History of Harrington Park II

Fire Department
Harrington Park’s volunteer fire department, more formally known as Harrington Park Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, Inc., has had its share of ups and downs since it made its first request for fire apparatus 43 years ago.

Like many other property owners, its most pressing problem at the moment [1954] is paying off a mortgage.

Officers and members of the company want to be able to call the fire house their own within a short time and have made steady progress toward that goal in recent years.

The company was incorporated in 1911. The following year in order to raise much-needed funds, the original organizers formed the Harrington Park Holding Co. and sold shares at $100 each in a $3,000 mortgage.

Over the years, Sven Sunden, the printer, became sole owner of all the shares and, technically, sole owner of the fire house.

The department adopted a new refinancing plan in 1947. Under it, the Sundens were paid $500 in cash and a new, 10-year mortgage for $2,500 was obtained. The mortgage is being amortized as quickly as possible.

The first recorded expense in the company’s history was $1.60 in 1911 for eight alarm gongs. The Borough’s original hand-drawn pumper still is on display in the fire house. The first fire truck cost $2,100.

Company No. 1 is one of the few in this area equipped with a boat for life saving purposes.

The first company was founded by Arthur E. Taylor, mayor of Harrington Park from 1912 to 1916, but not without some difficulty, since another group headed by Edward C. Striffler, one of the early Councilmen, also wanted to form a company. But Taylor’s group beat them to the punch and became Harrington Park Fire Comapny No. 1. There was a great deal of electioneering between the two groups, and early accounts say that one reason Mr. Taylor won was because he served cider and cigars to prospective members at his home.

Our Schools

The first school in Harrington Park was opened in 1902 on Hackensack Avenue, where it still stands today as the borough’s only apartment house. In various stages it served as the only public educational facility until 1926 when six classrooms in the present school on Harriot Avenue were opened. The Hackensack Avenue school is thus described in a real estate brochure published by Dr. William La Roche in 1906:

“It is a large, well lighted structure located on a very fine site in the Park and the course of studies has been regulated so as to offer all the advantages of a city school. We have at present an attendance of between 40 and 50 scholars who reside in this borough. The school is managed by a competent master who not only strives to cultivate the minds of his pupils, but also teaches physical culture, aided by the natural advantages of a country life.”

Perhaps some of those who attended the old school, especially in its later years, did not share Dr. La Roche’s enthusiasm, but at least the school was a tremendous improvement over what went before it. Residents of Harrington Park before 1902 had to trudge to Norwood to the one-room schoolhouse on Tappan Road, just across the corner from where Zinke’s restaurant now stands. Some older residents of the borough recall walking to school even in the worst days because there was no such thing as a school bus, and parents did not have the time, the facilities, or the inclination to drive children to school just because of a little snow.

For those days, the school at Norwood was a modern one. It served the families from Randall, which was the Harrington Park station, Neuvy, which is now Northvale and Norwood. There were two teachers, one taking the lower grades, and one the upper. Grades were dismissed from school in the order of their rank, with the upper grades finishing last.

On the curriculum were the three Rs, geography, spelling and American history. Later on algebra came in, but there was no science course and no courses such as music or art. But there was plenty of memorization, and pupils learned poetry by heart by the yard. Every so often a sort of joint recital by the pupils would be held for the parents. That was just about the extent of extra-curricular activity.

When Harrington Park acquired its own school, things became somewhat easier for the scholars,. as Dr. La Roche elegantly termed them. Here was, by comparison, a big modern two-story building with a staff of three or four teachers, depending on circumstances. The curriculum remained about the same as it had been in Norwood, but classes were more distinctly divided, By 1910, the second floor of the school had been put into use for classrooms, a small stage had been added, and the top floor was used considerably for civic and social gatherings.

Central heating made the school comfortable, but there were times when other facilities were not all that might be desired. Occasionally, these went out of order, and the classes were lined up and marched down, one by one, to Henry Muller’s farm. Some idea of education in Harrington Park when the town was young may be gathered from the fact that total school costs for the year 1912 were $2,519.02.

Whatever its disadvantages by modern standards might be, the school provided Harrington Park pupils with an education, and like so many other schools in small towns in those days, it was a center of community activity. The small faculty was entertained constantly by the townspeople at teas, dinner, and musical evenings.

Mrs. Lulu Switzer became principal of the Hackensack Avenue School on March 20, 1919, and she recalls that there were two classes in each of the four rooms of the school at that time. It was also about this time that the first public transportation was added to school facilities, with Walter Steinhoff’s taxi bringing some of the children from the more remote areas of the community. They used to pile into the taxi until they were virtually hanging out the sides, and they were let off at the foot of the hill to walk the rest of the way.

While there was no supervised sports or play as we know them today, there were a good many activities going on at the school which many residents remember. Mrs. John Kelly, who lived on Schraalenburgh Road, was a sister of John Ringling, and on occasion he sent out elephants and other animals from the Ringling Brothers Circus. The exhibit was housed on Mrs. Kelly’s property, Babe Ruth was a guest, and the whole school, faculty and all, were dismissed for the day to see the circus. Graduations were held in the fire house, and not much fuss was made over them, certainly nothing to the extent seen today. A temporary stage was erected consisting of boards on wooden horses.

Mrs. Switzer recalls that one year just before graduation a rehearsal had been ordered for the commencement play, but not a single member of the graduating class was to be found. It was a nice, warm spring day, and when Mrs. Switzer finally found the missing class, they were all boating on the mill pond. Mrs. Switzer expelled the whole class. An emergency meeting of the school board had to be held to reinstate them so they could be graduated the next day.

Total enrollment in the old school seldom exceeded 80 pupils. The average graduating class was a dozen or so. But by the beginning of the 1920s, growth in Harrington Park had made it necessary to hold classes in the fire house. Two classes were held there with a curtain strung between to separate them. There was no kindergarten, classes being from the first grade through the eighth, There was, however, a pre-first grade class. Teachers in special subjects gave part-time help. notably Mrs. V. Emerson Carroll, and Mrs. Fred A. Semmens, who specialized in music.

On March 10, 1924, the Board of Education after consideration of several tracts of land decided to purchase for $22,000 the 14-acre tract known as Ward Farm for the new school site. The Ward home was sold and moved across the street.

Contracts for the new school building were awarded January 5, 1925, for $127,000. Cornerstone was laid April 4, 1925. After the Christmas vacation in 1926 six rooms of the new school were occupied with Mrs. Switzer principal. Dedication program was held January 5, 1926. Mrs. Switzer was succeeded as principal by William Yauch in 1930. George Bainbridge was principal from 1936 to 1945 followed by Joseph Rodriguez. Enrollment in 1945 was 162 pupils and has increased to the present [1954] enrollment of 344. This trend prompted the selection of an architect for the school addition in June 1952. Voters approved the bond issue of $355,000 May 12, 1953. Addition of eight classrooms and kindergarten, library, and administrative office and expected to be ready by September 1954 with fifteen teachers employed. The cornerstone for this new addition was laid as part of the 50th anniversary ceremonies.