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Irvington Information
Irvington is a Township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the
United States 2000 Census, the township had a total population of 60,695.
Since the building boom finally ended in 1930 after consuming every farm and
field in town, Irvington's population has remained relatively stable. A little
over three square miles in area, Irvington is one of the most densely populated
places in the state. Census takers in 1905 found that one-fifth of Irvington's
people were foreign born, most of them natives of Germany, England and Ireland.
During the first three quarters of the 20th Century, a wave of immigrants swept
over Irvington. German Americans bought or rented so heavily in the East Ward
that from the 1880s to the 1950s they were the town's most dominant ethnic
group. The town's Jewish community, numbering over 9,000 in the 1970s, was
virtually non-existent until 1900. The largest ethnic group by the 1970s,
Polish-Americans moved here in force after World War One. Italian-Americans
began arriving in the West Ward in the early 1940s, followed in the 1960s by
Ukrainian-Americans, 4,000 strong (most of them in the North Ward) when the 1970
census was taken.
The 1967 Newark riots hastened an exodus of families from that city, many of
them moving the few short blocks to Irvington. Until 1965 Irvington was almost
exclusively white. By 1980, the town was nearly 40% black, by 1990 it was 70%.
On July 1, 1980, Fred Bost, the first black to serve on the Town Council, was
sworn in as East Ward Councilman. Michael G. Steele, the town's first black
mayor, was elected in 1990, followed by Sara B. Bost in 1994. The current Mayor
is Wayne Smith.
Irvington's public schools are operated by Irvington Public Schools. IPS is an
Abbott District. Irvington High School serves the city of Irvington.