Man behind 'Greetings from Bergen County'
Friday March 2, 2012, 12:07 PM
BY STACEY ROSENFELD
STAFF WRITER
South Bergenite
He may live on the West Coast, but his heart belongs to Bergen County
Brian Cornish uses old postcards to create videos on Bergen County.
Growing up as a child in Bergen County, Brian Cornish would save the postcards he received from friend's and family's travels. With his child-like imagination, he envisioned what the places their images depicted were really like, and treasured them as snapshots of distinct places in time. From Cornish's posy of childhood postcards was born a collection of vintage postcards which amass the history of Bergen County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Throughout his youth, Cornish lived first in Palisades Park, then Teaneck and Fair Lawn, and finally Ramsey, where he attended high school. Fascinated with old buildings, Cornish often wondered what the towns he called home looked like when the antiquated structures were first erected.
Finding visual answers in the postcards he would purchase at New Jersey antique shops, Cornish's curiosity led him to aggregate a collection of more than 2,500 vintage postcards, each depicting images of Bergen County from the late 1890s to the 1960s. His collection includes postcards of nearly every town in the county.
The "Golden Age of Postcards" lasted from 1907-1915 and ended right before World War I. Until 1915, the postcards were made in Germany and were of photographic quality. According to Cornish, after that time "the visual quality markedly diminished."
Cornish's vast collection of postcards made the cross-country trek with him when he relocated to northern California in the mid-1990s. A now retired software developer residing in San Jose, CA, Cornish, 49, pondered what he could do with the vast collection that had lain dormant in binders for many years.
In the current era of social networking and the resultant ability to reach vast audiences with nary a click on the computer, YouTube has become a viable, if not preferred, method of sharing multimedia information.
Cornish, who deems YouTube "a great medium in which to share common interests," began to assemble his postcards in November 2011, so that when viewed in succession, they created beautiful video slideshows set to music and depicting the early history of Bergen County's distinct towns.
The videos play as individual, historic tributes to each town in Bergen County. Since he began this process, Cornish completed unique videos for 65 of Bergen County's 70 towns. He continues to work on the remaining five towns, saving Ramsey, which promises to be the most extensive video, for last.
In his video, "Greetings from Bergen County: Rutherford," set to the music of Musica Antiqua Köln & Reinhard Goebel, Cornish takes viewers on a tour of circa the early 1900s. Sites gone from Rutherford's backdrop include the Wakefield Hotel, Union Avenue Bridge and the Union Club. Carlstadt includes photos of the old Turn Hall and the City Theater. The Lyndhurst video, set to the sounds of Springsteen, includes postcards of the old swimming pool and the yacht club. Old photos of a Viaduct and reservoir are highlights of the North Arlington video, set to the music of Mateo Messina. East Rutherford's tribute includes the bleachery and the pond near it, and an old plant nursery. All videos reveal once tree-lined streets with Victorian homes and many show town parades.
Living in California, Cornish continues to acquire New Jersey vintage postcards largely through eBay. In fact, the retired software developer has transformed this hobby to his occupation by opening his own eBay store, focusing on the trade of vintage books and postcards.
Cornish said, "I hope the videos provide viewers with an innovative, historic peek at the towns they love and call home."
All of Cornish's videos may be found by visiting YouTube.com and typing "Greetings from Bergen County" in the search bar.
Jaimie Winters contributed to this article.
