Hasbrouck Heights

By Catherine Cassidy and Friends of the Hasbrouck Heights Public Library

Hasbrouck Heights was incorporated over 100 years ago as a farming community. However, the building of the railroad brought an influx of people, and this agricultural town located a few miles outside of Manhattan morphed into a commuter's dream. The farms died out, and the postwar housing boom made Hasbrouck Heights into the borough it is today. During the last 50 years, the town has relatively stayed the same. Businesses may change, but the time-tested traditions that make up Hasbrouck Heights have stayed true. One can watch children paint the store windows for Halloween in autumn or attend the Easter egg hunt in spring. New traditions, like the inception of Town Day and the street fair, have sprung up as well and will continue for years. These are just some of the things that make people settle here. Viewing these archival photographs will take readers on a walk down memory lane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Feb 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781439655702

Catherine Cassidy

Catherine Cassidy has worked for the Hasbrouck Heights Board of Education for 20 years and has a lifelong love of history. This is her third Arcadia Publishing book following Images of America titles Wood-Ridge and Hasbrouck Heights.

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Library.

INTRODUCTION

Driving down any of the side streets in Hasbrouck Heights, one cannot help but reminisce about the bucolic scenes that still look the way they did years ago. The tree-lined streets, the Victorian-style homes, and the lemonade porches bring one back to when Hasbrouck Heights was incorporated. Many of the residents have kept their homes in the style in which they were built.

Although my grandparents’ home was not one of the grand painted ladies, it still looks the same, albeit with vinyl siding; I am not sure if the peach and pear trees are still there. Many summers, my grandmother had me go to all the neighbors with baskets full of those fruits. I can still recall mowing the back lawn with the hand-push lawn mower and the blades getting stuck because of peaches or pears. When my mother lived in Hasbrouck Heights in the 1950s, there was a large undeveloped piece of property behind her house. By the time I spent summer days there, a development had been built. This was only 35-plus years ago. Families tend stay in Hasbrouck Heights for generations, with many remaining in the same homes.

The Boulevard, once known as Grandview Boulevard, and Terrace Avenue are the bedrock of the town. These commercial streets with long-standing stores have served the public for generations. New stores have come into being as well, proving just as popular as the tried-and-true stores. These business districts have stayed relatively the same since the incorporation of Hasbrouck Heights. Businesses may change, but Hasbrouck Heights has many longtime familiar businesses: Allen and Allen, Lovey’s Pizzeria, Otto and Al’s BP (formerly Amoco), Young Fashions, the Squire Shop, and dozens more. Many newer businesses have sprouted as well.

Forty years ago, residents could purchase groceries at Garden State Farms or Foodland, get their camera equipment at Metro Photo, and pick up hardware supplies at Modern Hardware. A decade before, one could have shopped at the Bergen 5-and-10¢ store. Even though time marches on, Hasbrouck Heights’ heart and soul remains the same.

Hasbrouck Heights dates back to when the Dutch inhabited the area. When the last Images of America book on Hasbrouck Heights was published, there was one Dutch brownstone left. Unfortunately, that building, the former Old Homestead Restaurant (and other restaurants), has been torn down. A long time has passed since Hasbrouck Heights was officially named in 1890 and since the borough formed in 1894, but if one looks around, they can still see some vestiges of that era.

During the second half of the 20th century, the population of Hasbrouck Heights grew considerably. The 1950s saw a building boom to the point where a developer wanted to purchase land near Woodland Park. The local and national issues of the time—juvenile delinquency, gambling, traffic problems—touched Hasbrouck Heights, and population increases led to the need to build a new school and expand the Hasbrouck Heights Municipal Building. During the 1960s, there was a further school expansion, and the Hasbrouck Heights Swim Club opened. In October, November, and December 1966, the Vietnam War hit home with the loss of three Hasbrouck Heights residents: Thomas Holden, Michael Macarell, and Robert Gandil. The 1970s brought about the creation of organizations like the Hasbrouck Heights Mens’ Association and the Friends of the Hasbrouck Heights Public Library. The police received their first contract, and Louise