Paramus, NJ

Paramus generated $5.45 billion in retail sales in 2022 and still closes much of its store network one day each week. Garden State Plaza, Bergen Town Center, and Paramus Park form its principal mall group. Routes 4 and 17 and the Garden State Parkway divide and connect the shopping landscape, placing malls and roadside stores on three regional traffic corridors. Borough law generally restricts retail business and other work on Sundays. The code exempts meals, drugs, baked goods, publications, fuel, recreation, and perishable agricultural products, so the legal distinction is visible in which errands and activities remain available.

The highways replaced a very different landscape. When Paramus incorporated in 1922, celery farms and dirt roads still defined the borough. The name derives from the Lenape word peramsepuss, translated as land of the wild turkeys or fertile fields where turkeys are found; a metal wild-turkey statue at Paramus Park recalls that origin. Paramus Road had already served as a Lenape trail and, later, a route used by British and American forces during the Revolution. The Library of Congress holds 30 letters George Washington headed “Headquarters Paramus.” Postwar development transformed the farm community: Garden State Plaza opened in 1957, followed by Bergen Mall, now Bergen Town Center, in 1958. A smaller piece of the earlier civic landscape survives on Midland Avenue. A one-room schoolhouse built in 1876 later served as borough hall and police headquarters and now houses the Charles E. Reid Branch Library, where its original school bell remains on display.

Education and health care add daily activity beyond the retail corridors. Bergen Community College operates its main campus at 400 Paramus Road and currently offers over 120 degree and certificate programs. Its facilities include a health-professions teaching center, observatory, theater, library, tutoring center, and athletic fields. Classrooms, laboratories, and playing fields occupy a campus apart from the highway malls. The Valley Hospital moved from Ridgewood to a new 370-bed Paramus facility on April 14, 2024. It occupies a 40-acre health campus that combines an acute-care hospital with outpatient services. These institutions bring class schedules, clinical work, and hospital visits into a borough whose regional reputation was built first around shopping.

Van Saun County Park provides the largest local counterpoint to highways and malls. Its 138.85 acres include about 3.2 miles of paths and ball fields. The northern section concentrates the Bergen County Zoo, tennis, carousel, miniature train, and pony rides; the southern section includes a lake, dog park, and less programmed grounds. The paths connect those programmed attractions to the lake and dog park in the south. The zoo occupies roughly 13 acres and focuses on animals from North and South America, with an education center and outdoor amphitheater. It operates throughout the year. Paramus thus works at two scales. Malls, a college, and a hospital draw people from across Bergen County. An old school bell, park paths, a carousel, and a miniature train supply smaller landmarks that residents can revisit close to home.