BY STEVE KELMAN
CORRESPONDENT
CRESSKILL, N.J.—The second floor of the historic Tallman House in Cresskill will become home to a new museum, with a public open house set to take place Sunday, Oct. 6 between 3 and 5 p.m., Cresskill Borough Historian Tom Site said.
The house located at 5 Cresskill Ave. was built in 1858 and is one of the oldest houses in the borough. It was the home of Egbert Tallman, the borough’s second mayor.
The centerpiece of the new museum is a brand new diorama of the borough as it appeared on Memorial Day, May 30, 1924.
“On that day General John ‘Black Jack’ Pershing came to Cresskill to dedicate the Camp Merritt monument,” Site said.
He explained that the diorama is a “scale model of town buildings that we know about from photographs taken on Memorial Day in Cresskill in 1924.”
He said the diorama was created earlier this year by Tom and Anna Fisichella of Dumont.
“This is brand new—the public has not seen this yet,” the historian added.
This reporter was recently given a tour of the new museum. Other items of interest include an 1898 gramophone and a wall with “then and now” photographs of the way the borough has appeared throughout its history. Some of the original furniture belonging to the Tallman house such as a clock, dresser and various chairs can also be seen.
There is also a section which features photographs of Camp Merritt—the largest military embarkation camp of World War I, centered in Cresskill—and of the various members of the Tallman and Voorhis families who lived in the house.
Site said that moving forward the new museum would be opened by appointment to visiting school groups and others and on a monthly basis, to be determined.
“This is the beginning of a work in progress,” Site said.
The work in getting the museum ready began this summer.
“Up until recently the second floor had been disregarded and dangerous, a lot of junk had been thrown up there,” he said. “But this July we got the DPW to clean out the upstairs and get rid of all of the clutter, minus a few items of interest.”
Site, who is also the chairman of the Cresskill Historical Committee, said the museum will offer activities geared towards children and will also endeavor to honor veterans.
At the Sept. 18 meeting of the borough council, Mayor Benedict Romeo praised Site and the efforts of the Cresskill Historical Committee.
“The council is really thrilled that the committee has come to life under Mr. Site,” the mayor said. “We look forward to going to tour the museum and encourage the residents to go and learn about the town’s history.”
A number of events have taken place to mark the 125th anniversary—or quasquicentennial—of the borough’s incorporation. Cresskill broke off from Palisades Township on May 11, 1894 to form a borough.
On Sept. 14 there was a bus trip of historical locations that Site said was very well attended.
“We visited four historic Dutch Colonial houses in the town and also went to points of interest in terms of the American Revolution and World War I,” he said.
In her report given at the Sept. 18 council meeting, Councilwoman Simone Tsigounis called the bus tour “a great success,” adding, “residents have asked us to do it again, so we will arrange another date.”
Site said that before the year is over the historical committee and the board of education are working toward having Cresskill students gather materials that they feel students in the future would find interesting and place them in a time capsule.
“We want to encourage students to think about what kids 75 years from now would be interested in seeing,” he said.
“We will also be asking Cresskill High School students to write an essay on what they think Cresskill will be like in the year 2069.”
