Monday, January 19, 2009

Fort Lee History Archive

Welcome to Fort Lee History Archive - Blog II
We promised a few more Main Street photos in the last blog, so here they are.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s Main Street near Lemoine Avenue underwent a transformation. The construction of the George Washington Bridge meant the Borough had to accommodate an increase in traffic. Because their routes were flexible buses put the trolleys out of business and the new bridge helped kill ferry service. Real estate sales along Main Street boomed. A photo from that era illustrates some of the chaos.














Fort Lee’s new Municipal building was dedicated in 1929. An early 1930s post card shows a view of the uncluttered lawn and façade. Note the large home to the left of the building now the site of Fort Lee's Senior Center.







This is a view of Main Street at Jones Road circa 1949. A Ragamuffin parade (organized by the Police Department) is coming into view.




























In the 1950s a photographer captured a representative group of citizens during a Memorial Day Ceremony. The view is from the steps of the municipal building toward the street. We would like to identify the people who are in the photo. The photo is dated May 30, 1958. The building across the street will be the subject of a later blog. When this photo was taken it was the home of the local Masons (Wakefield Lodge). The photo was taken by Ptl. Forenza.





While we are on the subject of the Municipal building we have a photo from early 1960s showing children registering their bikes.


Does anyone recognize any of the kids? If so give us a call at 201-592-3580 or email us at flhsarchivist@gmail.com.





The previous blog featured some photos of saloons along Main Street. We have one more to show. The Yellow Front Saloon in 1967.
A recent article in the Fort Lee Suburbanite mentioned the wonderful contributions to the Fort Lee Historical Society made by our President Robert Boylan. He not only collected material but also had the foresight to take photos of Fort Lee as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. The Yellow Front Saloon photo is one of his.


In an upcoming blog we will show some material about our schools: old photos of school children and teachers; early photos of the schools; and some of the ephemera we have collected over the years. One of the great treasures we have in the Historical Society’s collection is the School Board minute book starting in 1851 outlining the activities of the Board while Fort Lee was still part of Hackensack Township.


We scanned some sample pages from the book featuring the names of early (male) voters who elected the School Board back then.


Among the names you will find John Lemoine, Franklin Van Gelder, William Conway, Alexander Annette, Henry Burdett, Peter Burdett, Joseph Rutter, John F. Burdett, William Lyons and Maurice Fitzgerald.


There is a project underway to index all the names mentioned in the book. The School itself was probably located on lower Main Street near the border with Edgewater.












From a private collector of post cards we have a wonderful view of the First National Bank with the George Washington Bridge in the background. Yes there are still some great items to be found on Ebay.