Miss Ethel Louise Stewart's 1954/55 Afternoon Kindergarten Class

Back row starting at left: Robin, Karen, Rosemary, John Tindall, Christine, Kathy Moran, Barbara, Annette.
Middle Row starting at left: Patricia, Patricia, Phyllis, Brian, ? , ? , Rebecca.
Bottom Row starting at left: Linda, Caroline, ? , Ronnie, Larry.

photo courtesy of Kathy (Moran) Engram

Above: Miss Ethel Louise Stewart, kindergarten teacher; from a 1951/52 class photo courtesy of John Hoagland

Entry for East Orange in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

East Orange

A city of Essex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., in the north-eastern part of the state, adjoining the city of Newark, and about 12 m. W. of New York city. Pop. (1890) 13,282; (1900) 21,506, of whom 3950 were foreign-born and 1420 were negroes; (1906 estimate) 25,909. It is served by the Morris & Essex division of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railway and by the Orange branch of the Erie (the former having three stations in the city - Grove Street, East Orange and Brick Church), and is connected with Newark, Orange and West Orange by electric line. The city covers an area of about 4 sq. m., and has broad, well-paved streets, bordered with fine shade trees (under the jurisdiction of a "Shade Tree Commission"). It is primarily a residential suburb of New York and Newark, and has many beautiful homes; with Orange, West Orange and South Orange it forms virtually one community, popularly known as "the Oranges." The public school system is excellent, and the city has a Carnegie library (1903), with more than 22,000 volumes in 1907. Among the principal buildings are several attractive churches, the city hall, and the club-house of the Woman's Club of Orange. The principal manufactures of East Orange are electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies (the factory of the Crocker-Wheeler Co. being here - in a part of the city known as "Ampere") and pharmaceutical materials. The total value of the city's factory products in 1905 was $2,326,552. East Orange has a fine water-works system, which it owns and operates; the water supply is obtained from artesian wells at White Oaks Ridge, in the township of Milburn (about 10 m. from the city hall); thence the water is pumped to a steel reinforced reservoir (capacity 5,000,000 gallons) on the mountain back of South Orange. In 1863 the township of East Orange was separated from the township of Orange, which, in turn, had been separated from the township of Newark in 1806. An act of the New Jersey legislature in 1895 created the office of township president, with power of appointment and veto. Four years later East Orange was chartered as a city.

Note: The "pharmaceutical materials" referred to in the Britannica were the products of Seabury and Johnson in the Doddtown area of East Orange.

Riding and Driving Club

"The Orange Riding and Driving Club was incorporated June 8, 1892 and rented a riding academy on North Clinton Street for its meetings and for horse riding classes. In February of 1895, the building shown in the photo was constructed at 9 Halsted Street and it then became known as the East Orange Riding and Driving Club. It was an "L" shaped building with a rear outlet onto Prospect Place (which was cut into by the #280 Freeway and the grounds are now the Shop Rite Parking Lot). In its glory days, the club held annual autumn horse shows, races, and offered a place for residents to exercise and stable their horses (which were owned by most residents during that era). By 1918, the automobile was competing with horses for the streets and winning, so the club closed its doors." 

(text from http://www.eohistory.info/EOTimeLine/1895/RidingAndDrivingClub.htm)

The club was next door to the Orange Athletic Club building for a number of years.

Below: a story about the Essex Troop which had its quarters in Roseville:

October 30, 1907 – Last drill in the old armory; the same day the building was razed to make room for the new facility. Construction would take a little more than three years to complete. Temporary arrangements were made at the Orange Riding and Driving Club, on Halstead Street in East Orange. The club’s quarters were much smaller than the armory. Drills were held on Wednesday and Fridays nights, with the First and Second Platoons drilling respectfully.

(My father was in the Essex Troop, formally known as the 102nd Cavalry, in the late 1930's and was in it when the troop was activated in late 1940 to train for what became WW2.)

More photos of the Riding and Driving Club and some personal connections to it from another former resident

Crocker-Wheeler

About 1893 the Crocker-Wheeler Electric Company Works was built at the intersection of Springdale Avenue and the Montclair branch of the Lackawanna Railroad in what would soon be called Ampere. A train station had been built there in 1890 anticipating the influx of workers and residents. There were few businesses or houses in the area in 1895 (4th Avenue didn't even exist yet) but development was rapid between 1895 and 1905.

The factory in the 1897 photo below was built after the original 1893 factory was destroyed by fire in 1895.

The Palmer House

The intersection at Main Street and Maple Avenue in East Orange was one of the highest elevations between downtown Newark and the foot of "The Mountain" and had been the site of some of the earliest dwellings in the area since the area had been settled by Europeans in the late 17th century. 

The Palmer House, a boarding hotel, was built in the late 1880's at the NW corner of the intersection replacing another large house (it's possible the earlier house may have also been The Palmer House in an earlier version). 

The photo below was taken in 1964 by Dr. Sam Berg as he documented the area shortly before it was bulldozed to make way for I-280. (photo courtesy of the Newark Public Library)

Panzer College

In 1917 the Newark Normal School of Physical Education and Hygiene was founded by Matthias Machery and Randall D. Warden, Directors of Physical Education for the city of Newark. At the close of the school year in 1920, the founders relinquished their interest in the school in favor of Henry Panzer, the Director of the Normal School at that time. The School moved to East Orange in 1925 where the program changed from being a two year course to a three year course. In 1928, a four year course of study leading to the degree of Bachelor of Physical Education was offered. At this time the name of the institution changed to Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene. Following Mr. Panzer's sudden death in 1932, Margaret C. Brown, who had served as teacher, registrar and dean of the College since 1921, was elected by the College Board of Trustees as President and Treasurer. Under her leadership the College made great professional advancements, and its reputation for excellence became nationally and internationally known. Through her efforts, the State authorized the granting of the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education in 1939 and the Bachelor of Physical Education degree was abandoned. 

Below: from 1942 Panzer College Olympia yearbook

In fiction, the protagonist of Philip Roth's Pulitzer Prize winning novel American Pastoral, Seymour "Swede" Levov, and his wife, Dawn Levov, are graduates of Upsala. The charactor Levov was inspired by the real person "Swede" Masin who attended Panzer College in East Orange.

 Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene merged with Montclair State College in 1958. After the merger, the Archdiocese of Newark bought the Panzer buildings and opened the all-girl East Orange Catholic High School in September, 1958.

Columbian Pharmacy

In the 1950's I went to the Columbian Pharmacy every afternoon to buy a copy of the Newark Evening News so that my father could read it when he got home from work and, if Helen Grober, wife of one of the owners, pharmacist Max Grober, happened to have a prescription that needed to be delivered to one of the neighboring apartment buildings, she'd let me deliver it and the customer would always give me a small tip.

Above: from the 1954 East Orange High School yearbook

The Pharmacy was one of those places that could turn a densely populated neighborhood like ours into a "village" by being a stable, long-term institution with caring people like Max and Helen Grober and Moe Finkelstein helping raise the children of the area.

Every card or gift I bought for my parents during my childhood came from the Pharmacy, boxes of candy for my mother, pipes and tobacco pouches for my father, and Mrs. Grober always helped me decide and would put the item on layaway for me while I saved up my allowance.

In 1927 the commercial building that was the eventual home of the Columbian Pharmacy was built at the  NE corner of William Street and North Grove Street replacing homes that had been there many years. The neighborhood had suddenly become densely populated in the previous ten years with the addition of the Hotel East Orange and apartment buildings along Grove Street between the railroad and Park Avenue and along William Street near Grove. 

 Above: North Grove Street about 1910 looking north from William Street toward Park Avenue. The two houses on the far right were the two closest to the NE corner of William and Grove and were torn down to make way for the commercial building built in 1927.

The corner location, 160 North Grove St, was first operated as the Pertz Drug Store by Boris and Jack Pertz, became the S&F Drug Store in 1929, and then finally the Columbian Pharmacy in 1934 operated by pharmacists Max Grober and Morris Finkelstein, who was married to Max's sister Ida.

In 1927 other businesses in the building along Grove were 162 Grove, a meat market operated by Samuel W Sire (in 1934, by  A.J. Roemmele), 166 Grove, a delicatessen run by Minnie Traub (1929, by Fred Schmidt; 1930, by Emory Million), and the Great A&P Tea Company (variously at 164, 166, and 168). In 1934 Martin & Park Confectioners were at 168 Grove.

In 1934, on the William Street side, the businesses were 188 William, Max Dietrich, tailor, 190 William, "F. Then," shoe repair, and 192 William, a beauty parlor.

                       Below: a 2013 Google Street-view of the building looking NE (Grove St on the left, William St to the right)

I urge anyone who has vintage (1927 to 1970) photos of this building or photos of the people involved in the businesses there  to get in touch with me.