WESTWOOD—There is the church, but where is the steeple? The picture above was snapped on a snowy day on Third Avenue in Westwood, circa 1905. Below, a view from the same location captured this past week.
Centrally located in the older photo is Calvary Baptist Church, which had opened on the corner of Third Avenue and Elm Street just a few years earlier, in 1902. The church formed with about 50 members and was very active in those years, holding lectures, lawn parties, dinners, and many other events. A news report from 1905 reported the congregation had grown to 58 members and that the annual salary for pastor J.S. Vought was increased to $100.
The church’s previous pastor, Rev. Thomas D. Wesley, had supplemented his income by teaching Latin and German at the Westwood public school. It was an easy commute: the school was practically next door, at Third Avenue and Mill Street.
These days Westwood’s Calvary Baptist is gone, having joined with a River Vale congregation decades ago to form the Cornerstone Bible Church. Still, the building remains—minus the steeple and belfry—and for many years it has housed the Carousel Early Learning Center.
The home to the left of the church, which had at one time been the parsonage, was demolished in 2004 to make way for an expansion of the preschool.
The house on the other side of Elm Street is still standing. It is easily recognizable by its roof lines and windows, despite the addition of a ground floor brick storefront that houses a barber shop.
Did you notice: In the 1905 photo, on the photographer’s side of the street a hitching post is visible in the foreground. Back then, these posts for securing horses could be found all over local streets. There were a few automobiles starting to appear on the road, but the most common form of transportation was still horse-drawn wagon.