Author Topic: Main St.  (Read 148481 times)

Offline Skipx219

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #60 on: March 05, 2009, 01:48:51 PM »
Oops, I thought I was responding to an earlier post.

The old Art Deco Gas Station at Main & Poplar - across from Target & B & W Bakery.

Offline Editor

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #61 on: March 05, 2009, 01:55:58 PM »
You responded to the right post.  We just turned the page.

I wonder what, if anything, will replace it. 


Offline just watching

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #62 on: March 06, 2009, 07:13:29 AM »
Well, it's been said that "one man's art is another man's garbage".  I consider it to be garbage.  Goodbye to that eyesore. Admittedly, the only art I appreciate is impressionism.

Why don't they turn down the vintage 1950's row of empty garages on Linden, not far from the eastern spur of Ross Ave.  Or does the 1990's graffiti facing the railroad constitute art that must be preserved....lol.

Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #63 on: March 06, 2009, 07:51:29 AM »
That building was certainly no great loss. Ol' Homer remembers an application to the Board of Adjustment back in the 90's, and before Target, to convert that very same building to a poultry market where live birds would be kept, slaughtered and sold on a retail basis. Fortunately the Board gave the applicant the bird on that one.

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #64 on: March 10, 2009, 08:24:27 PM »
I took this today with my cell:

Like music? Like photography? Step into my office: http://xrl.us/BobL - - - - - - - http://xrl.us/BobsDarkness

Offline Editor

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #65 on: March 29, 2009, 03:24:34 PM »
John's is one block away from Main, on Sussex Street.  Might as well be Main Street:

Noted coffee shop owner retires

Offline Editor

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #66 on: April 22, 2009, 02:56:25 PM »

Offline Editor

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1998 NYT article about Main Street/Hackensack
« Reply #67 on: December 16, 2009, 11:11:40 AM »
May 3, 1998
If You're Thinking of Living In/Hackensack, N.J.; After Long Decline, Downtown Rebounds
By JERRY CHESLOW

THERE is a saying in Hackensack that as goes Main Street, so goes the rest of the city.

Today, the 15-block-long commercial spine of the Bergen County seat has clearly rebounded following decades of decline that began in the 1950's with the opening of large shopping malls in nearby Paramus.

Main Street now has new curbs, many updated store facades, clean sidewalks and a new crop of service businesses, such as nail salons, banks and dry cleaners. Its dozens of food establishments, ranging from fast-food outlets to elegant restaurants, do a brisk lunch trade, serving the estimated 100,000 workers who funnel into the 4.12-square-mile city daily.

Old-timers, such as George M. Scudder, the 89-year-old city historian, still grieve for the bustling Hackensack of the early 20th century. ''Then there was no other place to shop in Bergen County,'' Mr. Scudder explained. ''Of our big department stores, most are long gone, and only Sears Roebuck remains. Once, store rentals on Main Street cost more than in Times Square and we had seven movie theaters. Now we have no theaters and many of our stores are vacant.''

Others, such as William DiLunardi, owner of three adjacent businesses on Main -- a one-hour film processing store, a liquor store and the Courthouse News newspaper store -- says the downtown is adapting to market conditions. Rather than focusing on serious shopping, merchants now supply services and convenience items.

''Maybe you can't sell dresses on Main Street anymore,'' he explained. ''But I can sell a lot of newspapers and others can deliver coffee and fresh fruit to law offices.''

Mayor John F. Zisa said that the improved appearance of Main Street was largely responsible for the strong demand for housing. And Linda McAuliffe, co-owner of ReMax Heritage Realty in Hackensack, notes that the fact that Routes 4 and 80 pass through Hackensack, that the city is near the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike and that it has convenient bus and rail links to New York City are impressive attractions to buyers.

She said that houses priced properly sold within four weeks. Detached homes range in price from about $120,000 for some modest turn-of-the-century colonials up to about $600,000 for some manor homes on several acres on Summit Avenue, the city's most prestigious street.

''Occasionally,'' she said, ''a handyman special on an odd-sized lot will come on the market for $70,000.''

MAYOR ZISA said that the highest priced detached house ever sold in the borough was on a five-acre estate on Summit Avenue. Known as Tulip House because of the 30,000 tulips that once graced its gardens, the house went for $650,000 two years ago, according to the Mayor. After massive renovations, the house is currently assessed for tax purposes at $800,000.

Hackensack's housing also includes dozens of apartment buildings and garden apartment complexes, comprising co-ops, condominiums and rentals. The higher-end buildings are along Prospect Avenue. One of the more prestigious buildings is the Camelot, an 18-story condominium high-rise with 72 two-bedroom apartments. One unit is on the market for $254,000.

The more reasonably priced condominiums are in converted garden apartment complexes, such as Suburban Terrace near the Maywood border, where one-bedroom units sell for $55,000 to $60,000 and two bedrooms go for about $10,000 more.

Carlos Santos, a California native who is a salesman for a Long Island medical products company, moved to Hackensack in 1994 after purchasing a 45-year-old Cape Cod-style house on a dead-end street. A bachelor, he said he had been drawn to the city by its proximity to Manhattan and the sense of community that he had found while renting an apartment in Hackensack a decade earlier.

''I really like the suburban feel of my neighborhood, in the midst of an urban center,'' he said. ''It is a 15-minute drive from Manhattan, but has small-town values where people watch out for each other. I also like the variety of ethnic restaurants on Main Street -- Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Colombian and Japanese. I just wish Main Street had some life after 5 P.M.''

Indeed, most residents surveyed in a recent poll commissioned by the municipality said they wanted to see further redevelopment along Main. The study, conducted by Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute, found that three in four residents rated Hackensack as either an excellent or a good place to live.

Hackensack is named for the Achkinhenhcky branch of the Leni Lenape Indians, who traded with Dutch settlers along the Hackensack River as far back as the 1660's. The portrait of their chief, Oratam, who negotiated a treaty with English and Dutch settlers in 1690, appears on the municipal seal. Many artifacts of the Colonial period are displayed in the still existing First Dutch Reformed Church, built in 1696 near the river on what is now Court Street. In 1780, George Washington attended the funeral in that church of his friend, Gen. Enoch Poor, who died in Hackensack and is buried in the churchyard.

A statue of General Poor stands on The Green, an open area between the church and the Bergen County courthouse, a copper-domed replica of the United States Capitol completed in 1912.

Among the city's amenities are the 600-bed Hackensack Medical Center, the largest hospital in Bergen County, and the 80-store Riverside Square, an upscale mall on Route 4. Its newest commercial area is the riverfront, which is making a comeback after oil storage facilities were replaced by a large supermarket, a Pep Boys auto parts megastore and a Costco consumer-club store. As a condition for the granting of permits to build along the river, Hackensack obligated the developers to construct sections of a promenade, complete with Victorian-style lights and benches, overlooking the river.

''Eventually, we will link all of these sections up into a river walk,'' explained City Manager James S. Lacava.

Hackensack currently has 14 parks, the largest of which is the 28-acre Foschini Park off Salem Street in the eastern section. The park has 11 baseball diamonds, which are also used as soccer and football fields in the fall, and it serves as the venue for the annual Fourth of July fireworks, which draw about 15,000 people.

Hackensack's 4,600-pupil public school system consists of four pre-kindergarten-to-grade 5 elementary schools, Hackensack Middle School and the 1,600-student Hackensack High School, which sent 88 percent of last year's 320 graduating seniors on to higher education.

The city is also home to the Bergen County Vocational and Technical High School and three coed parochial schools -- the Roman Catholic Holy Trinity and St. Francis, both pre-kindergarten to grade 8, and Hackensack Christian School, affiliated with the First Baptist Church, for elementary and high school. Tuition at Holy Trinity is $2,600 a year. At St. Francis, it ranges from $1,500 to $1,850 and at Hackensack Christian it ranges from $2,600 for half-day kindergarten to $3,7000 for grades 7 through 12.

ACCORDING to Schools Superintendent Joseph L. Montesano, districtwide enrollment grew by a third over the last decade, reflecting the sale of housing by empty-nesters to young families.

Hackensack High School's scores on standardized tests are below the state averages. Last year, 68.5 percent of Hackensack 11th graders passed all sections of the state-mandated High School Proficiency Test, which assesses performance in mathematics, reading and writing. This compares with 74.8 percent of students statewide. On the S.A.T., Hackensack students scored combined averages of 925 on the verbal and math sections out of a possible top score of 1,600. This was 80 points below the state average.

But Dr. Montesano said that the scores did not reflect the quality of education in Hackensack because the population is ''extremely diverse,'' with students coming from 57 different countries. The student body is about evenly split among whites, Latinos and blacks.

''Pit our top 20 percent of students against the top 20 percent of students anywhere in the state and we will do very well,'' he explained. ''We provide a safe, focused learning environment and it's frustrating that we don't receive more recognition for it.''

Indeed, Hackensack High School students have excelled in a number of areas. For the last three years, they won the North Jersey Championship for large high schools in the Academic Decathlon, a statewide competition in science, literature, mathematics and the arts. Last year the school won the New Jersey championship in the Odyssey of the Mind Competition, a worldwide contest that measures creativity, teamwork and critical thinking.

The school offers advanced placement courses in English, Spanish, mathematics, computers, sciences and United States history.

Photos: Homes along the prestigious Summit Avenue. Some are manors priced around $600,000. Higher-end apartment houses marching along Prospect Avenue in Hackensack. (Photographs by Eddie Hausner for The New York Times); On the Market: 4-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath colonial at 55 Poplar Avenue, $139,000. 3-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath colonial, screened porch, at 810 Summit Avenue, $179,900. 4-bedroom, 2-bath Tudor/colonial, new kitchen, at 52 Summit Avenue, $299,000. Chart: ''GAZETTEER'' POPULATION: 37,750 (1998 estimate). AREA: 4.12 square miles. MEDIAN HOUSHOLD INCOME: $44,509 (1997 estimate). MEDIAN PRICE OF SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE: $180,000. TAXES ON MEDIAN HOUSE: $5,600. MEDIAN PRICE A YEAR AGO: $176,000. MEDIAN PRICE 5 YEARS AGO: $168,000. MEDIAN PRICE OF 2-BEDROOM CONDOMINIUM: $120,000. MEDIAN PRICE A YEAR AGO: $112,000. MEDIAN PRICE 5 YEARS AGO: $98,000. MEDIAN RENT FOR A 2-BEDROOM APARTMENT: $950. PUBLIC SCHOOL SPENDING PER PUPIL: $8,500. DISTANCE FROM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN: 8 miles. RUSH-HOUR COMMUTATION TO MIDTOWN: 50 minutes by N.J. Transit bus to Port Authority Bus Terminal, $2.55 one way, $82 monthly; 27 minutes to Hoboken by N.J. Transit train, $3.35 one way, $28.50 weekly, $94 monthly, then 10 minutes by PATH train to 34th Street, $1. GOVERNMENT: 5 council members elected to 4-year terms select one of their own as mayor for 4 years. Current mayor is John F. Zisa, a Republican. CODES: Area, 201; ZIP, 07601. A SUB MUSEUM: The Ling, a World War II submarine moored in the Hackensack River off Borg Park, serves as sort of a museum at the intersection of Court and River Streets. When operational, the 312-foot-long sub carried 95 men and 24 torpedoes. Commissioned on June 8, 1945, the Ling made one Atlantic patrol before the end of the war. Later it was used for training. The Ling has been berthed in Hackensack since 1973 and is open for touring Wednesday through Sunday from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Admission is $4 for adults and $2.50 for children under 12. Map showing the location of Hackensack, N.J.

Offline just watching

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #68 on: December 18, 2009, 09:28:12 AM »
Yes I remember that one.  Glad it is posted online for posterity.

Reading it brought back a sad memory, I saw they quoted Bill DiLunardi.  Also the late George Scudder, former city historian.

It's amazing that a lot of the themes are still current topics of discussion:  the renovation of Main Street, the riverwalk, immigrants allegedly bringing down school test scores, and more. 

Montesano hit the nail right on the head with this fine point of wisdom, probably still true today: ''Pit our top 20 percent of students against the top 20 percent of students anywhere in the state and we will do very well,''

Offline Editor

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #69 on: August 09, 2010, 12:30:52 PM »
In today's Record. Click image to enlarge and again to shrink. 

Thanks Rosemarie!
_____________
A few of us are looking at this and cannot confirm this is Main Street, Hackensack. I walked the strip earlier but can't find any locations that match. 

There is a "Dairymaid" in the background and Dairymaid is referenced on these boards as having existing on Main Street. But Dairymaid was a chain that existed in many downtowns. 

I've also searched online for any text I can read on the signs but no luck.

Does anyone recogize any stores? Where is this?

« Last Edit: August 09, 2010, 04:35:04 PM by Editor »

Offline Editor

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Re: Main St (Mystery solved)
« Reply #70 on: August 10, 2010, 09:39:40 PM »
Ok.  Bob got in touch with the Library/archivist for North Jersey Media.  While they were researching their files for more information on the image, Bruce the Bed King called them.  Turns out that Bruce's family owned a store called Wieners shown in the picture. We followed up with Bruce's people and got the scoop.

In the above picture, the building on the far left is "Sherby's," an army/navy store.  The car in the foreground is making a left from Demarest Place, now a pedestrian pathway to the bus transfer station.  Sherby's is now the Harwood Lloyd Law Firm.  Other stores seen are Bergen Arts and Crafts, Vogue, Riker's Wines, Shepards Clothes, Garafano or Carafano Curtains and Dairymaid. Below is a picture of the current location. If you look closely, you can see the fire boxes in the same location.  You also notice how office space totally changed the look and feel of the block.

Thanks to Bob and everyone else who pinned this down.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2010, 10:03:12 PM by Editor »

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #71 on: August 11, 2010, 12:56:33 AM »
The mystery's not totally solved. There's now a question about the year.

I thought a couple of the cars might be early 50s, but didn't say anything. While I was talking to Doug Clancy from The Record, he mentioned that he received a couple of emails from people who thought the same thing.

Their archivist is still coming in to try to find the original print and whatever info is on the back.


And I still want to know what that tall structure is in the background.



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Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #72 on: August 11, 2010, 08:43:03 AM »
If Homer's memory is correct, there were 2 buildings on the corner of Demarest Place and Main Street which were known as the Biggio and Weiner buildings. They were purchased in the very early 1970's by the Hackensack Housing Authority for a proposed urban renewal project which never got off the ground due to a court challenge by Milton Proznitz.
After all the tenants were gone, they were vacant for a few years until Harwood Lloyd purchased and renovated them.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2013, 04:38:44 PM by Editor »

Offline Editor

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #73 on: August 11, 2010, 12:29:14 PM »
I believe the inscription above the door is "Biggio Bldg".  Good memory!



Offline just watching

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Re: Main St.
« Reply #74 on: August 11, 2010, 08:47:25 PM »

WOW.............................Good old Homer's just opened the door to a whole lot of UNRECORDED history.  That's why we love your posts.

Nowhere in any history publications have I seen anything about the Hackensack Housing Authority proposing an urban renewal project in the heart of Main Street, nor dear Mr. Prosnitz litigating against it.  I don't doubt for one second that you are correct.  There's a lot of history that is just swept under the rug and not recorded.

PLEASE enlighten us on everything that you remember about this project.  Your candidness is greatly appreciated.  At least it will be documented here. Thanks

 

anything