Kristin Beuscher, Author at Pascack Press & Northern Valley Press

These were older students at Northvale’s Nathan Hale School in 1916. The borough broke off from Harrington Township the same year. (Colorized)

Back to school in newly minted Northvale

September 6, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

NORTHVALE, N.J.–The first school in Northvale, named for the patriot Nathan Hale, was constructed in 1909. A modest wooden structure, it burned to the ground just a few years after […]

The student body of Hillsdale’s first school with teacher William W. Banta. The young teacher was in charge of this entire group in the one-room schoolhouse.

The old one-room schoolhouse

September 5, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

HILLSDALE, N.J.—The first school in Hillsdale, built in 1856, sat on Pascack Road near its intersection with Hillsdale Avenue. During the first year, enrollment at the school was 36 students. […]

The students of Park Ridge posed for this photograph outside their schoolhouse in the late 1880s. The first Monday of September meant back-to-school time. (Colorized photo)

Back to school at Park Ridge, round about 1890

August 29, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

PARK RIDGE, N.J.—Laptops? Air-conditioned schools? Artificial intelligence?! This group would have settled for indoor plumbing. As we send the kids back to school, let’s take a look at one of […]

How the Hillsdale railroad station would have looked at the time of the 1876 workers’ strike, although this photograph likely dates to the 1880s. This week, 150 years ago, railroad workers went on strike after months of not receiving their pay. They pulled the trains into the Hillsdale station and then disabled them, halting travel on the Pascack Valley line for five days. Colorized.

Stiffed on wages, railroad men stopped the trains

August 24, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

PASCACK VALLEY AREA, N.J.—By August 1876, the railroad workers on the Pascack Valley line were fed up. For months, they had gone without pay. Now it was time to send […]

Featuring a view that looks up Third Avenue from Mill Street in Westwood, this postcard was mailed by a vacationer on Aug. 20, 1910. The sender tells a friend in Paterson, “I am having a very nice time. This is how the whole town looks‚ so clean and all one-family houses.”

A vacationer’s views in Westwood

August 15, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

In those years when warm weather brought scores of summer boarders to our countryside, thousands of scenes from the Pascack Valley appeared on postcards, like this one from Westwood. Views […]

A 19th-century view of the Demarest railroad station, with the hotel on the hill in the background. This luxurious resort catered to well-to-do New Yorkers at a time when the Northern Valley was a vacation destination.

The Hotel on the Hill in Demarest

August 13, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

DEMAREST, N.J.—The location of this 1880s photo should be easy to place—the Demarest Railroad Station has been a focal point in town since it was built in 1874, and it […]

John “Cal” Calvin Gardenier operated his livery stable in Hillsdale from the 1880s through the 1910s. Well placed to serve those coming and going at the Hillsdale station, it stood on Park Avenue near the railroad tracks, now the location of the Bank of America. The building was lost in a fire in 1930. Colorized.

Horses for Hire in Old Hillsdale

August 10, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

In 1909, the Bergen County Standard described Calvin Gardenier’s livery stable as “one of the largest and most successful business enterprises in Hillsdale.” In 2026, the majority of people have […]

Summer scene at the reservoir

August 3, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J.—In our photograph to the right, dated to around 1906, two men enjoy a moment of serenity and a lovely view at the newly created Woodcliff Reservoir. The […]

An escape from the tenements

July 24, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

“Woodcliff, July 12. — Major Glenn, of the Volunteers of America, a warm friend of General Ballington Booth, has arranged to give a week’s outing in the country to mothers […]

RIVAL TICKETS: Ballots from Park Ridge’s first school board election, held July 20, 1894, show the competing People’s Party—dubbed the “Hayseeds” by its opponents—and Citizens’ Party, representing the borough’s newer commuter population. A six-way tie for the final five seats ultimately was settled by drawing the candidates’ names.

‘Hayseeds vs. Commuters’ in Park Ridge school election

July 19, 2026 Kristin Beuscher

PARK RIDGE, N.J.—Park Ridge broke from Washington Township and began life as a borough in 1894. With that came its own school district, and the first election of school board […]