Effort Underway To Save Historic Taylor-Bliss House

Historic meets modern on the Kelihat Kesher campus in Englewood.

The following was submitted to Northern Valley Press by Irmari Nacht, co-president of the Englewood Historical Society.

ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—The Taylor Bliss house, built circa 1876, on the corner of Hudson and Engle streets, Englewood, is in danger of being town down. This fine example of a Second Empire Victorian house, with three stories and a fourth tower floor, is the only such building in Englewood and one of the few left in Bergen County. 

It is important to preserve our past of irreplaceable buildings for future generations. This showplace is a visual reminder of Englewood’s historic heritage. Once this historic structure is demolished, it is gone forever, and can never be replaced.

The Taylor Bliss house is listed on the Bergen County Historical Sites Survey as of “particular historical or architectural interest” and is also listed with the Historic Preservation Office New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. 

In addition to its architectural importance, it was also the home of several community-active Englewoodians of the past.

Its first owner Archibald Taylor sold the house to Delos Bliss, a vice president at Palisade Trust and Guaranty (now Bank of America, built by the well-known architect Aymar Embury II). Bliss’ daughter Laura was married to Thomas Cuming, a noted athlete and man about town at the turn-of-the-century. Another sister, Ethel Bliss, a National Tennis Tournament champion in 1906, was married to Englewood Mayor Dan Fellows Platt. 

The taylor bliss house stands at the corner of Hudson and Engle streets in Englewood, in the midst of the modern Kehilat Kesher Synagogue. The synagogue and Englewood Historical Society are hoping to have the structure moved, with an eye toward Liberty Road as a potential location.

The house was completely renovated in the 1980s by Ray Flaherty and was later purchased by the Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood (Kesher) who built a modern structure around it. There is a deed restriction requiring that “the existing historic structure be preserved.” Kesher no longer needs the house and would like it removed.

The Englewood Historical Society and Kesher Synagogue hope to move the house to 500 Liberty Road, the former property of Eleanor Harvey, a founder of the Englewood Historical Society (EHS), who willed the property to the city at her death in 2007. 

This architecturally significant house would be appropriate in the Liberty Road setting in the company of several other houses from the time period, as well as its position on the historic Washington retreat route. EHS would love to use the building to house the city’s historic archives and as a place for historical exhibitions, programs, events, meetings and city functions.

There are talks in progress about making a documentary showing Englewood saving the house, bringing this large building across town, through a cooperative effort with multiple stakeholders.

If anyone would like to join the efforts to Save the Taylor Bliss House and work with the committee, email irmarinac@yahoo.com. Leave your phone number and email address and we will send you information as it happens and keep you on our list of interested historic preservation lovers.