Visiting Nutley, New Jersey - A Trip Down Memory Lane
Last Friday, Valentine's Day, I traveled to Montclair, New Jersey to tape something for television. Montclair is a lovely township located next to Nutley, the town where my parents settled and raised their brood of six children. After the taping, I asked my driver, Carlos, to take me up and down the streets of Nutley so I could reminisce about the people and places of my youth. So much has changed, yet many things were just as I remembered.
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- Nutley has 5 elementary schools and this is Lincoln School, where my mother taught 6th grade for many years.
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- The church has changed very little on the exterior.
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- This is the entrance to my childhood church. I received my Holy Communion at Saint Mary’s and was confirmed here at Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
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- The Holy Family Church is still in Nutley. We went there but then changed to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
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- I am quite sure this is the same store where my dad bought his Gallo wine.
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- Center Street and Franklin Avenue – a major intersection
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- Very few stores that I remember as a child are in existence. Everything has closed and is now something else.
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- Before that change occurred, this building was the high school. It is now the Middle School.
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- This wrought iron gate leads into The Oval, the town’s playing field. It is a lovely spot for sports events. The 4th of July fireworks are held here too.
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- On the corner of Franklin Avenue and Chestnut Street was a luncheonette, a favorite high school hangout. It is now a florist.
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- This is the old Bank of Nutley, where I had a savings account, in which I deposited all of my babysitting earnings and later, my modelling money.
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- This is the Nutley Fire Station, where I remember sliding down the fireman’s pole and visiting with the firemen to learn about fighting fires.
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- This building was where we met at night to practice for the drum and bugle corps. I played the bugle.
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- Many years ago, the Nutley Senior High Scool was moved across Franklin Avenue to accommodate expansion. This is now the high school.
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- This is the Vreeland Homestead, used by the Junior Women’s Club of Nutley, where I attended classes, exhibited my flower arrangements, and participated in special events. The club house is a very historic brownstone structure, built in the mid-1700s.
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- This house was where one of my first boyfriends lived. He later married my cousin, Diane. One of my bankers now lives there.
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- And this is Grace Church, where my sister Kathy got married. I was the matron of honor.
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- This is one of the “big” houses where some of my school friends lived.
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- The Lackawana Railroad was highly elevated through parts of town. The tracks always held a mysterious attraction for us kids and we would be tempted to sneak up to the tracks, from time to time.
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- Some streets where many of the larger houses were built had gate posts marking their entrances. Now almost every empty lot has been built on, as the bigger homes have sold off any excess property.
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- Nutley has an extensive park system that runs along the Third River. We spent many hours playing in it. In the park is the Mudhole, a small lake where we spent many days ice skating in the winter. This park was also was the site of the annual Easter Egg Hunt.
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- At the end of Fernwood Terrace is Passaic Avenue. We shopped for candy, ice cream, and loaves of bread at this row of stores. There was Soden’s, a candy store; Moore’s, a drugstore with a soda fountain counter; and a general type store called Bissels.
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- Fernwood Terrace is a short, sweet street where many friends lived just around the corner from Elm Place.
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- Right next door is the house where Mr. and Mrs. Maus lived many years ago. In the basement was the Maus’ bakery (just for fun). They were retired bakers and taught me so much about baking.
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- Next door on the other side is the Allegri house, where Barbara and Tommy grew up along side the Kostyras.
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- This is 86 Elm Place, where I was raised along with my five siblings. What lovely memories! I noticed that my father’s prized wisteria tree no longer graces the front lawn. I wonder what became of it?
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- Next door to the Allegri’s is the Ritchie house, where my brothers’ friend Duke grew up with his mom and dad. Duke married my good friend LeAnne, who later, after divorcing Duke, married his father! It was such a scandal back then!
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- A few doors down is #66, where my Aunt Estell, Uncle Ted, and cousins Diane and Leona lived. My paternal grandmother, Helen, also resided there.
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- This was the fanciest house on the block, belonging to the Hellers. It had a sunken living room and was beautifully furnished with antiques and chandeliers.
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- Behind the fence is a little brook, where I spent many hours fishing for pollywogs and gold fish. Unfortunately the stream became polluted by the Hoffmann-La Roche laboratory, which is upstream a few miles.
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- Intersecting Elm Place is Yantacaw Place, which goes one way towards St. Paul’s Church and the other towards Yantacaw School, where we attended grades K-6.
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- Further up the hill is another favorite house, this pristine stucco Victorian.
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- I’ve always like this house – another great Victorian with round turrets and spacious porches.
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- From Elm Place, we turned onto Brookfield Avenue and back onto Yantacaw Place. This is Yantacaw School, where I studied for seven happy years. I loved this school and I participated in as many activities as my schedule would allow.
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- This handsome school was built in 1902 from brick and stone. The big windows provide great light inside.
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- Many buildings in Nutley are constructed, in part, with Jersey Sandstone or Brownstone.
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- Growing up, I loved this mission-style stucco house, however, its deep overhangs made the interior quite dark.
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- Across the street is a charming shingle cottage now painted red. I remember it as a mossy green shade.
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- Another view of Elm Place – The elm trees died long ago and most of the stately maples that lined the street are gone, replaced by smaller trees. The street is much less shady than I remember.
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- My most favorite neighborhood house is this stucco modernist one – very avant garde for our area. It is now owned by Carol Sorce, one of my classmates who just happened to be leaving her home as I drove by. We exchanged a bit of news and laughed about the past.
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- This is a new building on the spot where my Dentist, Dr. Meyers had his office. I did not like going to the dentist.
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- This is the trestle over Franklin Avenue, the main street in town. This train track took commuters to New York City.
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- The Morris candy store/ice cream parlor was in this old Victorian building on the corner of High and Franklin. We dreamed about the giant chocolate Easter bunnies they made.
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- We drove along Prospect Street, a section of Nutley where more big houses were constructed. The Hallams, the Watts, the Sherwoods, and the Evans lived in this neighborhood.
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- This was the site of Moore’s Drug Store. Patty Place and Carol Dieterle lived in this neighborhood not far from me on Elm Place.
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- This is the Kingsland Manor, another historic site in Nutley. There are many legends about this place including that it was used as a station on the underground railroad prior to the Civil War.
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- Behind the Kingsland Manor is Kingsland Park and Kingsland Lake, where we ice skated, trapped muskrats, and fished for trout and carp.
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- A partial view of my favorite lake
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- Johnny Karagiorgis, son of co-owner Nicholas Karagiorgis, is very friendly. I had a hot dog with sauerkraut, homemade onion relish, mustard, and ketchup. Delish!!!!! Johnny, by the way, is married to Penny of Bravo reality TV show, The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
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- To put the icing on the cake, so to speak, we of course stopped at Rutt’s Hut in neighboring Clifton for the best hotdogs in New Jersey. I’ve been coming here my entire life and try to stop in if I’m passing by.
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- Rutt’s Hut is made up of a tap room, a dining room, and a separate counter area on the backside of the building, where I like to eat. This parking lot gets jammed!
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