Back around 1990, John Cohen took from the basement storage room of city hall the most incredible album of aerial photos of Hackensack, and if I recall it was dated exactly 1940. It was about 2' x 3' and had nearly as many photos as there are tax maps. They covered every part of the city. At the time, he was the Chair of the newly created Environmental Commission. He took them because "These are important records of the history of Hackensack. They need safekeeping. One day the maintenance staff of the city might go through this room and just throw out everything they don't see value in". The room was a haphazardly kept collection of old developer's site plans.
Who knows if he was right on that, but the bottom line is that he took the atlas "for safekeeping". And now that the city has a historian, I'm sure he would be "happy" to return the atlas. If he has already returned the atlas, please advise. Cohen still lives on the same house on Summit Ave near Passaic Street. Good luck.
