The Name-Dropper: Teterboro Airport and the Bendix DinerApril 2, 2015 Last updated: Thursday, April 2, 2015, 1:21 AM
By JAY LEVIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
If not for a collective change of heart by citizens of North Jersey's least-populous municipality, today we'd be tooling along Route 46 in Bendix, not Teterboro, and corporate bigwigs and Justin Bieber would be arriving at Bendix Airport.
But at least we can still grab a burger and fries at the Bendix Diner.
Teterboro was carved out of swamps in 1917 by the investment banker Walter C. Teter, who snapped up 700 acres in Hasbrouck Heights, Little Ferry and Moonachie with plans to develop a racetrack. The newly incorporated town was named for Teter, but his racetrack dreams crashed and burned. After Teter sold a chunk of the town to aviation interests, Teterboro Airport was born.
In 1937 — eight years after Teter's death — the town and airport got a needed jolt when Vincent Hugo Bendix, an Illinois-born inventor and magnate who revolutionized automobile brakes and aircraft engines, purchased 100 acres from Teter's estate for the development of a $3 million aircraft-parts factory. The Teterboro populace was thrilled, and on April 14, 1937, all but one of the 26 registered voters said yes to renaming the town and the airport for Bendix.
(Read more:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/at-least-he-s-still-got-his-diner-the-name-dropper-1.1301213)
Note: instead of the Bendix Diner photo that ran in the story, I'm posting a pic of some of my Bendix stuff. On the map, Bendix is listed on the right side under Teaneck.
