Monday, February 23, 2015

Apartment Buildings in the Early 20th Century

Above: The Hamilton, built in 1911, considered the first apartment building in East Orange; SE corner of Central Avenue and South Munn Avenue

Above: 31 Washington Street (NW corner of Washington Street and Essex St); built in 1912, demolished 2001.

                                    Below: Charlotte Apartments, 175 Main St, SE corner of Main Street and South Maple Street; behind it at 2 South Maple Street are the Maple Apartments; both built circa 1911



                               Above and Below: the NE corner of North 19th Street and Eaton Place; The building that fronts on 19th Street is the Greenwood Apartments; the narrow one next to it on Eaton Place is the Stockton Apartments; both built about 1910.




 Above: Carolyn Apartments on the east side of North Grove Street near Eaton Place, probably built circa 1911

         Below: Grove Court Apartments on the west side of North Grove Street near the railroad tracks, probably built circa 1910


                                 Above: 111 Halsted Street on a postcard postmarked 1933

Below:The Fairbanks Apartments in Orange, on Main Street about 300 feet west of the Orange/East Orange line; built circa 1908

Monday, February 9, 2015

Sabloff's


Sabloff's confectionary store at 101 Eaton Place was one one of the most important places for kids in the Stockton neighborhood for several decades. It was on the SE corner of Greenwood Avenue and Eaton Place, just a block from Stockton School and a few hundred feet from the Eaton Place entrance to The Oval. The store was best known for ice cream and candy, but it also had magazines, newspapers, comic books, and fountain drinks.




Below: The building (on the left) in 1916 that eventually was Sabloff's; view is looking south along Greenwood Avenue across the Lackawanna railroad toward Main Street

Sidney and Ida Sabloff, both Russian immigrants, operated the store and lived above it.

Below: Herbert Sabloff, son of Sidney and Ida, as a senior in the University of Maryland Dental School yearbook

Here is an image from the 1940 census form. Sidney (8/11/1889-5/1/1967) and Ida Sabloff (12/10/1890-12/1981) were born in Russia. Their son Herbert (8/24/1913-11/1976) is listed as a dentist. Their business is listed as a "confectionary store" on the census form, and it looks like they lived over the store at 101 Eaton Place. Sidney's brother Morris is shown as living with them, and Morris is listed as a widower and shown as living in Berlin in 1935. Looks like he made it out of Germany just in time.


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Roy's Barber Shop


In the 1950's, one of the most popular spots for boys in the Stockton neighborhood was Roy's Barber Shop. The shop was at 6 North 19th Street in that storefront shown above under the fire escape. While Roy did give a good haircut, the main incentive to visit the shop regularly was Roy's giant collection of comic books which he sold or traded or just left out for reading while waiting for a haircut. In a back room, he had what appeared to be hundreds, if not thousands of comics; many of them were new ones left unsold at retail stores. The stores then cut off the top half of the cover and sent those top halves back to the publishers for credit, and somehow, probably for a very small fee, Roy ended up with the rest of the comic. 

The building shown above was built about 1910 and was named The Greenwood Apartments.

Roy was Leroy Z Rutger, born 9/10/1894 and died 12/01/1971. He lived with his mother Rose at 1 North Sterling Street near the NW corner where Main Street, Hedden Place and North Sterling Street converged. Rose had a boarding house there. That area including Sterling Street was destroyed during the work on I-280 in the mid-1960's.


The last listing for Roy's Barber Shop is in the 1963 city directory. 

Below: an early 20th century photo of The Greenwood Apartments

Roy lived on the right side of where the #402 is and his business was where #542 is (from a 1911 map) 


Below: Leroy Rutger in the 1940 census

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

St. Mary's Cemetery



Below: the 1895 map


From a history of St. Mary's Church: "Since [Newark] was constantly growing the authorities ordered the closing of cemeteries within the city limits, including the old St. Mary’s Cemetery on Grand Street near the original location of the church. Father Rupert thus bought a plot of ten acres three miles outside of the city in East Orange. The first burial in the new cemetery was the transfer of the body of Father Valentine Felder in the summer of 1860." 

                                                       Below: the 1911 map




St. Mary's Church is at the NE corner of William St and Martin Luther King, Jr Blvd (aka High St) in Newark.






                                                Above: Rutledge Avenue entrance


                                               Above and below: Springdale Avenue entrance