Business and Transportation In Harrington Park

Business and Transportation

Any account of the history of industry and business in Harrington Park must start with two famous grist mills which were operated from the days of King George III of England and the days of the Revolution. The sites on which those famous old mills were located today are known as Bogert’s Mill, at the junction of Harriot Avenue and Bogert’s Mill Road, and the Mill Pond along Lafayette Road, north of the junction of the road with Harriot Avenue.

The grist mill on the spot known as Bogert’s Mill was built by Abram Myers who received a land grant from King George III in 1765 along the Hackensack River. Soldiers in the Revolutionary War received flour from this mill. John Jacob Bogert, a descendant of Myers, took over operation of the mill in 1839 and on his death the operation was continued for a time by his son, John J. Bogert, who became Harrington Park’s first mayor in 1904. The old mill remained standing until 1938 when the property was purchased by the Hackensack Water Company. A large home, not the original, stands today at Harriot Avenue and Bogert’s Mill Road, across from the site of the old mill.

The other famous mill on Lafayette Road was owned for many years by Peter Demarest, but little is known of the history previous to the operation by the Demarest family. The mill was finally torn down soon after the turn of the century.

In the years just before 1900 Harrington Park, then known as Harrington Township, consisted of several large farms, the better known being the Demarest farm at the Mill Pond, the La Roche farm, the Ward farm, the Eckerson farm and the Herron farm, which along with the Bogert property comprised most of the area of the township.

The first business in Harrington Township was a grocery store which was started in 1883 on Railroad Avenue by Gus Seise and a partner named Kuhn. Soon after the opening Kuhn dropped out of the partnership and Seise continued the business until about 1907 when it was purchased by John W. Haslop.

With the advent of the automobile the store installed gasoline tanks alongside the roadside and for many years was the only place in the area around Harrington Township where automobile fuel could be purchased. Herman Vanderbeck conducted a butcher store on Railroad Avenue, on property next to the Haslop property for a number of years. Later Frank A. Hallenbeck opened a real estate office between the Haslop store and the butcher shop. For a short time there was also a small grocery store, known as Williams’ Grocery, on the opposite side of the railroad tracks and south of the Haslop store.

If not many, Harrington Park has had a wide variety of business enterprises. In the early 1900s the old Demarest Mill building on Lafayette Road was used by the Major family as a glove factory. A business devoted to the charging of electric automobiles followed the glove business.

In 1898 David A. Ward established a coal yard on the eastern side of the railroad tracks and south of the present business center of the Borough. In 1925 the business was sold to J. Westervelt Mount who operated the yard until his death in 1945. The property was sold to the Limbert Brothers of Closter in 1946. Limbert Brothers operated the yard for nearly 3 years before selling to the Spencer Supply Company, present owner [1954] of the property, which conducts a lumber and building supplies business.

Back in 1900 Herman Steinhoff started a nursery business on Lafayette Road and this business was continued by his son after his death until about 1912. There was also a Francisco flower business on Lafayette Road for several years. The M. Fleschlut nursery on Tappan Road began shortly after the Second World War. For a time there was also an ice house on Lafayette Road.

Another of Harrington Park’s oldest businesses is The Harrington Press on Old Hook Road. The business has been in existence since 1909, at a time when a 100-foot footbridge crossed the Hackensack River at the end of Columbus Avenue.

Two hotels in Harrington Park were widely known in the early part of the century. There was the Old Jug Hotel on Tappan Road, also known as Borcher’s hotel, and the Poplar Inn. The Old Jug Hotel, which for a number of years had been used a meeting place for political and other groups, burned in 1911.

Years before the railroad came through Harrington Township in 1883, the Old Jug Hotel was a stage coach stop.

Harrington Park for a number of years also boasted of an egg business and two milk distributing enterprises. In the early 1900s the Cole Milk Company operated opposite the railroad station. Later milk was distributed widely through the section from the Comiskey farm located at the end of Pascack Road.

The first garage business in Harrington Park was started by the partnership of Osterberg and Beahm on Schraalenburgh Road in 1921. The garage is still in operation. J. H. Alleborn opened a service station and garage on Schraalenburgh Road.

Harrington Park’s first business building which was the post office and the Borough Hall, was finished in 1923. It is the Bluefield Building and was constructed by Gus Frank. After the Bluefield Building, the next business structure to be built was the structure now owned by Mrs. Anna Haitz. The section occupied by the Haitz store [now The Store] was in turn a National and A. P. store and the Nevard Notion Shop.

Then came the building at the corner of La Roche Avenue and Lynn Street, which was built in 1925. The most recent building used for business purposes is the triangle structure at La Roche Avenue and Columbus Avenue, which was built by Fred Quantmeyer in 1930.

Another business was the Bergen Instrument Company, on Railroad Ave., manufacturing gear and precision parts for airplane instruments. Also the Harrington Park Manufacturing Company specialized in plastic products.

Transportation
The history of public transportation for the area which now comprises the Borough of Harrington Park goes back to days long before the Borough was founded and when the area consisted mainly of a group of large farms spread out between a few country horse-and-buggy roads.

The first form of public transportation was by rail and the first train to run through the Borough area was operated out of the Pennsylvania terminal in Jersey City to Newburgh, N.Y. by the old New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad Company. The date of the first train through the area was June 4, 1883, but it was several years later before a station was provided for the section. During the first few years, residents of this area went to Norwood to board the train. The West Shore Railroad was organized by J. Pierpont Morgan, Chauncey M. Depew, and Ashbel Green on December 5 1885 after the New York, West Shore, and Buffalo Railway Company was purchased at public auction. On the same day of organization the West Shore Railroad Company was leased to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company.

On June 30, 1952 the West Shore was merged into the New York Central Railroad Company.

From the middle 80s until after the turn of the century private horses and buggies continued to be the only form of travel in addition to the railroad and it was the horse and buggy which were used by farmers and grist mill owners of the area to travel to Closter, Norwood and Westwood centers and more distant parts of the County. Residents of the area did not travel very much before the turn of the century except to the close-by centers and all such travel was provided sufficiently by the private conveyances. The first business which provided horse and buggies for hire was a livery business established by George Herron in 1904.

The first automobile available for public hire was operated by Walter Steinhoff during the period of the First World War. For several years the Steinhoff Ford taxi was a fixture on the roads in and around Harrington Park. Soon after the First World War Harrington Park had its first bus. It was an Oldsmobile with long seats on each side and a pot belly stove in the center. The route was through Harrington Park between Closter and Westwood.