This lovely calendar page is from 1915. I had not previously heard of the Imwolde Brothers, nor of the market they ran. What’s their story? The Old Newspapers don’t reveal a lot. Herman & Henry Imwolde immigrated from Germany in the early 1900s and opened a shop on Main Street which they called “The Majestic […]
Here are two views of the stores and merchants populating Main Street in Butler NJ, on a fine Spring day in March 1950. At that time it was a quiet factory town – the devastating fire that would destroy the borough’s largest employer, the Pequanoc Rubber Company, was still seven years into the future. There’s […]
The creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps was President Roosevelt’s grand plan to put some of America’s hundreds of thousands of unemployed young men to work during the Depression. This was one part of his “New Deal” that was a success. These men — often merely boys — were put to work on a variety […]
Once upon an era, every town and village had a hardware store. In many instances, it was also the general store, post office, and community center where men would discuss the matters of the day. Frank B. Whittle was born in England in 1860, and (presumably with his family) came to America in 1870. He […]
If you could somehow pluck a citizen of Butler, NJ, off Main Street a century (or more) ago, and plop him down in the same place today, he’d immediately recognize his surroundings. Butler is one of those towns which hasn’t changed substantially over that time. (Compare with any photo of, say, downtown Manhattan, where very […]
Lyon’s Theatre sits on lower Arch Street, near the Bloomingdale border. Most folk just called it Butler Theatre. Can’t say I know much about this place, but I’m sure it was the place to be on a Friday night. I wonder what movies they showed? According to the Facebook Butler page, King Hiller — who owned […]
This is the town that rubber built. Butler was a sleepy town originally known as ‘West Bloomingdale’ in the early 1800s. There was some industry — notably, a small rubber mill operating on the river — but things started to cook when Richard Butler came to town. He took ownership of the Butler Hard Rubber […]
The third of three “Then & Now” photos I acquired a while back (here’s the first one and here’s the second). To quote the earlier posts, the origin of these is as interesting as their content: In 1940, someone stole the black-and-yellow “Railroad Crossing” signs at the two Butler crossings on the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike. An […]
The second of three “Then & Now” photos I acquired a while back (here’s the first one). The origin of these is as interesting as their content: In 1940, someone stole the black-and-yellow “Railroad Crossing” signs at the two Butler crossings on the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike. An employee of the NYS&W (New York Susquehanna & Western) […]
Who doesn’t like “Then & Now” photos? I have some to share which have never been seen before. The origin of these is as interesting as their content: In 1940, someone stole the black-and-yellow “Railroad Crossing” signs at the two Butler crossings on the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike. An employee of the NYS&W (New York Susquehanna & […]