Waldwick Erie Interlocking Tower was constructed in 1890 by the New York Lake Erie and Western Railroad in the Queen Anne style and remained largely as built despite later neglect, stucco replacing original wood siding on the lower panels, and modernization such as added electrical feeds in the early twentieth century. It is an outstanding example of industrial architecture reflecting its era and the only surviving example of six towers built to this design, which were originally divided between New York and New Jersey; nearby examples at Ramsey and Suffern were demolished, with the Suffern tower removed in the 1990s to make room for a support for Route 1-287, and others of the same style stood at Pompton Junction near Bloomingdale and Great Notch near East Caldwell. The railroad history tied to Waldwick began with the 1841 chartering of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad Company, followed by incorporation, leasing, and connections among regional lines in the 1850s, the start of block signal use in New Jersey in 1863, a second mainline track through Waldwick in 1865, a battery-powered block signal patent in 1872, and the 1878 reorganization of the New York and Erie Railroad as the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad. By 1890 the railroad had 460 miles of trackage, 11.1 million passengers, and 16.2 million tons of freight, and the Waldwick tower was described as one of the largest and most outstanding in the area as construction began on a yard for intermediate commuter trains with fifty men employed, a large car yard, and a four-stall engine house. A water reservoir for engines was dug in 1894, commuting expanded as fifty thousand people traveled daily to New York from New Jersey by 1900, a third mainline track was added in 1902, a fourth in 1903, and in 1904 an electric interlocking machine replaced the earlier lever system. Service through Waldwick remained heavy in the early twentieth century, with dozens of westbound and eastbound passenger trains daily, the arrival of the New Jersey Rapid Transit trolley in 1912, a booming downtown in the 1920s, and a 1920 population of 1,296 with about fifty yard employees. A 1946 tower block diagram showed four tracks plus two parallel tracks with sidings branching from them, while by then no engine facility was indicated. The tower closed in 1986 when track control was centralized, was acquired by the Borough of Waldwick in 1999, received key rehabilitation funding through Robert Keeble’s 2002 will, and saw exterior work completed in 2005 and interior rehabilitation completed in 2013 as a museum was begun.
