{"id":2853,"date":"2026-07-12T14:51:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patersonhistory.com\/?page_id=2853"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:23:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:23:49","slug":"dr-frank-j-van-noort-m-d","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/patersonhistory.com\/index.php\/dr-frank-j-van-noort-m-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Frank J. Van Noort, M.D."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mayor<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Frank J. Van Noort
1920-1923<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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\u00a0Frank Joseph Van Noort was born on December 15, 1869, and raised in Paterson\u2019s predominantly Dutch Over the River neighborhood.\u00a0\u00a0Leonardus and Catherine Van Noort raised their family on the corner of N. Main Street and Arch Street where Leonardus operated a saloon.\u00a0\u00a0They had met and married in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1853\u2013he an immigrant from the Netherlands and she from Ireland.\u00a0\u00a0In 1861 they moved to Paterson, then to New York City, before settling for good in Over the River in 1865.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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53-55 N. Main St. the Van Noort home and saloon.
(Sanborn map 1887, Princeton University)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Frank was the youngest of their ten children, eight of whom lived to adulthood.\u00a0\u00a0The saloon was the neighborhood social center and served as the meeting place for the First Ward Democratic Club.\u00a0\u00a0It was used as a polling station, too.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During election campaigns, the election banners suspended over North Main Street were anchored to the side of the building.\u00a0\u00a0Growing up in this sociable place taught Frank a great deal about getting along with people and human nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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worthpoint.com<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Two things distinguished the Van Noorts from the majority of Over the River\u2019s Hollanders: None of the family permanently worked in the textile mills and on Sundays they attended mass at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0\u00a0There they came under the influence of Dean William N. McNulty, one of Paterson\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0civic leaders\u2013and its most prominent Roman Catholic\u2013for almost sixty years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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William N. McNulty c.1855 (Library of Congress)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Frank attended St. John\u2019s Catholic School and graduated from Paterson High School in 1887.\u00a0\u00a0A few years later he enrolled at Seton Hall College and graduated in 1894. He then earned a medical degree at Cornell University, graduating in 1899. When Leonardus died in 1895, Catherine moved to a house on Main Street, half a block from St. John\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0Frank set up his practice in this house and lived there with his mother and sister Jane.\u00a0\u00a0Their next door neighbor was Dr. Andrew F. McBride, a physician, fellow parishioner at St. John\u2019s, and active Democrat who became \u201cPaterson\u2019s Best Mayor\u201d during his six years (1908-14) in city hall.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Andrew McBride statue by city hall (federicicollections.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Within a few years, Van Noort began spreading his political wings.\u00a0\u00a0He was appointed school inspector in 1900, city physician in 1902, county asylum physician a few years later, and a member of the Passaic Valley Sewer Commission.\u00a0\u00a0In 1906 he was elected county sheriff on the Democratic ticket.\u00a0\u00a0In 1909 he challenged Mayor McBride for the Democratic nomination and lost handily.\u00a0\u00a0Van Noort\u2019s charge of nepotism persuaded few of the party faithful to abandon the popular McBride. Van Noort\u2019s claim that he would not allow Republican members of the Hamilton Club to dictate city appointments also fell flat, considering how he was himself a member of the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Paterson Evening News\u00a0<\/em>7 November 1906 p.1 (newspapers.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Frank maintained his medical practice while he served as sheriff. He also devoted his time to several fraternal organizations (Red Men, Eagles, Elks), the Knights of Columbus, the Democratic Party, and the Hamilton Club.\u00a0\u00a0From these social connections came business opportunities. In 1913 he helped organize the Center Paper Box Company which opened a factory in the Bunker Hill neighborhood.\u00a0\u00a0He served as its president for many years.<\/p>\n

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Passaic Daily Herald<\/em>\u00a025 April 1918 p.7 (newspapers.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

In the spring of 1918,\u00a0\u00a0with the United States involved in the First World War, Van Noort volunteered to serve as a doctor in the army.\u00a0\u00a0For almost a year he was assigned to a military hospital on Staten Island where he treated victims of the influenza epidemic and war-related injuries.\u00a0\u00a0Five months after the Armistice ended the fighting, Van Noort was discharged with the rank of captain.\u00a0\u00a0He returned to Paterson, closed his private medical practice, and devoted himself full-time to the box factory.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That fall, politics beckoned him again.<\/p>\n

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Paterson Evening News\u00a0<\/em>3 November 1919 p. 8 (newspapers.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Paterson\u2019s acting mayor, Clifford Newman, had taken office when Mayor Amos Radcliffe resigned to take a seat in the United States House of Representatives in March 1919.\u00a0\u00a0Van Noort was urged to run for mayor by his friends in the Democratic Party.\u00a0\u00a0He won the party\u2019s nomination in September and campaigned for office at Capt. Frank J. Van Noort, MD\u2013a veteran and a doctor, someone above the partisan fray.\u00a0\u00a0He accused Newman of wild spending.\u00a0\u00a0Newman accused Van Noort of being a career politician who had no administrative experience, especially with finances.\u00a0\u00a0When the votes were counted on November 4, Van Noort had been elected by the margin of a mere 108 votes out of over 18,000 votes cast.\u00a0\u00a0He took office on January 1, 1920.<\/p>\n

As mayor, Van Noort built on McBride\u2019s legacy: parks, schools, reliable municipal services, infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, public health.\u00a0\u00a0Streets were paved, sidewalks built, parks expanded and refurbished.\u00a0\u00a0School teacher salaries were increased.\u00a0\u00a0Women were placed on an equal basis with men for promotion to the role of principal in the public school system.\u00a0\u00a0Negotiations continued with the Erie Railroad to eliminate grade crossings in the downtown area. Van Noort did not forget to reward his friends with jobs; he even appointed his brother John to the office of Receiver of Taxes.\u00a0\u00a0But his term was remarkably free of scandal.<\/p>\n

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Campaign button, 1921 (eBay.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

As election day approached, Van Noort was hospitalized with a burst appendix.\u00a0\u00a0Andrew McBride, St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital\u2019s head surgeon, supervised Van Voort\u2019s care.\u00a0\u00a0The mayor spent election day in the hospital.\u00a0\u00a0When the votes were counted, he had won re-election by the widest margin any mayor had received in over twenty years.\u00a0\u00a0Even though he did not carry heavily Republican the Over the River neighborhood, he did make inroads in the heavily Dutch Protestant precincts.<\/p>\n

While Van Voort never stressed his Dutch roots, he did not walk away from them.\u00a0\u00a0He very publicly endorsed a letter campaign in the public schools that encouraged students to write notes to the queen and princess heir in the Netherlands.\u00a0\u00a0When the local Holland Home campaigned to fund a sizeable addition, Van Noort praised their efforts.\u00a0\u00a0As was the case for many Dutch Catholics, his view of the old country was tempered by the discrimination that had prompted people like his father to leave.\u00a0\u00a0Rather than being a Dutch Catholic, Van Noort was a more Catholic who was part Dutch.<\/p>\n

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Paterson Evening News<\/em>\u00a01 June 1922 p.5 (newspapers.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

His lifelong association with Paterson\u2019s Catholic patriarch, Dean William N. McNulty,\u00a0\u00a0reflected that truth.\u00a0\u00a0While McNulty established parishes for the city\u2019s various ethnic groups\u2013including the predominantly Dutch Our Lady of Lourdes in the Riverside neighborhood\u2013he also encouraged his flock to Americanize.\u00a0\u00a0Dutch Catholics tended to marry within their parishes, but frequently their spouses were from other ethnic groups, much like Van Noort\u2019s own parents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

McNulty\u2019s longevity and his ecumenical spirit transformed him into a revered presence in the city.\u00a0\u00a0The stories about him were legendary: from the time he singled-handedly ended a May Day riot between German and Irish Catholics on Garret Mountain, to the fear he struck into the hearts of his parishioners when he entered a saloon on Saturday to send them home before they drank their weekly wages.\u00a0\u00a0The saloonkeepers were said to fear him more than the police when he would personally enforce the Sunday closing laws, armed with an umbrella to clear the bottles and glasses from the bar and tables.<\/p>\n

McNulty\u2019s death at the age of ninety-three on June 18, 1922, inspired an ecumenical outpouring of praise for what he had done to make Paterson a better place.\u00a0\u00a0Surrounded by an Episcopal rector, a Jewish former mayor, the president of the chamber of commerce, and two more local noteworthies, Van Noort signed a proclamation that extolled McNulty as \u201ca staunch upholder of \u2026good citizenship and civic pride\u2026\u201d, and a patriot with an \u201c\u2026interest in the welfare and progress of the community\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0From these whereases came the therefore asking Patersonians \u201c\u2026regardless of color, nationality or creed to join tomorrow in paying tribute and reverence to the memory of the \u201cGrand Old Man\u201d who has passed\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0He asked that, if convenient, all activities cease in the city for two hours, beginning at 10:00AM and that all flags be flown at half-staff.\u00a0\u00a0The superintendent of schools announced classes would be suspended from 9:30AM until 1:00PM.<\/p>\n

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Paterson Morning Call<\/em>\u00a021 June 1922 p.1 (newspapers.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

At this, the local Ku Klux Klan chapter issued a protest.\u00a0\u00a0They sent a public letter to Van Noort and the newspapers denouncing this \u201cviolation\u201d of the separation of church and state.\u00a0\u00a0Even though Van Noort had stressed McNulty\u2019s civic contributions only, the Klan contended that the schools were being closed to honor a Catholic priest.\u00a0\u00a0The local newspapers denounced the charge; Van Noort remained silent.\u00a0\u00a0He would not dignify the charge with an answer.\u00a0\u00a0The outcry against the Klan statement was so loud, the state Klan organization disavowed any connection to the charge.\u00a0\u00a0While the Klan backed down in the face of public opposition in this instance, a few weeks later crosses burned on Garret Mountain for all to see throughout the city.<\/p>\n

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New York Times\u00a0<\/em>23 June 1922 p. 36 (timesmachine.nytimes.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

McNulty\u2019s funeral took place on June 22.\u00a0\u00a0Upwards of 20,000 came to pay tribute at the church and along the route to the cemetery.\u00a0\u00a0The priest who died in the hospital he founded, was honored by a requiem mass in the church he built. He was buried in the cemetery he had organized on the west edge of the city\u2019s Totowa section.\u00a0\u00a0Mayor Van Noort led the official mourners.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When he ran for a third term in 1923, Van Noord faced stiffer political headwinds.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0Evening News<\/em>\u00a0turned on him, alleging he had betrayed the voters with extravagant spending (including expensive cars city officials rode in), packing offices with his friends, and trying to buy the favor of the\u00a0Evening News<\/em>\u2019s publisher with a public office.\u00a0\u00a0Headlines screamed with accusations that the mayor protected the city\u2019s bootleggers.\u00a0 Van Noort countered with statistics to prove the city\u2019s finances were sound and accusing his Republican opponent of supporting the Ku Klux Klan.\u00a0\u00a0It did not help when the state health department issued a public letter to Van Noort asking that the city government act to suppress the dramatic increase in venereal disease cases being reported locally.\u00a0\u00a0The barrage of bad press took its toll and he lost by about 2100 votes.\u00a0\u00a0Van Noort\u2019s electoral career was over.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Paterson Evening News\u00a0<\/em>7 November 1923 p.1 (newspapers.com)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

He continued to operate the Center Paper Box Company for several years.\u00a0\u00a0He was appointed to various political positions in the city and county.\u00a0\u00a0He also experienced setbacks, most notably a bankruptcy in 1938.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When he died in 1954, Van Noort was remembered as a genial, civic minded asset to the community.\u00a0\u00a0Like Dean McNulty, Frank Van Noort tried to make the world better for others.\u00a0\u00a0For Van Noort that meant healing the sick as a doctor and building a better Paterson as a politician.\u00a0\u00a0But the most publicized thing he did was to say \u201cno\u201d to the Ku Klux Klan when he decided to lower the flags and allow the school children to line the route to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery to honor of the honorable priest who was Paterson\u2019s \u201cgrand old man.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/main><\/div>\n

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