This is a story about what can happen when, instead of saying something should be done, a group takes action. We go, now, to Hillsdale in the year 1935.
Miss Elsie Hubachek was giving an adult education class in public speaking at the old wooden schoolhouse that stood on the present-day George White Middle School campus. Miss Hubachek was involved in a great many things in Hillsdale, not the least of which was winning a seat as a councilwoman—and becoming the first woman in the Pascack Valley to do so.
On this particular evening, she was listening to her students give speeches on various subjects. When it was Sarah Vander Clute’s turn, she spoke about books. In the course of her oration, she raised a question: “Why don’t we have a library?” The idea took off from there.
Within just a few months, a group of volunteers had formed a library board and started holding regular meetings to talk about logistics and finances. They secured a spot in town to open a library, collected donations of books and furniture, and worked with painters, carpenters, plumbers, and electricians from Hillsdale, all of whom volunteered their skills. They found their first librarian in Mrs. Ruth Newman, who held the title for the next 18 years.
When the librarian stamped the first loaned book on Jan. 27, 1936—90 years ago this week—it was from a storefront at the corner of Hillsdale Avenue and Winkler Way (later the paint store, more recently a physical therapist).
Everything inside was donated: the chairs, desks, bookcases, and a collection that included 2,939 titles. Volunteers had scrubbed the space, cleaned the furniture, and spent hundreds of hours cataloging and shelving books. The result was a little library of which they could be justly proud.
During the library’s first week, 544 books were circulated, of which 153 were checked out on the first day.
Jan. 1, 1937, after a referendum the previous Election Day that had shown overwhelming public support for the idea, the library was turned over to the municipality. For the bargain price of $1, the borough received the debt-free library, plus all the furniture, equipment, over 4,200 books, and a membership of 853 Hillsdale residents.
The library was a hit: the collection grew as people donated more and more books, and the number of borrowers increased. A reference section that had encyclopedias was popular among school children and high school students working on research papers and projects. This was all progress in the right direction, but the original location was becoming a tight squeeze. A spring story time group for children had clinched the need for a roomier location, as more than 100 kids had crowded into the little space for this popular feature.
In March of 1938 the library moved directly across the street into larger quarters in the Leddy Building, which stood approximately where the Wendy’s parking lot is today.
The Leddy Building had once housed the Leddy Coal & Oil Co., but in the early 20th century it had been a general store and the post office. The building was constructed proximate to the railroad tracks to receive packages and freight.
The library spent nearly 20 years in the Leddy Building. Our featured photograph dates to that era. Snapped on April 12, 1947, the view looks across Hillsdale Avenue with the railroad station and Smith’s Department Store (formerly the Hillsdale House) off to the left. The Hillsdale Fire Department’s 1941 Ward La France combination hook and ladder truck drives west on Hilldale Avenue. The Leddy Building is the large brick structure in the background to the right.
The space had two large front windows, and the library staff put together a great variety of constantly changing exhibits. But, there was a problem: the side wall of the building leaked, and there was a fear that the exhibits would be damaged.
Additionally, lack of space had become an issue once again. The library often had to give away books to smaller libraries due to lack of room on the shelves.
In 1957, the library moved to its present location at Hilldale Avenue and Yesler Way, the former Vorrath family farmhouse that was built in the early 1900s. Today we cannot imagine the library being anywhere else, but at the time, the purchase was not a foregone conclusion.
In fact, when the borough council voted on the matter on Valentine’s Day in 1956, the result was a tie. Of the six-person borough council, three had voted against the plan, citing concerns about maintenance costs for the old farmhouse. Two of the councilmen favored a plan to build a new library on the north side of Veterans Park, near the bank.
Had the plan to buy the Vorrath property been abandoned by the council, a company was eyeing the space to turn it into a funeral home.
After nearly two years of discussion, Mayor John F. Dowd cast the deciding vote. He favored buying the Vorrath property, a $30,000 appropriation ($20,000 for the real estate, $10,000 for renovation)—equivalent to about $350,000 today. It was a big step, when the library’s rental fee at the Leddy Building was $100 per month.
With a few expansions and renovations that took place over the years, the library is now approaching 70 years at this location.
Miss Vander Clute (1892-1980), whose public speaking exercise was the impetus for all of this, later became the children’s librarian at the Westwood Public Library and founded the story hour program there. She was at that library for decades beginning in 1947, and brought a love of reading to thousands of children along the way.