Everyone who has grown up in Hackensack and went to Fairmount School would be familiar with Baldwin Park, which is across the street from the side entrance of Fairmount School. I played there for years, growing up in the 1960’s, and never knew anything about the man whom the park is named after.

Click here to read The Bergen Evening Record article dated February 17, 1942, reporting on the Elks Club having a testimonial dinner in Spencer D. Baldwin’s honor.

I have put his name under World War I era because in the article it mentions he was at one time the Mayor of Hackensack and was also chairman of the Memorial Committee of Hackensack Lodge 658, B.P.O. Elks for thirty (30) years. Thirty years of service on that committee would mean he had started his service on the committee in 1912 or five years before the United States entered the First World War.

Written by:
Bob Meli
February 15, 2016