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October 20, 2025
HomeAuthorsKristin Beuscher

Articles by Kristin Beuscher

An 1899 view of the Hering mill on Grand Avenue in Montvale. It stood on the Pascack Brook, across from the modern-day Montvale Post Office, and west of the Octagon House.
Back in Time

A favorite of autumns ago

October 11, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

MONTVALE—In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Garret Hering’s sawmill was on Grand Avenue across from where the Montvale Post Office now stands. Every October, the building also became […]

The Vorrath farmhouse, at the corner of Hillsdale Avenue and Yesler Way, has been the home of the Hillsdale Free Public Library since 1957.
Back in Time

When Hillsdale met Seattle: The origins of Yesler Way

October 3, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

HILLSDALE—In the early days of the Pascack Valley, roads were not given names in the same way we know them today. The few roads that existed to serve the handful of […]

Back in Time

He insulted Miss Carlock — Her father lies in wait and administers a drubbing to the fellow

September 28, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

New York Sun, Oct. 1, 1895 — John J. Carlock, superintendent of streets, lives at Saddle River, and comes to Hackensack every morning on the New Jersey & New York […]

Ninety years ago this week, downtown Westwood was the scene of a grand patriotic display for the dedication of the post office. Despite the financial hardships of the Great Depression, it was an era of rapid advancement for the borough.
Back in Time

History signed, sealed, delivered

September 20, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

WESTWOOD—On Sept. 21. 1935, the citizens of Westwood, with county, state, and national officials, marched through local streets bedecked with flags and bunting. The band played patriotic odes to America […]

Look for the rooster on top of the tower. As though anybody could miss it! This was the view outside Ye Old Octagon House on West Grand Avenue in Montvale in the late 1930s. At the time, it was a fried chicken restaurant.
Pascack Press

A 75¢ chicken dinner in Montvale

September 13, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

Montvale’s iconic Octagon House, on West Grand Avenue, is a stately relic of a bygone age in the borough. Three mayors have called this wonderful eight-sided structure, built in the […]

The Woodcliff schoolhouse opened 130 years ago this week, on Sept. 9, 1895. The borough had broken off from Washington Township just a year earlier. Designed by an architect who also became the first mayor, the building was constructed with stones gathered from the surrounding fields of the farming community. Pictured here are teachers and several students on the front steps, circa 1905.
Back in Time

Woodcliff schoolhouse, hewn from local stone, still serves

September 7, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

WOODCLIFF LAKE—On Woodcliff Avenue surrounded by a modern middle school campus, Woodcliff Lake’s little stone schoolhouse offers a lesson in longevity. It’s the oldest continually operating school building in Bergen […]

Old Tappan's two-room schoolhouse, along with teachers, principal, and the student body, in 1900.
Back in Time

Remembering Old Tappan’s little schoolhouse

August 29, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

OLD TAPPAN—Thirty-one students, two teachers, and a principal—this comprised the entirety of Old Tappan’s two-room wooden schoolhouse in 1900.    The school stood on Old Tappan Road near Leonard Drive, […]

The District 20 schoolhouse and student body circa 1890. This school stood at Piermont Avenue and Rivervale Road in what is now River Vale, serving a rural community of fewer than 200.
Back in Time

The three lives of River Vale’s one-room schoolhouse

August 29, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

RIVER VALE—Long before anyone talked about recycling or sustainability, the people of River Vale simply refused to waste a good building. What today might be described as adaptive reuse was […]

Back in Time

When corn became contraband

August 25, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

PASCACK VALLEY—In summer 1930, transporting an ear of corn into New Jersey was a serious offense. Caught smuggling the crop? You faced a fine of $500—a nearly $10,000 chunk of […]

Onlookers fill Bergen Street as firefighters douse flames in the Bergen Building, March 10, 1911.
Back in Time

Englewood’s Bergen Building has withstood time (and fire)

August 8, 2025 Kristin Beuscher

ENGLEWOOD—It was August 1900 when the first shovels hit the dirt at Engle and Bergen streets, marking the beginning of the Bergen Building. A three-story brick structure would soon rise […]

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  • Home
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    • Haworth
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