Pascack Historical Society

10/18/2026

Learn about Robert Erskine, George Washington's mapmaker.

Sunday November 15, 2:00 PM

10/18/2026

10/13/2026

"I gave my love a flower..."

Washington Twp. once housed one of the largest orchid nurseries in the world from the 1930s through the 1960s. Quite a claim to fame for a town that had about 400 residents at that time.

Orchidvale got its start when George Schlegel moved 40,000 plants from his previous nursery in Brooklyn, New York, to a one-story, green-shingled building on Pascack Road. The flowers were grown in rows of low greenhouses stretching 350 feet. Oil-burning furnaces produced steam that maintained a tropical temperature, and Orchidvale’s towering smokestack became a familiar landmark.

When Schlegel died, Orchidvale was auctioned off in 1938 to a syndicate of New Jersey and New York horticulturists. When this group bought the nursery, about 31,000 plants were thriving there. The horticulturists discontinued retail sale of orchids, and instead sold the plants nationwide through a New York wholesaler. . The Pascack Road property is now an Oritani Bank.

Alas, we will have to wait several months before we see native flowers again let alone orchids growing.

10/06/2026

One of our favorite landmarks in the Pascack Valley, the Emerson Hotel, which has stood on its current location since 1872. Originally known as the Etna House and then Block's Hall, built to feed and shelter travellers.

It still feeds folks over 125 years later. "I will have the sliced steak slathered in butter"!

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10/01/2026

This weekend!

09/26/2026

The museum will be closed this Sunday, September 27, due to the storm!