Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Closter, NJ

Closter is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, nicknamed the 'Hub of the Northern Valley.'

Its name comes from the Dutch 'Klooster,' meaning a quiet place, a monastery or cloister, and first appears in a deed dated November 18, 1721.

The first land grant deed for the area now known as Closter was written on April 13, 1671, and Barent and Resolvert Nagel bought its northern 1,030 acres in 1710, settling the area with the Vervalen family.

Streets named for early Dutch families — Bogert, Demarest, Durie, Naugle, Parsells, Vervalen, Auryansen, Haring and Westervelt — still crisscross the borough, which preserves a rich collection of Jersey Dutch houses.

The arrival of the Northern Branch railroad in 1859 let Closter residents commute to Manhattan via the Weehawken ferry, and the borough's central location earned it its 'Hub of the Northern Valley' nickname.

Closter was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on January 1, 1904, from portions of Harrington Township; on March 29, 1904, Harrington Park was created from portions of Closter, Harrington Township and Washington Township.

After 1900 Closter transformed from sprawling estates and farms into an upper-middle-class suburb.

The 2020 census counted 8,594 residents in Closter, living in 2,762 households across 3.30 square miles.

Closter students attend Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest, which opened in 1955 and also serves Demarest and Haworth; Closter's own high school had operated from 1912 until the regional school opened.

Closter Plaza, a 208,000-square-foot open-air mall first built in the 1960s and rebuilt in a project completed in late 2016, was used in August 2012 to film scenes for The Wolf of Wall Street.