Book about Mahwah to Hit Shelves Next Month

Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" books - short, photo-heavy history books about specific towns - are released all over the country. Residents who have seen the books about other nearby towns at local bookstores will now be able to thumb through a history of Mahwah.

Arcadia recently announced via its website that "Images of America: Mahwah" will be officially released on February 3.

The book was penned by township historian Carol Greene, who said she spent about three months going through photo archives and soliciting historical pictures from residents to put together the 250 photos needed for the book. Greene also spent time last year writing a brief 1,800-word history of the township to accompany the images.

"I think [Arcadia] did a fantastic job with the book," she told Patch.
"I can't wait for it to come out. I think that a lot of the images I found are really interesting and exciting."

The book will be carried at the Mahwah Museum, in local bookstores like Barnes & Noble, and online.

Greene gave a lot of credit to the Mahwah Museum, an organization of which she is a member and from which she said she garnered about half of the photos used in the book.

"I could not have done this without the total support of the museum," she said.

This book marks a change for Greene, who previously authored "The Ramapough Chronicles," a comprehensive 300-year history of Mahwah and the surrounding region.

"My first book took me 26 years to write. The hard part about this one was to narrow down everything about Mahwah into 128 pages," she said.
"It's such a diverse community and there is a lot of history to cover."

Arcadia released a preview of the book on its website, touting the book as one that "visually captures this community’s wonderfully varied heritage."

Greene will be celebrating the book's release with a book-signing tour at several locations throughout the area, including one at the Museum on February 9 at 2 p.m. A portion of the book sales at the signing will be donated to the museum.

"I am proud to take part in preserving Mahwah's history," Greene said.