Pascack Historical Society

08/29/2026

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!"

With just a quick glance at these before/after views of downtown Westwood, its easy to see that the Pascack Valley has changed significantly in the past 120 years.

The top photo shows the entrance to Westwood Ave, between Broadway (then Railroad Ave) and Center Ave in the early 1900s, while the bottom photo displays a recent view.

Back in the early years of the 20th century, one was more likely to see traffic from horse-drawn wagons than the newfangled horseless carriages (automobiles) that had just begun to appear. Along the street you can see the wooden hitching posts that served as the parking spots of the era. These were for tying up horses while visiting local businesses. There were no traffic lights in town yet 😊

Although folks might miss modern conveniences, we can imagine living quite a fine life here in the early 1900s!

08/26/2026

Soon - "Up in the mornin' and out to school"

The white building visible in the back left of the top photo is the Hillsdale Grammar School, built in 1889 at the corner of Hillsdale and Magnolia. The school featured just four rooms and a single teacher for 36 pupils.

The left photo shows the entire student body in 1898. We love the kids and their clothes!

To meet the community’s needs, a larger grammar school—later named for George G. White—was constructed on the same property in 1921. Today, George G. White Middle School still stands on the site, having undergone multiple expansions to accommodate Hillsdale’s evolving educational demands (bottom right photo).

08/24/2026

Music at the Wortendyke, always a great time!

Come up and get down at the historic Wortendyke Barn in Park Ridge for the second installment of our Concert at the Barn series! This Sunday, we are joined by Jonny Rosch, former frontman of the Original Blues Brothers Band and a renowned New York City session musician, who brings his powerhouse vocals, keyboard, and harmonica skills to the stage, joined by an all-star lineup of top musicians who have performed with the likes of Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan.

Sunday, from 4-6:30PM at the Wortendyke Barn in Park Ridge, NJ!

08/22/2026

08/21/2026

Charles Latterman’s Livery Stable in Park Ridge was on Broadway opposite the railroad tracks, just before the road meets Park Avenue. In an era before automobiles, this was where horses could be boarded while people went out of town, or rented—like the Hertz or Enterprise of its day.

08/18/2026

"Still the same, turning on the charm"

Montvale has been transformed over the last century. The population has grown from about 1,200 folks to close to 10,000, with acres of farmland and forest becoming homes and corporate campuses. The borough went from “the country,” where a typical house cost around $5,000 in 1930, to an affluent suburb where few are surprised to see homes listed for more than $1 million.

However, the scene in the image shows one little section in the southeast part of town that remains relatively unchanged. This is a view down Park Street, from Grand Avenue toward Kinderkamack Road, as it appeared around 1930.

Unlike today, Park Street then had two-way traffic and the large yellow building was a meat market with an adjacent gas station.

Both buildings still stand. The former meat market has been Davey’s Irish Pub, one of our favorites, since the 1970s and the service station garage is still there, too. In 1930, the average gasoline price was about 20 cents a gallon, but we won't discuss gas prices today.

(Original story by K Beuscher, Pascack Press.)

08/15/2026

Park Ridge Firefighters of Yesteryear

The top photo shows a chemical truck powered by 2 beautiful horses, easy to imagine them galloping to a fire.

The bottom image displays Park Ridge's first motor-driven fire apparatus in the front of the historic Doremus Hotel in Woodcliff Lake, which served as a local hotel.

08/11/2026

A long time ago in Emerson, we had just a perfect day, several games at Lucky Strike Lanes, and then later when it got dark, we walked a few feet over to the Town Movie Theater and watched a double feature.

Lucky Strike started in the early 1960s and served as a fun entertainment hub for the entire Pascack Valley & beyond. Although we were amateurs, we relished the sound of the ball rolling down the alley and then the smack of the pins. Having a few beers from the attached bar created an experience that couldn't be beat.

The movie theater opened as the Town Theatre in 1966, adjacent to the lanes and was converted into a four-screen multiplex (the Emerson Quad) in 1989.

Both Lucky Strike Lanes and the movie theater were were razed in 2010 and converted into retail space 😟😟😟.

"Hey, now, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone."

(Photos from Vintage Bergen County.)

08/11/2026

Here are a variety of close by, fun adventures to explore!

Explore 40 places to visit in Bergen County, NJ including parks, museums, hiking trails, and things to do near NYC and MetLife Stadium.

08/05/2026

Woodcliff Lake 1920: The Catch of the Day

The Curtis "Jenny" airplane owned by the Tice brothers, who operated a nearby farm, landed unexpectedly in the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir about 50 yards from shore in 1920.

The incident began during a Sunday afternoon flight when the brothers bet their flight instructor that he couldn't skim the wheels on the surface of the lake. The Jenny ended up face-down, and floating as the lake had "grabbed" the undercarriage and plunged the nose into the water (top photo).

With the help of a few local recruits and some rope, the plane was coaxed to the edge of the lake, pulled out of the water, up the bank and hoisted through the trees and brush to the local road (bottom left photo).

After a couple of days of repair in their barn, a group of men escorted the plane onto the road (bottom right photo). After a final inspection, a man stepped up to turn the propellor which caught on the third pull. The takeoff was noisy, dusty, and quite grand. The plane wagged in a light wind, swept over the trees, and was soon out of view.

The Tice brothers were presumably wiser for the wetting, with no lawsuits, no investigations, and no penalties. Just a whale of a story and pictures!
- Story by Bob Beck