TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—A Bergen County Open Space grant request for $900,000 by the Township to acquire 3.2 acres of mostly wooded property at 450 Pascack Road for active and passive recreation — a purchase long sought by neighbors and residents hoping to expand Memorial Field — can go forward despite the possible historical status of the house and barn on the property.
That’s according to Elaine Gold, the county’s historic preservation specialist, in an email.
The township’s grant request was made in mid-May to Bergen County’s Open Space program by the grants consultant, GLD Associates of Summit.
The request estimated the total acquisition costs for 450 Pascack Road at $950,000, with $50,000 likely in such soft costs as legal and engineering fees to be paid by the township.
That request likely will be decided in the next few months, with a Bergen County Commissioners vote likely in December.
The property is occupied by a dilapidated single-family home fronting Pascack Road, accompanied by a large barn and shed. Behind is a mostly wooded tract, providing a buffer between Washington school, Memorial Field and homes on Ridgewood Boulevard East.
The home has remained in disrepair well over a decade as the owner negotiated with various parties, including the township and a developer who proposed a 48-unit independent senior complex, before withdrawing the proposal in fall 2020 after public pushback.
The grant proposal lists Robert Morris as executor for the estate of Nora Morris, under the property owner consent form section of the grant application. The property was recently cited as a nuisance under the property maintenance code for its deteriorating porch and barn. It was not clear what action, if any, was taken in response to the code violations.
Hints at history
The information on 450 Pascack’s possible historic status was revealed in a May 2023 letter from Gold, the county’s historic preservation specialist, Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, county parks department.
Town administrator Mark DiCarlo told Pascack Press on Aug. 22 that the township would seek a letter clarifying the historic status of the home and barn. He said the owner has not indicated that the property is historic.
“If the house is a historical structure, it could impact the township’s ability to demolish it. However, the current owner, whose family has lived there for almost 80 years, is unaware of any historical significance,” DiCarlo told us.
Council vice president Steven Cascio told us, “I am unaware of any historical significance of the property. If there is, I would like to see it preserved on the county level with county funding. I would have no problem with asking Ms. Gold to look into it further and will ask [council president] Ms. [Desserie] Morgan to do the same.”
We first noted the possible historical status of improvements there after a recent public records request for the grant revealed that Gold had written the township’s grants consultant on the matter.
That email was in response to grant consultant David Biunno’s request for a historic preservation assessment on 450 Pascack Road about two weeks before the application was due in May. Biunno is employed by GLD Associates, Summit.
A similar request by Biunno had been made for the 6.1-acre former Washington Township Swim & Recreation Club property, Ridgewood Boulevard North, which the town is eying for recreational uses and on which it is storing public works equipment. No historic structures were identified there.
In a May 12 email provided to Pascack Press, Gold wrote, “450 Pascack Road, Washington Township, is a circa 1890–1910 American Foursquare home with a garage structure contemporary to the construction of the residence.”
According to Wikipedia, The American Foursquare or Prairie Box is a post-Victorian style, “which shared many features with the Prairie architecture pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright.”
The entry says, “During the early 1900s and 1910s, Wright even designed his own variations on the Foursquare, including the Robert M. Lamp House, ‘A Fireproof House for $5,000’, and several two-story models for American System-Built Homes.”
It says, “Unlike other houses of the style, Wright’s versions featured more open main floor plans achieved by removing or minimizing partitions between the entry, living room, and dining room. He in turn inspired other Prairie School architects, such as Walter Burley Griffin, to design similar Foursquares in the following decades.”
Gold told the township officials that she has been unable to track the chain of title past the previous owners “with certainty.”
Before they applied for the grant, Gold told local officials that the property appears on a 1930 aerial photograph and “It does appear that the property was once part of the larger Van Emberg holdings, parts of which were sold to George Schlagel, who appears on the 1912 Bromley Map of Bergen County in the vicinity of 450 Pascack Road.”
She said, “But more time would be needed to verify this information and to track the occupation of this house on U.S. Census tracts. [Neither] this lack of information nor the presence of a historic property … preclude[s] Township of Washington from acquiring the property,” Gold advised in her May 12 email.
Pascack Press asked a county spokesperson if further county research on the house or barn’s historic status might cause restrictions to be put in place. We did not hear back by press time.
Prior to applying for a county Open Space Land Acquisition grant in May, local officials had discussed purchasing the tract on and off for nearly a decade, with administrations trying to acquire the parcel wedged between a dozen homes on Ridgewood Boulevard East and George Washington Elementary School.
Derek Sands, a county spokesperson, told Pascack Press that the county Open Space Trust Fund does not provide 100% funding for land acquisition and typically grants are awarded in the 65% to 80% range.
Sands said the Trust Fund Advisory Committee met on Aug. 1 to make funding recommendations to the Board of Commissioners.
“However, these are merely recommendations and will require a preliminary vote of approval at an upcoming Board of Commissioners’ meeting. The exact date is not set,” Sands told us.
We requested a copy of the recommendations but did not immediately hear back.
Sands said there is “no cap or limit” on the funding amount a town could receive in one year from the county Open Space Trust Fund. However, he said towns can only apply for a maximum two grants in a funding year per program.
This includes a maximum of two grants per year among the land acquisition, floodplain protection, and farmland preservation programs (the ‘County program’) and a maximum of two municipal park improvement grants are allowed yearly (the ‘Municipal program’), Sands said.
Should the town acquire 450 Pascack Road partly using county Open Space funds, certain restrictions will apply to its uses, with primary use only for active and passive recreation.