum for the borough property owners to meet, so the ordinance allowed them to pay their respective assessments in ten annual installments. So generally popular was the installation of the sewer system, that most property owners paid their assessments in full and the borough found it unnecessary to issue bonds to finance the project.

During 1913 there seemed to be considerable agitation for a combined municipal building and firehouse, and in January, 1914 a resolution was adopted by the Council to engage Architect John Van Vlaanderen to draw plans for such a building, which he subsequently presented to the Council the following September but no further action was taken on this project for some time to come.

Other things were happening too. Belle Avenue was renamed Brown Avenue, and Oak Avenue became Struyk Avenue. About that same time the Council went on record as being opposed to a pending legislative bill designed to give salaries to the Mayor and Councilmen. The same year the only trolley line ever operated through a part of Prospect Park was built along Goffle Road to provide service between Paterson, Prospect Park, Hawthorne and Ridgewood.

In 1915 the Board of Council adopted the building code, which has remained in force ever since, John Udes being appointed first building inspector.

As the borough expanded and progressed the two fire companies became more cooperative with each other. Each enjoyed a good membership, and a junior membership was made available to young men under age. However, Fire Company No. 1 operated without official borough recognition, but it retained its ladder, pails, axes, poles and rope with which its members quickly responded to alarms, although the heavy, unwieldy ladder and other equipment had to be carried by hand unless someone happened along with a truck or wagon. The Hose Company was little better off, having to tow its hose reel by hand, unless a team of horses could be inducted into service. Naturally the fire-fighters were quite fatigued by the time they reached the scene of the blaze.

The close of 1916 also brought an end to sixteen years of continuous service as Borough Clerk for Thomas Fraser, who had been an active member of the original fire company as well as of the first Board of Council. On his retirement he was succeeded by Richard Hommes.

WORLD WAR ONE BRINGS LOCAL PROBLEMS

Upon entry of our country into the World War in April 1917, the Board of Council authorized Mayor Touw to organize a Home Defense League. In every way Prospect Park's people placed themselves solidly behind the Federal Government. More than one hundred of its resident answered the nation's call; ten of whom gave their lives in the war which was to end all wars.

Despite the turbulence of America's eighteen months' participation in the war, the homefolks seemed to carry on with their local affairs. On application from the Hose Company, the Town Hall question had been renewed and a committee named to draw plans for a combined municipal building and firehouse. Bids were advertised for on April 25, 1918, and after tabulation by Architect John S. Struyk, the contract was awarded. The new building was completed that Fall and opened for public inspection on January 1, 1919.

In January, 1918, Mayor Touw, who had been appointed fuel administrator for the borough, named John Van Buiten as his assistant. Between them they strove to meet the emergencies of fuel shortage caused by war demands. Many residents will recall the "heatless days" of that period. Peter Hofstra was the food administrator for the Borough and as there was a shortage of sugar it could be had only with tickets he issued.

Prospect Park gave more than its flesh and blood to the cause of Democracy in the World War. On each of the four occasions, when the government called for subscriptions for Liberty Bonds, the residents over-subscribed the borough's quota. Garret Sandhuizen was the chairman of the committee. Prospect Park's people again met their quota when John S. Struyk led the Victory Loan subscription Campaign after the war's end.

The Armistice of November 11, 1918 brought Prospect Park's World War One Veterans back home to resume their peaceful ways. Mayor Touw headed a campaign for funds to erect a suitable monument to the memory of the borough's courageous sons. Under the mayor's leadership and the able management of Cornelius Molendyk, secretary-treasurer of the movement, the handsome memorial now gracing the borough school's front walk was built. Inscribed on a bronze plaque on the monument are the names in World War One, citing especially those who lost their lives in service: Peter Verhage, William Van Der Pool, Jacob Tanis, Walter A. Street, Charles E. Stansbury, Marinus Koning, William Grosser, John L. Dykstra, William De Vogel, and Russell F. Ackerman. The unveiling and dedication, at which Mayor Touw presided on November 15, 1919, featured a large parade, addresses by the Honorable Thomas F. McCran and Ex-Judge Francis Scott, and an evening banquet and entertainment in honor of the returned service men.

The 1920 United States Census showed Prospect Park's population had increased to 4,292. That growth evidenced the results of the development of the Graham, Planten and Muhs tracts, and the extension of the improved streets and the water and sewer systems. The newcomers were mostly of the same type that had originally established the borough, people who sought peaceful home, civic and church life.

The growth of the Borough also brought need for better fire protection, and that the old man-drawn hose reel, pails, ladder, etc., were no longer sufficient to meet emergencies was demonstrated by the Van Buiten mill fire. It was at about 10:30 P.M. on the bitter cold night of February 1918 when the Van Buiten building was found afire. It was a large wooden structure occupied by several textile weaving firms situated where the northerly mill building of the Century Woven Label Co. now stands. The fire began in the mill basement and was burning fiercely when the firemen arrived. For a time the heat was so intense that the firemen could not get near enough to the building to even keep an effective stream of water on it and it was soon apparent that the building was doomed. Fire Chief Van Buiten, who owned the mill building, therefore ordered his men and the companies from Hawthorne and Haledon, which had responded to the Borough's call for assistance, to concentrate on saving surrounding dwellings, several of which were afire at one time. At nine o'clock the next morning the building was a heap of smoldering ruins but only one of the buildings, the Bosland home which adjoined the mill, had been totally destroyed. No fireman who went through that hectic night will ever forget the feeling of futility of trying to fight that fire with the inadequate means at hand. Nor how when he got home after the fire, the clothes he wore were frozen so stiff that when he took them off he could stand them up. The Van Buiten fire brought prompt action. Prospect Park Hose Company offered the Board of Council a $2,000 contribution towards the purchase of a motor fire apparatus. As a result, the borough bought a Mack fire truck for $10,000, of which the Hose Company was given charge. Ever since the borough has been kept well equipped with fire apparatus.

Prospect Park's new era of progress, on which it had embarked in 1920, continued. The advent of the motor age brought its first direct public transportation facilities from the borough proper to the heart of Paterson. Bus service was inaugurated along Haledon Avenue in 1923 and later extended along North Eighth Street and North Eleventh Street. This service, which was for about four years supplied by independent operators, was then taken over by the Public Service Co-ordinated Transport. In August of 1926, the Hawthorne Trolley Line which had run along East Main Street in the borough was discontinued being replaced by a bus line.

About this time the Passaic County Road Department constructed a concrete roadway along East Main Street. This was the first such pavement in the borough. Similar pavements were laid two years later on Haledon Avenue and North Eighth Street. The Borough authorities saw the advantages of the people of good roads and the first penetration, or semi-improved type of hard-surface road was laid in 1923. This began the program that was to give the borough its present excellent road system. The first concrete pavement laid by the Borough was along Planten Avenue, followed in 1927 by the paving of Brown Avenue and North Eleventh Street.

A modern electric signal box fire alarm system (which had been later been dismantled due to the high number of false alarms by pranksters) was installed in 1924 in place of the old locomotive tire fire gongs which had to be hit with a sledge hammer. The Hose Company again came to the fore with a $600 contribution towards the cost of the new alarm system.

Company No.1, though officially recognized as a part of the Borough Fire Department, had no modern apparatus until the early part of 1925 when the Borough bought for its use for $4,000 a fully equipped fire truck. Upon receipt of the new apparatus the Fire Company held a two-fold celebration, for at that time it also burned one of the mortgages it had on its property.

Much of the rivalry which had existed between Hose Company and the Fire Company ended with the passing of an ordinance which at last united the two fire companies as the Borough's Fire Department under a single chief. The fire chief is now elected annually by vote of the active members of both companies, one year from one company and the next year from the other. The old rancor between the fire companies has ended there being now only the usual rivalry in various competitions and as to which company arrives first at the fire.

On February 19, 1925, the Board of Council formally created a full time Police Department to replace the Marshals, who had been sufficient to meet police needs up to that time. Growth and changing conditions required more modern methods. John Bosland, one of the two marshals appointed in 1901, was named head of this new Police Department.

In 1925 a number of local residents were prime movers in the formation of a bank for our Borough and the result was that the Prospect Park National Bank officially opened its doors on December 31, 1925 at the corner of North Sixth Street and Haledon Avenue with an original capital of $50,000 and surplus of $25,000. Deposits exceeding $100,000 marked the opening day of the new institution -- a splendid display of confidence, which was destined to carry the bank steadily, unfalteringly forward even through the late depression. That the confidence so shown by our people in this bank was not misplaced was proven during the 1930 depression when it always fully met its obligations. The Prospect Park National Bank is now known far and wide for its modern and progressive business practices and because it pays a higher interest rate on savings than most other banks and for its phenomenal growth now having deposits of $34 million dollars.

Another financial institution to enjoy similarly consistent growth and stability was created shortly after the bank with the organization of the Prospect Park Building and Loan Association on March 26, 1926, now being the Prospect Park Savings and Loan Association. It, too, is a credit to the Borough and was also one of the few similar institutions that met all its obligations in full on demand. (The institution had fallen on hard times in the 1990's as their investments in the real estate market proved costly resulting in the takeover of the S&L by the federal government. For a short time, it was called the Prospect Park Federal Bank before it was sold to Paterson based Lakeview National Bank in 1994.)

After three eventful terms, Cornelius Bosland, whose administration had been confronted with many adjustment problems, was succeeded by Peter Hook, who was elected in 1920 as the Borough's fourth Mayor.

Mayor Hook's first term was unhappily marked by the outbreak of an epidemic of diphtheria in September of 1927. Out of forty-six cases in the community, there were six fatalities before the epidemic was brought under control in February, 1928. Though this was the most tragically disastrous wave of sickness in the borough's history, it developed Prospect Park's health program. To combat the disease, the health and school boards inaugurated a toxin-anti-toxin campaign, the service of immunizing children which has continued in practice. At the same time a wave of measles swept over the borough from January to June, but no serious consequences resulted from the 171 cases.

Fortunately, the services of a child hygiene nurse, Miss Elizabeth Vermeulen, had been accepted from the State the month before the diphtheria outbreak. Not only did she take an active part in the drive against the two diseases, but also opened a "Baby Keep Well Station" and conducted a program of health hygiene service for both pre-school and school children. A year's faithful and capable service resulted in the health and school boards' decision to retain Miss Vermeulen's services and ever since these two boards have engaged a full-time health nurse and have equally borne the cost.

But Prospect Park was not a community to permit any hardship to deter its progress. Its only secondary educational institution, the Eastern Academy, which had been founded on February 18, 1918 by the Society for Christian Secondary Education for Paterson and vicinity and dedicated to the furtherance of Christian principles, had shown consistent growth since moving into the borough in 1924. Increased enrollment necessitated the ..etc... more to come.