Linden Society for Historic Preservation

05/27/2026

LINDEN...THEN AND NOW

Fifty years separate these two photos, but I'm sure the building's legacy goes back much further. Known as the Little Market in the mid 1970's, touting Royal Crown Cola, one of my faves back then, George's Corner Deli today occupies 319 Roselle Street on the corner of Hussa Street, advertising Thumann's, ci******es and the lottery.

Very little has changed in the photos over half a century and the small business is typical of many of the mom and pop neighborhood businesses that were located throughout Linden. This Third Ward establishment continues to serve the local community in the area. Does anyone have memories of this business from earlier times?

05/21/2026

LINDEN...THEN AND NOW

When I was a kid, the closest Sunnyside supermarket was A&P at 350 West St. George Avenue. They had all of the necessities and I especially enjoyed watching the coffee bean grinders at checkout.

It didn't last long though after the arrival of Pathmark just down the road for A&P to continue their slide into oblivion. They would close and the building was eventually transformed into a mini strip mall, a phenomenon that seemed to be all the rage in that era. After all, the Plaza Theater was about to be split into multiple theaters, why not take the large floor space of a supermarket and divide it into three separate businesses?

The first photo was taken over fifty years ago now. Shoe Town was the anchor store closest to the roadway, while the Bobbie Shop and Just Men were able to survive for a short time as fashion retailers, although that didn't last long either with the 1980's ascent of the mega malls. The parking lot was usually filled with vehicles, sometimes customers running to the adjacent post office, or to Bill's Candy Store and Counter, officially known as the Emm-Bee Sweet Shop. Both nearby Midas and Adler Jewelers had their own parking lots in the rear as well, and the entire business area seemed to thrive in those days.

Lots of transition took place over the following decades, Boston Market would have some moderate success in place of Shoe Town, while Top Banana sold fresh produce at the opposite end of the building. Can others help me out with recalling some of the other businesses that occupied this location over the years?

Today, the all-hours oddly-named Drop-A-Load Laundromat occupies the front portion of the property, while the remainder of the building is used by the Kessler Rehabilitation Center. When I walk by these days, there's usually a heavy odor of w**d in the area. Gone are the rows of diagonally parked cars of shoppers, and today the heavily pot-holed parking lot seems more likely to be strewn with garbage and litter than vehicles.

05/14/2026

LINDEN...THEN AND NOW

The Bicentennial year of 1976 was a big deal here in Linden, as we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of this great country. It seemed that everything had a sort of tie-in with the nation's birthday, and this view of North Wood Avenue captured an advertisement for one such newfangled item to be added to our culture in that year...the scratch-off lottery. Little did we know that that fun, new experience of using the edge of a coin to reveal three like symbols, would morph over the next fifty years to vending machines in our supermarkets that spit out cardboard lottery tickets in nearly every denomination for nearly every occasion, and how dependent the State would become on the monies generated by our lottery system.

The photo also reveals some long-honored Linden businesses, long missing from today's Wood Avenue. Fischler's candy store and counter service no doubt sold the new lottery tickets, and their familiar Coca-cola add banner barely peeks into view in the old photo. Today a Boost Mobile store takes its place.

Mr. Palermo sold insurance and countless Linden homes to many residents for years from his realty office next door. Today, his office is split into two businesses, the Olowosibi African Market and the adjacent MJM Hair Studio.

Dr. Ortner took care of the eyesight of many Linden residents in his office below the billboard, today replaced by the popular Polish-run Wawel Travel.

Have the parking meters changed at all? I welcome the addition of today's antique streetlights, not to mention the shade tree added at some point in time. I cant recall when that billboard was removed? Does anyone have other memories from the 400 block of North Wood Avenue?

05/06/2026

LINDEN...THEN AND NOW

Sometimes change comes quickly to Linden, at least in my mind perhaps. I find it somewhat difficult to comprehend that the development of the former Linden Airport property, the strip mall now known as Aviation Plaza, will soon be celebrating a quarter century that it has graced our fair city. As part of that complex, a major change is in store for this summer, as the Exxon gas station and it's sizable convenience store have been razed and the property is currently being transformed into a fast food eatery, Raising Cane's.

Located adjacent to the Home Depot anchor store at 801 West Edgar Road, the convenience store, which started as a Tiger Mart before becoming part of the Circle K chain, and the gas station were removed and construction is currently underway on Central Jersey's first Raising Cane's, the wildly popular chicken-finger eatery that was founded by Todd Graves in Louisiana in 1996. Now some thirty years later, the chain boasts more than 900 locations and remains privately owned, as Mr. Graves is today worth more than $22 billion according to Forbes magazine.

South Jersey already has a half dozen Raising Cane's locations, and Central Jersey is now following suit, as sites in both Edison and Watchung are currently under construction as well. This location will afford Linden with yet another cutting edge fast food dining option, as it is but a stone's throw away from Checker's next door, while across the highway is Chick-fil-A, Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Panera Bread, Taco Bell, and the other nearby newcomer, Dave's Hot Chicken. (it certainly seems that Linden loves it's chicken.)

On a personal note, I've yet to try Raising Cane's and look forward to doing just that when it opens, knowing full well I will enjoy it immensely and also realizing that it will be added to my doctor's stay-away list. What is the general concensus on this latest Linden addition?

04/30/2026

LINDEN...THEN AND NOW

With summer and warmer weather approaching, (at least I hope, as it's been a rather chilly spring,) this has to be another one of Linden's biggest losses over the years. That We-Are-Open sign meant the long, cold winter was over, and on a warm spring night, those long lines on West St. George Avenue might be disheartening at first sight, but once you got to the little sliding window, it all seemed worth it.

This photo dates back a half century to the mid 1970's, shortly before the Dairy Queen franchise changed to Magic Fountain. Eventually that change brought Mrs. Carlucci on the scene, the tough, raspy-voiced proprietor who could be very nice, in her own tough Linden style. There was no cutting in line on her watch.

Soon, times would be a changing. The St. George Diner next door would come down, replaced by a bank, today the popular Wells Fargo branch with the annoyingly tight parking lot. The used car dealership next to Dairy Queen also disappeared, but its black top remained, becoming the overflow parking lot for the bank.

The beloved red-roofed ice cream purveyor seemed to get caught up in those real estate dealings and it, too, went away. Despite it being some of the Avenue's choicest real estate, we've been left with years of a simple grassy lot, and no more Blizzards or chocolate-dipped cones. Ironically, if you look very closely, the unique design of the original curbs still remains, today half-buried by the subsequent re-pavings of the Avenue.

With the subsequent loss of Wood Avenue's Carvel and the smaller Elm Street Dairy Queen, Linden really seems to suffer from a dearth of ice cream vendors these days, at least compared to the days of my youth. Does anyone else lament these losses or have good memories of those old days?

04/23/2026

LINDEN...THEN AND NOW

In light of the recent decision that told us nothing that we all didn't know, Ticketmaster and Live Nation were ruled to be an unfair monopoly, and that consumers were getting overcharged for concert tickets. Why thank you, Captain Obvious. The dilemma of fairly distributing concert tickets for a popular event probably predates the gladiators in the Coliseum. Somehow, I still sort of prefer the way is was done in my youth, get up early and stand in line.

For a window of time in the mid 70's, the Linden Travel Bureau on Wood Avenue had a Ticketron inside. This would be the typical routine back then and this a common sight on Wood Avenue. This photo dates back almost 50 years and may have been for the release of Led Zeppelin tickets at Madison Square Garden.

Of course, that short-lived parking lot was filled in with a new building and I walk past the same spot today, rarely thinking back about the excitement that very spot generated as you stood outside in any weather, always nervous until the printed tickets would be in hand. What was your favorite place to procure coveted tickets? What shows or events did you wait patiently in line for?

04/15/2026

LINDEN...IN OUR OWN BACKYARD

Growing up in Linden, there was no avoiding driving thru adjacent municipalities when traversing our primary thoroughfares such as St. George Avenue or Routes 1&9. In doing so, we all drove past the same landmarks, a certain few of which became well-known markers, often employed to give directions in the days before GPS. "Turn at the Girl Scout House," or maybe, "make a left at Jack In the Box," were oft-heard phrases when I was young.

My all-time favorite phrase was probably "make a right at the elephant." For those old enough to recall, this referenced the right hand turn off of St. George Avenue onto Route 27, just before the railroad underpass near the Rahway/Avenel border, for at that corner was a sizeable sign that featured a tuxedo'd elephant. This sign was such a well-known landmark that everyone instantly understood any instructions that included turning at the elephant.

This is the lone photo of that sign that I could dig up on the internet, which appears to date from the early 70's. The strip mall on that corner did pay homage to the elephant's legacy by including a small image of a pachyderm at the top of their modest sign for a number of years, but a recent renovation eliminated even that.

Now, am I imagining things, or are my earliest memories still reliable, but was there a three-dimensional statue of an elephant there even prior to the vintage sign? Was it painted pink at some point? I'm sure there are better memories than mine out there who can better recall and possibly shed more light on this mystery...right here in our own backyard.

04/09/2026

LINDEN...THEN AND NOW

Probably since the arrival of the railroad in the 1830's, the intersection of Elizabeth and Wood Avenues has been the heart and soul of Linden. The intersection has seen countless changes thru the years, some iterations captured in photos as seen here, while many have been lost to time.

Back in 1931 during the height of the Depression, the American Legion sponsored a fund-raising booklet entitled This Is Linden. In it, the writer examines the past, present, and ponders the future of our City. Since 1931 was the height of the skyscraper boom, as the Empire State Building neared completion and was shattering the notions of what staggering heights could be achieved, a local Linden business man posits his vision of the future, which includes potential skyscrapers located at Linden's downtown intersection.

Nearly a century later, while not in the true category of skyscraper, a massive structure is nearing completion on that very corner. The One West apartment building will contain 334 units conveniently located adjacent to those very same railroad tracks that started it all.

While some of these images and perspectives may be readily retrievable in everyone's memory bank, note the aerial images are taken from opposing views. In the black and white aerial, we are looking westward, with Linden's colonial era Wood House, arguably the City's most historic structure that was unceremoniously razed more than a half century ago, visible near the tracks, sitting at a slightly skewed angle to the later-added railroad tracks and roadway. In the modern image of One West, we are looking eastward and the intersection itself disappears in the scale of the behemoth complex.

Current building trends throughout New Jersey these days often feature enclosed courtyards, of which I am not a fan, personally. While providing natural lighting and affording privacy, concerns of access for emergency responders seem less important in the eyes of developers. Hopefully, the architect renderings will truthfully reflect the finished product that will become the anchor to the heart and soul of Linden for many years to come. What are your thoughts?

04/02/2026

LINDEN...GETTING IT DONE

One of our final posts for Women's History Month focuses on Linden basketball great, Tameka Dixon. Her stellar career and eventual return to Linden makes for one of the all-time Linden athletic accomplishments.

They say Linden is a blue-collar town, but we produced a million-dollar talent. 💎Most people know the WNBA championships and the All-Star jerseys, but the "...

03/28/2026

LINDEN...GETTING IT DONE

There were no shortages of Rosie the Riveters during World War II in Linden. General Motors' Eastern Aircraft Division trained and employed many women at their Linden plant, a salute to them during Women's History Month.

Most recognize the iconic "Rosie the Riveter" poster, but did you know thousands of real-life Rosies called Linden home? During WWII, our city’s General Moto...