General Category > Hackensack History

Letter signed by Hiram Blauvelt, President of Comfort Coal, Hackensack

(1/1)

BLeafe:
As you may know, Comfort Coal & Lumber Co occupied the block where Walgreen's is currently located on Anderson St and burned to the ground in a spectacular fire in 1958. Hiram Blauvelt - owner of the famous Blauvelt Mansion on Kinderkamack Rd in Oradell - was the president of Comfort Coal.

I recently found a letter in my parents' possessions that I never knew existed. It's from (and signed by) Hiram Blauvelt and expresses condolences to my father about the recent death of his father. My grandfather died on August 20, 1947, and the letter was written on the 24th.

I'm not aware that anyone in our family personally knew Mr Blauvelt, but we were Comfort Coal customers, getting regular coal deliveries to our basement to heat our house. How did someone of Mr Blauvelt's stature find out so quickly about and react to the death of a customer? Did secretaries scour death notices in newspapers and cross-reference them with customer lists?

Whatever the situation, I have new-found respect for Hiram Blauvelt, whose Coal kept me Comfort-able throughout my childhood.


Click to enlarge.

ericmartindale:
LOL, in 1947, lots of people were switching from coal to underground oil tanks.  And if it might leak someday, they didn't care, it was underground.

jweingar:
my dad Ken Weingarten shot a color home movie of that spectacular 1958 fire.  As a kid watching the home movie we thought it was largest fire in history.

Navigation

[0] Message Index