Raymond Pellington Post #77, The American Legion, Paterson, NJ was chartered on January 14th, 1921. It is the oldest American Legion Post in Paterson, where there had been five American Legion Posts in the third largest City in the State of New Jersey. In 1923 Post 77, along with the Veterans of the Spanish American war, and the VFW formed the Paterson Veteran’s alliance. In 1932 the post bought a house on Van Houten Ave, where they operated for 22 years. In 1954 the post moved to their current location on Front street, overlooking the Passaic River and the Great Falls. Since the post was founded, a large segment of its membership had been involved in the Trades, and the local carpenters and construction workers had held their Union meetings at the post home, and many of the improvements to the post were completed by these members. From 1929 to 1945, the post had sponsored a Drum Corps, that in their history won over one hundred silver cups in completion. Most of the existing Drum Corps in Passaic and Bergen Counties can trace their origins to the Raymond Pellington Post’s Drum Corps.
In more recent years, the Pellington Post has redefined its role in Paterson, as the City changed, so did the Post. In 2015 the Pellington Post had donated numerous items to the Paterson Museum, the most cherished of which was the collections of photographs depicting each and every young man from Paterson who lost their life in the service during World War 1. The Post’s Name Sake, Raymond Pellington was a graduate of Paterson High School in 1917, and wask killed in 1918, and was the first man from Paterson who gave the supreme sacrifice in the War to end all Wars.
