It’s a snowy day in Closter in this image that was captured more than 110 years ago. Can you guess where the photo was taken? While no street name was listed on the picture, we’ve figured out the location. Here’s how.
The image was used as a postcard, and a version we found was mailed in 1909. It actually came from a woman living in the main house that’s visible in the photo.
“Perhaps you would like to see a picture of our house,” the woman writes to a friend in New York State. “You can imagine us sitting on the porch in summer a great deal of the time. The side shown is our sitting room. On the other side are the parlors.”
The message is signed “E.C. Valentine, Closter, N.J.”
We turned to the census––the 1910 records, to be exact—and we found our Miss Valentine. Emma C. Valentine, 69, is listed as the head of her household on High Street. She was unmarried and living with a younger sister, Charlotte, also unmarried, and their widowed sister-in-law, Grace, 45.
For decades before that, however, it had been Emma and Charlotte’s mother, A.W. Valentine, born in 1819, who had been the matriarch of the family. An 1876 map of High Street (pictured at below) lists her name on the property, which is circled in red.
Based on the map, we now know that the image above is looking toward West Street and the Reformed Church. A mystery solved!