Pascack Press
A 75¢ chicken dinner in Montvale
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 […]
Articles by Kristin Beuscher
Back in Time
Woodcliff schoolhouse, hewn from local stone, still serves
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 […]
Back in Time
Remembering Old Tappan’s little schoolhouse
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, […]
Back in Time
The three lives of River Vale’s one-room schoolhouse
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
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 […]
Back in Time
Englewood’s Bergen Building has withstood time (and fire)
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 […]
Back in Time
Depot Square, 1895: a borough on the rise
PARK RIDGE—This week we go back 130 years with a snapshot of local life in the last decade of the 19th century. You are looking at downtown Park Ridge in […]
Back in Time
The Man Outside the Window
HILLSDALE, N.J.—This week we go back to summer 1930, when the people of Hillsdale were as frustrated as they were frightened. For six weeks the borough was plagued by a […]
Back in Time
A dollar ride to summer: Laurel Lake and Pascack Pool
THE PASCACK VALLEY—In summer 1952, Park Ridge taxi drivers likely were brushing sand from their seats after every run. The company was offering a special promotion: $1 would get your […]
Back in Time
Across the dirt road: A long-ago scene in downtown Westwood
WESTWOOD, N.J.—Photographed from across an (unpaved) Washington Avenue, this is the park in downtown Westwood as it looked around 1910. Of course, minus the leafy canopy, walkways, bandstand, and war […]