Hey, Pascack Valley natives! How many of these shops can you remember?
The shopping center at Four Corners in River Vale (Westwood Avenue and Rivervale Road) is shown in this photo snapped in the early 1960s. This two-story strip on the southeast corner contained retail on the bottom floor and offices above. A liquor store, dry cleaners, luncheonette, barber shop, hardware store, bakery, drug store and beauty parlor could all be found in this section in the 1960s. At one end of the mall, as shown here, was a Grand Union supermarket—formerly a Honey Dew when it opened in 1957.
A few years after this photo was taken, the strip of stores was destroyed by a New Year’s Eve fire as 1966 became 1967. The $1 million blaze, which originated in the Shangri-La Beauty Salon, wiped out almost half of River Vale’s shopping district in a single day.
A new 9,000-square-foot building (locals will know it as the brick strip mall with the green awning) went up at this corner in 1969 and is still there today.