How was Maplewood different? archived

I have been here 6 years, not much has changed. An exception being the faces, it seems that many folks come and go. A few friends we have met that were new to Maplewood in the last 6 years, have already sold up and moved on. For multiple reasons, but many for jobs elsewhere.

I live in the Clinton School section.

Ten years ago to today I really don't notice much different.

Thirty years ago the part of Maplewood I live in was not like it is today. We had a rash of car thefts, burglaries, etc. I'm not going to pretend that it is crime free today, but things have certainly improved since the early 80's.

10 Years? I haven't noticed much of a change.

Thirty Seven Year Resident..........merely commenting now not editorializing

The same Mayor/Vice Mayor for many, many years..........Maryor Grassmere.......Mr. Klein
Same Superintendent of Schools .............again many many years
The Principals at the Schools rarely changed.......year after year ............some say they had their
own little fiefdoms...........but no comment on my part
Nature of shopping in the Village.........you could buy anything you wanted for the home except bed sheets
One merchant commented last night that the Village had become a "food court"

I have lived here for 30 years, when I arrived, it was a little bit shabby around the edges, was conservative with an all republican TC, a lot has changed, it went from being a conservative to liberal town, a mostly white to a very diverse town, and quite frankly the infrastructure is much better, roads, sidewalks, town buildings. Maplewood Ave has never been such a hub, and it is really nice to see the growth, I think of maplewood as a hip, sophisticated small town, a hybrid and I like it .

15 years - not much. great place.
Oh, taxes have gone from $6400 to $16K...other than that - I love living here.

author said:

Thirty Seven Year Resident..........merely commenting now not editorializing

The same Mayor/Vice Mayor for many, many years..........Maryor Grassmere.......Mr. Klein
Same Superintendent of Schools .............again many many years
The Principals at the Schools rarely changed.......year after year ............some say they had their
own little fiefdoms...........but no comment on my part
Nature of shopping in the Village.........you could buy anything you wanted for the home except bed sheets
One merchant commented last night that the Village had become a "food court"

We moved here in 1999. Since then, the principal at every school in this district has changed at least once. This is the 3rd (4th?) principal at Clinton and the 3rd at CHS. There's been a change of Principal at Seth Boyden about 6 times. SOMS, MMS, South Mountain have all changed principals in the last few years (twice, I think, for South Mountain.

As for the Superintendent, Dr. Osborne is the 3rd or 4th Super since we arrived.



As for the nature of shopping? The world has changed. Internet shopping, big box stores, mega-malls etc. all make it difficult for mom-and-pop establishments to survive. This has an impact on Maplewood but it is certainly not Maplewood-specific.

Mayor? Volunteers are few and far between for that position. It's hard to imagine why, given the glamour and the undying gratitude of the public they serve.

38 years here. Before Midtown direct came in the town was deserted on Sundays, the movie theater was closed, if memory serves me, and the marque said "Jaws" for about a year. Kings had a liquor store in it and gave green stamps. At the time, 1975, we bought our house near Jefferson School for $45,000 and our taxes were $5000. Cute town, but agree with Sherlock, a little rough around the edges. Half day Kindergarten and the 9th grade was at the middle school. I wasn't until my daughter was entering 6th grade that they moved grade 9 to CHS. The Trat was a tailor shop, later vidio store. Ice cream store was were it is now, there was a baker on that block, later a cheese shop. A toy store was on that block too, I think it was called Evas'. Tons of changes all for the better!!

Here 16+ yrs. I think the downtown has changed in ways which one would expect. Retailers which competed with emerging big box stores and Internet providers have mostly moved on (hardware, pharmacy, haberdasher etc.), though much of that started over 10 years ago.

I think many differences relate to the financial situations of families. I've longed heard the fear that as taxes and home values rise, we'll become less of a "creative" community (writers, graphic designers, photographers and people reinventing their careers will move out), and I suppose that has happened to some extent, but most people I know have hung on. Empty nesters probably move on more quickly than in the past, owing to costs, not sure. Some folks who thought they'd be in a starter home and would move "up" within town are probably more likely to stay put, and maybe do a new kitchen rather than move. Or they are moving "up" to a less expensive area.

I think a lot of it is anecdotal and highly localized. If you live on a block where most people have moved on for whatever reason, it must feel like drastic change. If you live on a block where most people are the same folks from years ago, it probably all feels familiar. Both types of areas seem to exist.

Responsiveness levels of the town varies, I think overall is pretty strong, and most of the top people seem pretty accessible, which counts for something. Activism and involvement, hard to measure, I think people have their pet projects and it's highly fragmented. Last night, the Junior League was honored, and my first thought (respectfully) was "wow, are they still around?" Yes, they are, and they seem to be doing some good work, as are many other groups.

Maplewood - where everything changes, and nothing does. ™

In the early 90's I never hung out in the village even though that was "the thing" for kids my age to do. I kept hearing about fights, etc, so I stayed away. My boyfriend would drive through to check the scene, but we never stopped there or hung out. I do remember one kid from CHS got his head slammed onto the sidewalk resulting in a huge gash that he had to have stitched up. Before stumbling off he had leaned against the wall of Kings by the bank and left a bloody palm print on the side of the building. That area was protected from the rain so it was visible for months (why they didn't go out and wash it off I don't know).

One of the few times I did go to the village to watch a movie in 1991 I ran into a guy I knew (a friend's boyfriend, but not a friend of mine), he was standing around holding a liter of vodka. He wanted me to hang out with him, um, no. When we left the movie he was still outside, but now sporting a shiner and sans vodka. I asked him what happened. He was jumped by a group of kids who stole his bottle of vodka. As I left with my group of friends I could hear the group of kids taunting him that "their" vodka sure tasted good.

Today my husband and I will happily take our two young sons to the village for ice cream even on a Friday or Saturday night (don't judge, the baby doesn't get ice cream, he's just along for the company). We do see groups of high school kids hanging out, but it doesn't seem nearly as volatile as it did all those years ago. Maybe the larger adult presence is what makes the difference. Years ago it seemed as though at night there wasn't much open at night to draw adults down except the pizza place and the movie theater which only played one title at a time. Now there are a ton of nice restaurants, multiple titles are shown at once (so they can draw a more diverse clientele) and there are multiple dessert option to draw people in, so this may be while more adults are hanging out there.

@spontaneous, it's funny, in middle school (also early 90s) I definitely hung out in the Village and didn't see any of the sort of thing you're describing, but it also would have been pre-dark most likely. I remember large, pre-planned fights would take place behind the Maplewood library after school.

That said, Maplewood/South Orange now is largely as I remember it growing up. As a kid it was wonderful, lots of parks, great rec sports options, easy places to get pizza and ice cream. We could ride bikes on most of the neighborhood streets, and I spent many summer days at the pool. I was able to walk to all three of my schools (grumbling all the way, ha!). At that age I wasn't aware of any political leanings one way or another but there were always a lot of creative people around.

Random shopping memories: we used to go to the 5 and 10 after MMS and get the cold sideeye from the owner every time (I guess a lot of shoplifting happened?); we used to buy those little troll dolls from a pharmacy-type place that is now a nail salon. You could also walk downtown to rent a video - I even worked there for a few years!

And Roman Gourmet is still my favorite pizza of all time.

Moved in over a decade ago. The earlier poster's comment about transiency rings true. Seems like pretty much all but two houses on our block have traded. It seems to be the "first move out of the city" for many, and once the kids get to school age, many move on - for whatever reason.

emmie said:

At the time, 1975, we bought our house near Jefferson School for $45,000 and our taxes were $5000.

I note that in 1975 your taxes were more than 10% of the value of your house. Fortunately that is not the case today. :-D

Apparently Maplewood Avenue used to look like this:

I can practically smell the Corinthian leather.

TarheelsInNj said:

@spontaneous, it's funny, in middle school (also early 90s) I definitely hung out in the Village and didn't see any of the sort of thing you're describing, but it also would have been pre-dark most likely.

This was later, and was always older kids, high school age and high school graduates who didn't seem to move on. Definitely after dark.

TarheelsInNj said:

I remember large, pre-planned fights would take place behind the Maplewood library after school.

Yeah, I hated walking past that area in middle school. I even got sucked into one of those once when I was in middle school. Looking back I'm like "why didn't I just walk around the park instead of behind it?" But at the time it seemed like going behind the library and through the park was the only route I could take to get home.

soma_man said:

Moved in over a decade ago. The earlier poster's comment about transiency rings true. Seems like pretty much all but two houses on our block have traded. It seems to be the "first move out of the city" for many, and once the kids get to school age, many move on - for whatever reason.

I guess this depends on what neighborhood you are in. I can't speak for my entire street, but at our end of the block we don't see a lot of turnover. We have plenty of people who have lived here for decades, a few who moved here before I was even born and who have managed to stay here in retirement despite the taxes. My mother has lived on this street for more than 30 years. Ten years ago my husband and I bought a house across the street from her (added bonus, we use her nice patio without having to pay her much higher taxes). We see renters come and go in a couple of the two family homes, but most of the home owners on our street that we know have been here decades. At ten years we are among the "newer" families on our end of the block when it comes to single family homes.

kathy said:

emmie said:

At the time, 1975, we bought our house near Jefferson School for $45,000 and our taxes were $5000.

I note that in 1975 your taxes were more than 10% of the value of your house. Fortunately that is not the case today. :-D

I noticed that, too. That's a stunning rate and glad that it is nowhere near that today.

You know what, it was so long ago, I could be wrong about the taxes. What I do remember is that MWs taxes were much higher than other places we looked, but just could not afford, like Catham, Madison and Summit.

We moved to Maplewood in 1979. Neighborhood mattered more then. There was a clearer memory of the 1960s unrest in Newark and people who had lived in the area in the 1960s and literally seen the smoke in the distance on Springfield Avenue were not quite sure about Maplewood. We were from New York but had work friends in what was then known as the Jefferson school district and considered the most desirable, so we moved there too and were very comfortable.

Downtown was always bustling. There was, as the picture shows, a hardware store at the Baker Street corner. There was a second grocery store but it was fadng, and there were fewer restaurants and a few more clothing shops. But overall it was always active and useful and a great benefit of living in town. The pairing of Marshall and Jefferson took place during our first year here and had, I think, a positive effect, bringing together two vibrant and fairly affluent neighborhoods, though I imagine it was a bit difficult t adjust to for people who had been here longer.

Our house was relatively low priced for the neighborhood when we bought it, from people who had lived there for about twenty years I think. Taxes went up geometrically, about sevenfold I would say. My sense is that there is more money in town now than there was when we arrived but that it is still relatively relaxed about material display.

Taxes: 1978: $2700 Today $17,000
House Cost $71,500 Today $500,000 (estimated)
It's all relative.
Our first meal in Maplewood was at the Winolear ( now Highland Place) and they served a fruit cocktail appetizer in a small silver dish poured right out of the can.
The town has only gotten better since then.
Imagine the next 20 years?

@Tom_Reingold shopping on Maplewood Avenue, c. 1977. Tie is from Maguire's.

That is Al Pacino waiting for Arturo's to open.

I was misinformed.

We've been here just over 25 years and while much has changed, we still consider or decision to move to Maplewood among the best we have ever made. The village had only a couple of restaurants: the Mapleleaf (on the corner of Inwood and Maplewood Ave), Winolear, and Roman Gourmet--and, perhaps Bill & Harry's. IRC, Winolear was the only restaurant that served liquor (so we quickly found Bunny's!!). It had 2 grocery stores (Kings and a funky one I wouldn't enter), a traditional hardware store, a men's clothing shop, woman's clothing shop, The Maplewood Bank & Trust (bought at least 3 times before B of A), an old-fashioned 5 & 10 store (creaky wood floors and all!) and a tailor shop.

Folks seemed much more laid back about updating their kitchens and baths--most looked just like they did in the 20's or 50's--and, did their own landscaping. Perfect grass was not high on anyone's list. I attended a newcomers meeting at the Town Hall and we all had to introduce ourselves and say why we chose Maplewood--high on everyone's list was our beautiful trees. Other reasons were the schools, beautiful homes and commute. I didn't get the impression that everyone moved here already had a 2-year old child, as seems to be the case today.

Everyone on the TC was Republican and Mayor Grassmere was an institution--same thing for the schools, low leadership turnover. There were no women on the TC--I think the first woman elected to the TC (Theo Buklad) may have been the first Democrat, too.

And the trains--old Erie Lackawanna train cars from at least the 1920s with wicker seats, no AC, some sort of hotwater heat that scorched the back of your legs during the winters. Back then Maplewood was the first express stop for some of the trains and for awhile, there was one train that originated in Maplewood. It would just be sitting at the station and we could board at will.

Oh yes, the movie theater. It still was a one-screen venue, in bad need of repair and, although it showed first run movies, it got them late and would have the same movie forever. One big plus: there was at least one night (or weekend afternoon, I don't recall which) when adult ticket prices were $2. Not in Maplewood, but over by the Home Depot (which was a big flea market then), was a movie theater that showed foreign films: the Lost Picture Show.

The Brughdorf center was a Christian Science church and reading room. And, I think the same women were the leadership at the Women's Club.

Great thread idea, jameskpolk. Kinda new here, too, and I'm enjoying the responses.

ETA: If anyone wants to know what Hockessin, Del., was like in 1979, or 1969, or 1989, just give a holler.

Been here since 1980, when we moved in (both worked in NYC, no children yet). It wasn't the friendliest of towns to newcomers - most of our neighbors didn't say hi or introduce themselves for months. We figured it was because we moved in in mid-winter and weren't around during the day. In retrospect, I think that, without kids, you really don't get into the inner workings of any town.

Fourth of July was pretty much as it is now (no duck races, though). There was a different mix of stores in the Village (wider range - shoe stores, housewares, clothing, bakery, hardware, toys) but only one restaurant (the Winolear, where Highland Place is today) and Roman Gourmet for pizza.

Kids still congregated in the Village after school and on weekend evenings, just as now. Taxes were only $5200 then, over $20,000 now. When we did have kids and they went through the schools we were much more connected to town - Cougar Soccer, town T-Ball, etc.

I still miss Peter's Bakery! And Warren and Elliot at Ken Pharmacy were always fun to stop and chat with when I'd walk into town with the kids. Young Cottage was another stop for kids' clothing (remember Larice?)
The TJ Marche store started us on collecting Dickens Village houses (it was where Kokoro is now). There was a woman's clothing store called Delia's that was handy and my husband used to enjoy going in to MacGuire's and giving Glen a hard time (Glen gave as good as he got and they both enjoyed the verbal sparring).

Looking back, I can see that neighborhoods sort of follow cycles - when we moved onto our block, the other owners were mostly older couples, whose children had grown and left. We didn't have much in common with each other. Over a few years, many of them sold to younger couples with kids (or who had kids very soon after moving to Maplewood) and then we had a lot of activity and friendships on the block. Now, those kids have grown up, many have moved away and many of the parents have sold.

Yes, Young Cottage, so convenient for little kids' clothes. And T-ball, where even our unathletic and small for his age son was made to feel welcome and competent. So much fun to watch the games while also the watching younger siblings of team members play with each other in the park. Interesting point about neighbors being welcoming. At the time we moved in, several original or at most second owners were still around, and one of them, a lovely man then about eighty, had the original kitchen--no real counters, lots of gray and black tile on the walls, and probably the white sink on legs that had been put in when the house was built. He would take us to the Maplewood Country Club for dinner each year until he died. There was a time when, as Jews, we would have been unwelcome there, but by then it was apparently okay at least to bring us as guests. And of course by the 1990s it was a popular spot for bar and bat mitzvahs.

We've been here 26 years. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure that Bill & Harry didn't come in until later (sometime in the 1990s) I remember the Winolear, Roman Gourmet, Scriveners, Young Cottage, the men's store where St James Gate is now and The Maple Leaf in a different location ... closer to or maybe in the Bill & Harry space. The bank was still Maplewood Bank and Trust in those days and the movie theater was still ONE large theater, although in very poor repair and I think it closed soon after we came and didn't reopen (as a multiplex) until several years later.

I think Cody gave a good report of Màplewood in 1980. I grew up here many years ago, Life was simpler. Most mothers did not work. They cooked dinner in their small kitchens and took care of the kids. Therefore,there was not much need for too many restaurants in town. Most families had 1 car and often only the father drove. The DL&W train was very important for commuters who took it to Hoboken and then the ferry to the
city. Back then we did more shopping in East Orange and Newark. Central Ave in EO had B Altman,Franklin SImon and Doops where everyone went for their wedding dresses. Then off Main St there was Best & Co and MUirs. Newark had Bambergers,Hahnes and Kresges. If we wanted to see a new movie just showing in NYC we would go to the Community Theater in Morristown. Theaters had to be so many miles from NYC to show the same movies. As I said people lived simply perhaps due to the past depression years. Money was tight. the people who lived here were similar in their professions sans the Internet. The Mueller family(Mueler macaroni)lived on Ridgewood,the Fisher bread family lived on Sunset Terrace and the Jansen Dairy family was on Hoffman. lots of Bell Labs people,authors,teachers,etc.etc.

What does DL&W stand for? All I ever remember my family (maternal grandparents and my mother) calling it was "The Lackawanna".