Enjoy these evocative memories from before 1948 of earlier times in Maplewood.
“In the days before 1900 and for some time after, every farm east of Prospect
Street to the Irvington line had a herd of cows, and many farmers delivered milk
from house to house in Newark by horse and wagon. The roads were bumpy then
and the milk sloshed about in five- and ten-gallon cans. The farmer-milkman carried
a big bell and he rang it as he approached the neighborhood where his customers
lived to let them know that he had arrived. As housewives came out to the wagon
with their pails and pitchers, he ladled out the milk with a long-handled dipper and
they paid him five or six cents a quart for it. Milk would be bought for five cents a
quart at the back door of any house in the won where the family kept a cow.”
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 175.
“And I remember in the spring the wild flowers in the woods near Boyden
Avenue, and in the Double Woods at Prospect Street; and the wonderful row of
willows on the Courter farm on Springfield Avenue; and the walnuts and hickory
nuts that were everywhere in the fall. And there was the brook that came down
Baker Street along the south side and the bridge over it, and the big trees and the
grassy kicking-field between Baker and Lenox; and I remember how we used to cut
our Christmas trees on the Terry farm below Prospect Street at Franklin Place.”
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 176
“Not everybody was elated when the town began to boom, and new streets
were opened up and new houses built. We knew everybody in town in the early
days and some of us liked it that way. When strange people began to move in from
outside, well, it just wasn’t the same. Sunday trains, telephones, automobiles and
parking meters aren’t essentials of the good life, to my mind. I liked it better as just a
lovely sleepy little country town.”
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 178
“As most of the land was either farms or meadowland, the principal streets
were those which passed through town, such as Ridgewood Road, Maplewood
Avenue, Valley Street and Prospect Street….” 1890
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 163
“In 1920 Maplewood was still very rural. There were many farms and woods
and only a few main streets such as Springfield Avenue, Tuscan Road, Prospect
Street, Valley Street and Ridgewood Road…The Arcularius and Trimpi Tract was
known as “Valley View.” The Courter Farm was known as “Mountain View Terrace”
and adjacent to it the Tuscan Farm subsequently known as “Maplecrest.” The site of
the Prospect Street Presbyterian Church was donated by David Courter in memory
of his father, who was the previous owner of Courter Farm.” – Recollections of T.B. Dally Maplewood Past & Present, p. 168
“In the middle 1920s, as I recall, Maplewood became a boom town. Farm
property was cut up into building lots. Schools were built and many of the old
landmarks disappeared and new ones took their place. Some of the old ones are
gone forever. I remember a row of willow trees probably 250 to 300 feet long and
100 feet high on Tuscan Road between Yale and Bowdoin Streets. These trees were
cut down to make way for new construction.” – Recollections of T. B. Dally Maplewood Past & Present, p. 168
“Tuscan Road was a very early road which ran from Valley Street up the hill
somewhat north of the Presbyterian Church and easterly to Springfield Avenue at
Middleville. At that point stagecoaches from Tuscan Road connected twice a week
with an Elizabethtown Stage. There was a toll gate at Van Ness Terrace and Boyden
Avenue….”
– William B. Sayer
Maplewood Past & Present, p. 173
“There is a group of men who may be called the “mid-pioneers” of
Maplewood who should have mention in any account of the town. They came here
when the community was still a village with all the advantages of country-life—the
quite, the fine air, the beautiful trees and fields, the noisy brooks diminishing to soft
murmuring after freshet time; and all the disadvantages of the country—poor roads,
spring mud and restricted means of transportation. They believed in the
community’s possibilities and in its future. Moving here from cities like New York,
Jersey City and Newark, they remained, even though their former city neighbors
might jibe, “What do you do with yourselves nights?”
These mid-pioneers had a vision of the Maplewood, which we enjoy today.
Their foresight and daring have made possible not only the houses and streets of the
present time, but the schools and churches, the library, the banks, parks and clubs.
There were those who wanted “to wait’ or “build smaller,” or “not spend all that
money now!” There were, fortunately, these other men who “saw big” and so
built—to their great credit and our present advantage.
…. May each succeeding generation, inspired by them, keep their wide
horizons and a like desire to serve generously for the common good. Of that earlier
generation it could truly be said that they earned their living in New York, but they
lived in Maplewood.” – John R. Charlton, pastor of Morrow Memorial Church from 1920-1939 Maplewood Past & Present, p. 187
“At the bend of Prospect Street just south of Springfield Avenue, my brother
had one of the finest strawberry beds I ever saw. The strawberries were as large as
a good-sized walnut, growing in profusion. They were the real Hilton berries, and I
can remember eating many of them by holding the hull, dipping the berry in
powdered sugar and having it melt in my mouth. Back of his residence on the west
side of Prospect Street, my brother had a barn in which he had three our four good
driving horses. Behind the barn, right up to the line, came Pierson’s pasture lot in
which they turned out horses from the stable down on Valley Street.
On the property to the east, between Springfield Avenue and Tuscan Road,
and running to a point down at Hilton, was the Valley View tract developed by A.W.
Trimpi and his brother. As an inducement to those who lived upon the tract, a stage
drawn by a team of horses met the trains in the evening at the Maplewood station
and took the resident to the curb in front of their homes. This stage was driving by
john Campbell who later worked for many years upon the roads in the Township.” -Recollections 1905 Frederick W. Smith Maplewood Past & Present, p. 169
All selections from Maplewood Past and Present, A Miscellany, edited by Helen B. Bates, Maplewood, New Jersey, Friends of the Maplewood Library, 1948 (Available at the Maplewood Library)
Maplewood Memories
Enjoy these evocative memories from before 1948 of earlier times in Maplewood.
“In the days before 1900 and for some time after, every farm east of Prospect
Street to the Irvington line had a herd of cows, and many farmers delivered milk
from house to house in Newark by horse and wagon. The roads were bumpy then
and the milk sloshed about in five- and ten-gallon cans. The farmer-milkman carried
a big bell and he rang it as he approached the neighborhood where his customers
lived to let them know that he had arrived. As housewives came out to the wagon
with their pails and pitchers, he ladled out the milk with a long-handled dipper and
they paid him five or six cents a quart for it. Milk would be bought for five cents a
quart at the back door of any house in the won where the family kept a cow.”
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 175.
“And I remember in the spring the wild flowers in the woods near Boyden
Avenue, and in the Double Woods at Prospect Street; and the wonderful row of
willows on the Courter farm on Springfield Avenue; and the walnuts and hickory
nuts that were everywhere in the fall. And there was the brook that came down
Baker Street along the south side and the bridge over it, and the big trees and the
grassy kicking-field between Baker and Lenox; and I remember how we used to cut
our Christmas trees on the Terry farm below Prospect Street at Franklin Place.”
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 176
“Not everybody was elated when the town began to boom, and new streets
were opened up and new houses built. We knew everybody in town in the early
days and some of us liked it that way. When strange people began to move in from
outside, well, it just wasn’t the same. Sunday trains, telephones, automobiles and
parking meters aren’t essentials of the good life, to my mind. I liked it better as just a
lovely sleepy little country town.”
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 178
“As most of the land was either farms or meadowland, the principal streets
were those which passed through town, such as Ridgewood Road, Maplewood
Avenue, Valley Street and Prospect Street….” 1890
– Maplewood Past & Present, p. 163
“In 1920 Maplewood was still very rural. There were many farms and woods
and only a few main streets such as Springfield Avenue, Tuscan Road, Prospect
Street, Valley Street and Ridgewood Road…The Arcularius and Trimpi Tract was
known as “Valley View.” The Courter Farm was known as “Mountain View Terrace”
and adjacent to it the Tuscan Farm subsequently known as “Maplecrest.” The site of
the Prospect Street Presbyterian Church was donated by David Courter in memory
of his father, who was the previous owner of Courter Farm.”
– Recollections of T.B. Dally
Maplewood Past & Present, p. 168
“In the middle 1920s, as I recall, Maplewood became a boom town. Farm
property was cut up into building lots. Schools were built and many of the old
landmarks disappeared and new ones took their place. Some of the old ones are
gone forever. I remember a row of willow trees probably 250 to 300 feet long and
100 feet high on Tuscan Road between Yale and Bowdoin Streets. These trees were
cut down to make way for new construction.”
– Recollections of T. B. Dally
Maplewood Past & Present, p. 168
“Tuscan Road was a very early road which ran from Valley Street up the hill
somewhat north of the Presbyterian Church and easterly to Springfield Avenue at
Middleville. At that point stagecoaches from Tuscan Road connected twice a week
with an Elizabethtown Stage. There was a toll gate at Van Ness Terrace and Boyden
Avenue….”
– William B. Sayer
Maplewood Past & Present, p. 173
“There is a group of men who may be called the “mid-pioneers” of
Maplewood who should have mention in any account of the town. They came here
when the community was still a village with all the advantages of country-life—the
quite, the fine air, the beautiful trees and fields, the noisy brooks diminishing to soft
murmuring after freshet time; and all the disadvantages of the country—poor roads,
spring mud and restricted means of transportation. They believed in the
community’s possibilities and in its future. Moving here from cities like New York,
Jersey City and Newark, they remained, even though their former city neighbors
might jibe, “What do you do with yourselves nights?”
These mid-pioneers had a vision of the Maplewood, which we enjoy today.
Their foresight and daring have made possible not only the houses and streets of the
present time, but the schools and churches, the library, the banks, parks and clubs.
There were those who wanted “to wait’ or “build smaller,” or “not spend all that
money now!” There were, fortunately, these other men who “saw big” and so
built—to their great credit and our present advantage.
…. May each succeeding generation, inspired by them, keep their wide
horizons and a like desire to serve generously for the common good. Of that earlier
generation it could truly be said that they earned their living in New York, but they
lived in Maplewood.”
– John R. Charlton, pastor of Morrow Memorial Church from 1920-1939
Maplewood Past & Present, p. 187
“At the bend of Prospect Street just south of Springfield Avenue, my brother
had one of the finest strawberry beds I ever saw. The strawberries were as large as
a good-sized walnut, growing in profusion. They were the real Hilton berries, and I
can remember eating many of them by holding the hull, dipping the berry in
powdered sugar and having it melt in my mouth. Back of his residence on the west
side of Prospect Street, my brother had a barn in which he had three our four good
driving horses. Behind the barn, right up to the line, came Pierson’s pasture lot in
which they turned out horses from the stable down on Valley Street.
On the property to the east, between Springfield Avenue and Tuscan Road,
and running to a point down at Hilton, was the Valley View tract developed by A.W.
Trimpi and his brother. As an inducement to those who lived upon the tract, a stage
drawn by a team of horses met the trains in the evening at the Maplewood station
and took the resident to the curb in front of their homes. This stage was driving by
john Campbell who later worked for many years upon the roads in the Township.”
-Recollections 1905
Frederick W. Smith
Maplewood Past & Present, p. 169
All selections from Maplewood Past and Present, A Miscellany, edited by Helen B. Bates, Maplewood, New Jersey, Friends of the Maplewood Library, 1948 (Available at the Maplewood Library)