Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards
General Category => Hackensack History => Topic started by: Editor on June 11, 2012, 12:15:22 PM
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Found this in the Spring 2012 Edition of (201) Executive.
What is he putting under the cornerstone?
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210 Main today:
(http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2188.0;attach=3584;image)
(Thanks Bob)
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What is he putting under the cornerstone?
Could he be putting in a "It's really Peoples Trust Bank" correction to counter the future (201) caption that says, "Executives from United Jersey Bank..."?
Didn't that building become United Jersey Bank in the mid-90s after it was Summit Bank?
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I think it was United Jersey Bank before it became Summit Bank.
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You are correct there.
There were quite a few mergers over the last thirty years involving the bank which was originally People's Trust. Peoples was acquired/merged with UJB which subsequently fell into the Summit holdings. There was another merger involving Commercial Trust Company of New Jersey and another large bank from Boston. Ultimately when all was said and done,the banks formerly known as People's,UJB and Summit all became part of Bank of America which interestingly enough traces it's roots to the Bank of Italy which started in San Francisco in the early 1900's.
Small world out there.
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On second look, I think he is just holding a cement trowel but I'm glad I asked. Click the image above to enlarge.
The cornerstone reads 1926 but the caption reads 1927.
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The image is from a 30 page booklet called "Hackensack & Bergen County" (1926) "A Guide Book and Pocket Encyclopedia designed to acquaint homeseekers, investors and developers with the facts concerning this beautiful hill county now verging upon becoming a Great American Metropolis be virtue of construction of the Hudson River Bridge"
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I'm meeting now with Arthur, the grandson of the steamfitter who installed the heating system at 210 Main Street. If you look at the cornerstone picture above, you'll see three men in a row with glasses. He's the one in the middle, in the background.
He tells me that when the first boiler was delivered, it sat in the alley to the north. They came back the next day and it was gone. They discovered that it sank into "quicksand". Prior to the construction of the Oradell Dam, the river came up to where River Street is now. He's guessing the soil was much looser then. He believes the building is sitting on hundreds of creosote-soaked wooden piles.
Apparently, the boiler is still buried there.
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Now, that's a great story.
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Yeah. They were jamming metal pipes into the ground and eventually they heard a clank. ::)