Got Historic Nutley Stuff?
Our
trustees and docents continue to itemize, catalog and preserve as much
Nutley history as we can. If you
have an item tied to our town's history, please consider donating it to
the Nutley Museum. Give us
a call 973-667-1528, or
email us for more
information.
Thanks to Eileen Conti for these rare ITT logo
t-shirts!
Alan Ballester presents local milk bottles to
Nutley Museum Director John Simko.
NHS Meeting Room Available for Rental
We are happy to announce that our meeting room is now available
for rentals. To inquire about availability and rental fee,
please call 973-667-1528 and leave a message for our caretaker,
Kerry Flynn.
Rent the historic first floor of the Nutley Museum
for your event
Call Kerry Flynn,
caretaker to
rent the hall : Call
973-667-1528
PLEASE CALL AND
LEAVE A MESSAGE BEFORE YOU EMAIL FOR RENTAL AVAILABILITY INFO -
Thanks
Seating for up to 70 people.
Meeting room is handicap accessible
More information on the Nutley Museum, and
meeting room rental
with photos.
Save time, download forms:
Hold Harmless Agreement
2023 Rental Agreement
2024 Rental Agreement
For Room Rental: Call
973-667-1528
Nutley
Historical Society
An Evening with
Artist Gary Erbe
Thursday, October 24, 2024
The Nutley Historical Society will host “An Evening with Gary Erbe”
on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. at the Nutley Museum, 65 Church
Street. The event will feature an interview with the internationally
acclaimed artist and Enclosure resident, reflecting on his
distinguished art career and discussing the directions of his
current artwork.
Read more
Fall Pumpkin
Festival
Come join
the fun for pumpkin painting and light refreshments
Sunday, October 20, 2023
NUTLEY NJ -- Paint Your Real
Pumpkin. All are welcome. Fun for children and families.
The pumpkin
festival is free.
Step up for a
tour of our second floor museum artifacts.
Hosted by The
Nutley Historical Society at Nutley Museum, 65 Church Street,
Nutley, N.J.
What’s It Really Worth?
Antiques, treasures, or junk?
Is Peanuts cartoon worth peanuts?
NUTLEY NJ – The Nutley
Historical Society “What’s It Really Worth?” event with expert
appraiser Nick Dawes drew dozens of locals with their proud antiques
at the Nutley Museum on October 17, 2024.
Before pouring over the
items proffered for appraisal, Dawes explained what makes something
valuable. He also discussed ratings, such and worth thousands, worth
hundreds, worth five bucks, and worth sentimental value.
Dawes, senior vice president
of Heritage Auctions, is an internationally recognized expert in
valuing antiques, art, and other valuables, also explained how
provenance can enhance an item’s value. Knowing the handling history
of an item, such as an Annie Oakley artifact in the second floor
Nutley Museum would help determine its value.
What is the value of this
fancy belt buckle, “With Best Wishes To Miss Annie Oakley From
Spratts Patent Ld.”? Is it something Annie Oakley wore? Was it
something she was given and ultimately passed along to a Nutley
neighbor? The proven history of the belt has a great effect on its
value.
Another Oakley item from the
Nutley Museum that Dawes held up was a pocket mirror that Miss
Oakley actually used to aim when she fired behind her. This small
item was something she held in her hand and used in her
performances. He said it is one of the highest Oakley items in the
museum.
The appraisal education
played well as Dawes held up items brought in for big money dreams
but were worth a few dollars or ‘sentimental value.’
Dawes selected one last
item, a mounted illustration of a Peanuts comic strip by Charles M.
Schulz.
He asked the owner how it
came into possession. The item’s owner said it was being tossed into
the garbage and requested it from the original owner.
Dawes noted that the early
drawing featured two characters, Lucy and Charlie Brown. If only
this Peanuts strip included Snoopy, then the mounted illustration
would be worth even more than its estimated $10,000!
That’s not peanuts!
Made possible in part by a grant from Essex County Parks
NHS Grad, NFL Official Robin DeLorenzo to visit Nutley Museum
The Nutley Historical Society is proud to invite the public to hear
NFL referee Robin DeLorenzo at a special event in the meeting room
of the Nutley Museum, 65 Church Street, Nutley, N.J.
A Nutley High School graduate, DeLorenzo has been officiating
football for 20 plus years, working her way up from high school
games, the college ranks, and finally the National Football League.
She is entering her third year as one of only three female NFL
officials, debuting in 2022 Giants vs. Patriots pre-season game in
Foxboro, Mass.
A 1997 graduate of Nutley High School, Robin always loved football.
But since she could not play, she became a cheerleader, which let
her get close to the game. And because she also loved to compete on
the field, she went out for both indoor and outdoor track and even
competed in the NJSIAA states.
After graduating, she attended Fordham University, where she also
cheered. Her father, Coach Rich DeLorenzo, supported her love of
football and asked her to enroll in his class for referees. After
passing the officiating test in his class, she joined her father’s
crew on the gridiron and spent 11 years officiating at the high
school level before advancing through the ranks in college football.
Notably, she officiated high-profile games such as the 2021 Ohio
State vs. Michigan matchup and the Fiesta Bowl featuring Oklahoma
State and Notre Dame.
Following her college assignments, she worked for The Big Ten and
began calling games for the USFL. Her journey led her to the NFL,
where she currently officiates - a testament to the opportunities
that football (and life) can provide to women as well as men.
"We are thrilled and honored to host Robin DeLorenzo at the Nutley
Museum," says George Ackerman, Sports Historian at the Nutley
Historical Society. Her achievements are an inspiration to young men
and women who aspire to careers at the highest levels of sport."
Join the Nutley Historical Society and Robin DeLorenzo, at the
Nutley Museum, 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 19, 2024.
Standing-room-only welcomed Nutley native and NFL Line Judge Robin
DeLorenzo at the Nutley Museum on June 19, 2024. The Nutley High
School graduate recalled her life lessons learned through sports
from coaches and teachers through her years in the Nutley school
system.
Events photos and more here.
Ann A. Troy
Nutley Historian and Educator Serves as a
Model Today
Miss Ann A. Troy was principal at the Park Street
School (now Nutley High School) from 1919 to 1934, when
she was named principal of
Washington School where she stayed until her retirement in
1952.
In 1931, Troy was elected president of N.J. State Elementary
School Principals Association. She was the first woman ever to achieve
such a post.
She spent many years improving the
quality of life in Nutley.
As town historian, Troy was often asked
to conduct genealogical research for some of the prominent residents of
Nutley.
Always an avid student of history,
Troy was one of the founders of the
Nutley Historical Society in 1945. She was an essential part in creating
a museum in which to collect and preserve genetic information,
historical objects, museum materials, copies of local and private
papers.
She served as museum director from 1954 to 1972.
Ann Troy was the editor of
“Nutley Yesterday-Today” which chronicles the history of the
township and many of its families with many essays written from
first-hand experience of the authors. The hardcover book was published
by the Nutley Historical Society in 1961.
Read More about educator, historian and author Ann Troy
NUTLEY IS EVERYWHERE!
Enclosure Artist Reginald Marsh Work on Display at Roosevelt
House
Nutley Historical Society
Art Historian Barry Lenson made a pleasant discovery recently while
visiting Roosevelt House on the Upper East Side of New York City.
There, Lenson spotted the work of Enclosure Artist Reginald Marsh.
Reginald Marsh’s parents
were both artists living in Paris when Reginald was born in 1898.
Two years later, his father, Fred Dana Marsh, moved to a new home
and studio at 16 Enclosure, in Nutley. Throughout his childhood,
young Reginald was taught to draw, influenced not only by his
father, but also by contemporaries such as Albert Sterner, Ernest
Haskell, and George Bellow, all frequent visitors to his Nutley home
which became a popular weekend location for artists to exchange
ideas.
Continue Reading about Enclosure Artist Reginald Marsh
Ice Cream for History, Thursday, June 6, 2024
The Nutley
Historical Society is hosting its Annual Ice Cream for History
night and museum tour at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 6, at the
Nutley Museum, 65 Church Street, Nutley, N.J.
The Society is
especially happy to welcome children to the museum along with their
parents who will enjoy Nutley's rich history, including serving ice
cream to Annie Oakley and Mark Twain more than 100 years ago.
Ice cream is
free, and all are welcome to tour the Nutley Museum on the 2nd
floor.
Ice Cream for History Night Celebrates Guthrie’s
If
you wanted “iced cream” on a hot summer day, you had no
choice—you went to Guthrie’s. Out-of-towners traveled miles to
try some. Locals, like Annie Oakley, enjoyed it too! ... Local
legend has it that Mark Twain tasted his first ice cream soda at
Guthrie’s!
Seven-foot Baron Made Nutley's First Ice Cream
Together with Mark Twain, H. C. Bunner, the witty editor of “Puck,”
Frank Stockton and an array of artists and writers from
The Enclosure
and Nutley Park, many strange characters moved through the quaint
setting of the Guthrie store.
None was more striking than the exiled Baron de Saint Mart, who stood 7
feet tall in his cavalry boots and had been exiled from his homeland for
having killed a man in a duel. With monocle screwed into his eye, he
turned the handle of the first ice cream freezer ever used in Nutley
while his wife, a daughter of the De Neuville family from the French
court of the Bonapartes, painted miniatures in one of the great rooms
upstairs.
'A Walk In The Park' 2024 Historic Tour
“A Walk in the
Park” is an annual historic tour traditionally held on Memorial Day
Weekend sponsored by the Nutley Historical Society,
will be held on Sunday, May 26.
The tour, led by Nutley Museum director John Simko, the tour begins
at 9 a.m. at the Mud Hole (near the intersection of Passaic and
Vreeland Avenues) and travels along the Third River.
Simko will talk about the
Yantacaw River’s role in Nutley history as a source for early
industry, as inspiration for world-class artists, as a symbol of
civic pride, as an important boundary marker, and as a fitting
memorial to our war veterans.
Visit the sites of three
former mills, see the pre-Revolutionary War Van Giesen homestead,
find out why the Yantacaw, or Third, River splits in two, learn
about the beginnings of our hundred-year-old Carnegie Library and
even older Town Hall, and walk through one of Nutley’s oldest
cemeteries.
“A Walk in the Park” ends at
approximately 10:30 a.m., inside Nutley’s first brick schoolhouse
(now the Nutley Historical Society and Museum).
The tour is free
but is limited to a dozen people and requires registration.
R egister for the tour by
emailing johnsimko1014@gmail.com or by calling 973-752-8984 and
leaving a message and your phone number or e-mail address. You will
receive confirmation via e-mail or a phone call.
The Nutley Historical
Society hopes you’ll join us for this fascinating walk through a
beautiful setting while learning about Nutley history.
2024 Walk in the Park Event Recap and Photos
The Nutley Historical
Society’s annual Walk In the Park held on Sunday, May 26, 2024, led
by Museum Director John Simko was a big hit with a second tour added
to meet demand.
2024 Event Recap and Photos
Previous Event Photos
Did you
know Annie Oakley lived in Nutley NJ?
”Annie Oakley: Little Sure Shot” by Gary Erbe
NEW: Video Tales of Nutley History!
Nutley
History Teaser
The Story of
Annie Oakley and Her Time in Nutley
The Story of
the Nutley Velodrome
The Artists
of 16 Enclosure
Ryan Lui wanted to do something
unconventional for his Eagle Scout project. He put his interest
in video editing to produce three mini documentaries that tell
Nutley history. Lui enlisted fellow scouts in Nutley BSA Troop
147, other video editors, members of the Nutley Historical
Society and local historians and together they produced three
separate films about Nutley history. Lui is a 2023 graduate of
Nutley High School and will attend Montclair State University in
the fall.
YouTube videos will open in a new link
25 Nutley Sights You Can
No Longer See
Many of these Nutley, New Jersey locations have been gone for
generations. A few would appear in some more recent memories by
those of us walking these tree-lined streets.
The Nutley Historical
Society is dedicated to serve the educational, cultural, and
historical needs of our community. That would include keeping a door
open to our past structures and other sights that may no longer
exist but played a part in making Nutley what it is today.
Here, we
offer a brief glimpse of twenty-five Nutley sights you can no longer
see.
Check it out
Dr George Bronson Philhower MD
Much more than a 'country doctor with a casual approach'
A brief history by David Wilson
Read more
Nutley news and historical archives
Nutley
History, from General George Washington's Retreat Route
to Annie
Oakley to the Morris Canal on Our Western Border
to Quarry Town and
Speed Racing Velodrome
to our Golfer's Heaven and Old Military Hall
to Presidential Visits and Professional Wresting
to Cold Ice Cream
to our Cold War Anti-Aircraft Radar Camp
to the Arrival of Route 21
...
Read all about
it and more!
Article Index
Arbor
Day Celebration
Nutley Historical Society Celebrates Arbor Day with the Nutley Tree Rescue
at the Nutley Museum! Saturday, April 27, 2024
Arbor Art featured by local artists. Meet
Audrey Noguera, author of Tiny Travelers FIND YOUR FOREST.
Free tree saplings to first 50 guests (one per
family).
See event photos here.
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
Nutley Museum hosts Meet & Greet
Nutley Dept. of Public
Affairs kicked off Women’s History Month at the Nutley Museum with a
Meet and Greet reception on March 5, 2024.
Annual Meeting and Election, 7 pm, March 20, 2024
The proposed slate of officers was
unanimously approved a the NHS Annual Meeting and Election, held at
7 p.m., March 20, 2024, at the Nutley Museum, 65 Church Street,
Nutley NJ.
Approved Slate of Officers – Two-Year Term –
2024-2026
Domenick
Tibaldo - President
Suzanne Hagert - Vice President
Maryann Lauber - Treasurer
Barry Lenson - Art Historian
George Ackerman – Athletics Director
Mike Petrucelli – Director, Building &
Grounds
Eleanor Slomkowski – Director,
Membership
TALES FROM – NUTLEY Yesterday - Today
Dutch Introduced Skating as Nutley Winter Sport
Few alive today would
recognize most of the Nutley backwoods and ponds described in this
memoir sixty-odd years ago. Bearskin Brook, Rusby's Pond, or
Hillside Park ring a bell in your olde Nutley memories?
Compare your memories.
The
Rooming Houses of Nutley, NJ
Railroads
brought growth to Nutley and workers needed boarding houses for a
safe place to call home. Read about the many rooming houses in our
hometown.
Rooms for rent
TALES FROM – NUTLEY Yesterday - Today
When Bicycling and Auto Races Were Popular
When Sunday afternoon trotting races on a mile straightaway in elm
shaded Washington Avenue were the town’s favorite diversion,
bicycles captured Nutley’s favor. The wheel led to bicycles which
led to the Nutley Velodrome which was the ancestor of the Tour of
Nutley bike racing classic.
Read all about it.
TALES FROM – NUTLEY Yesterday - Today
Artists of Nutley
Letter to Mark Twain:
“There isn’t much that is prettier than
this end of New Jersey. It is all upland, tumbling into shallow valleys
and bright sunny reaches along the Passaic River, and hillsides white as
snow with the daisies, and everywhere trees, in little clumps or in long
lines by the roadside.... You come. I’ll drive you around on Sunday and
show you some views that will do your heart good. I’ll row you up the
Passaic. I’ll give you a chance to play tennis.... Don’t be afraid. You
can’t play worse tennis than I do.... The mosquitoes are very small this
summer—few over an inch long...
Continue reading
TALES FROM – NUTLEY Yesterday - Today
Nutley Was Setting for Indian Thanksgiving Feast
A sort of Thanksgiving, the Indian ”Yantacaw”
ceremony was also like the traditional Harvest Home celebrations.
The meeting of the tribe on the banks of the “Yantacaw” River
brought together, once a year, the many families of Lenni Lenape who
hunted and farmed their own strip of forest or valley.
Continue Reading
TALES FROM – NUTLEY Yesterday - Today
Nutley Was Born in Strife, Strategy and
Secession
Franklin, NJ Officially Becomes Nutley, NJ on March 5,1902
Taxation without representation is tyranny.”
That was the slogan which a Patrick Henry or a Benjamin Franklin thought
up in 1776 for the
American Revolution.
That was the slogan which won Nutley its independence from Belleville in
1874, laying the groundwork for the incorporation of Nutley as a
municipality 58 years ago March 5 [1902].
Read more
TALES FROM – NUTLEY Yesterday - Today
Seven Foot Baron Made Nutley’s First Ice Cream
From Edmund Guthrie
Guthrie’s store, where the first telephone in Nutley was installed with
wires strung on trees and where Nutley’s first ice cream was served,
closed after a business career of three-quarters of a century.
By
John Simko, Nutley Museum Director
Patrick F. Guthrie moved from New York City to Franklin, New Jersey, when he
married his sweetheart. He opened his first store in the 1870s on Passaic Avenue
near today’s Mudhole, then moved it around the corner to his own building on
Highfield Lane.
He originally ran a dry goods store. But when the town’s mills began
closing, he reinvented himself. Guthrie’s reopened as a grocery store
and an ice cream parlor, introducing that summer delight to Nutley...
The Lady, or The Tiger
Nutley
Author
Frank R. Stockton
wrote
The Lady, or The Tiger, and Rudder Grange; Nutley Library ‘Lady or Tiger’
Room Is Opened for Youngsters, Named for Frank Stockton, Noted Local
Author
Frank R.
Stockton was born in Philadelphia in 1834. He was one of nineteen children. His
mother, who was his father’s second wife, brought to the old New Jersey stock a
mixture of French and Irish blood, which may partly account for the capricious
charm of Stockton’s fancies...
“Rudder Grange” was at first a story which he wrote for Scribner’s. Its
cordial reception let him to enlarge it to the present delightful
volume. This was the first book he wrote for “grown-ups,” although the
elders had long been reading his children’s tales with delight...
Nutley Historical Society profiled
in
December 2023 print Nutley
Journal
Dutch Treat
Nutley Historical Society Trustees
and family enjoy an informal dinner together at year end. Trustees
meet monthly to conduct society and museum business.
Nutley Museum Online Tour
Nutley Museum Director John Simko's online tour of the Nutley
Museum, recorded December 5, 2020. Simko spotlighted the Annie
Oakley collection and other select items featured throughout the
Nutley Museum. Projects by the Nutley Historical Society were
also highlighted.
Nutley
Museum Online Tour video
Visit the Nutley Museum, Join the Nutley Historical Society!
Won’t You Join the Nutley
Historical Society and Museum? We invite you to become a member of
the Nutley Historical Society. It’s easy and fast to join.
Membership Form
Nutley
Historical Society
Founded 1945
65 Church
Street, Nutley N.J. 07110 973-667-1528
Official
Web Site Nutley Historical
Society |
2024
Calendar
October 17
What’s it Really Worth?
An opportunity to have
valuable items evaluated locally by a renowned expert
Nick Dawes, Senior Vice President Heritage Auctions
October 20
Fall Pumpkin
Festival
October 24
An Evening With Artist Gary Erbe
Subject
to change
All events are free of charge, except as noted.
By renewing your membership, your
support helps us to be able to continue to offer these programs to
our community.
About
Us
Museum
Museum Store
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Officers
Copyright &
Reprint Information
Directions
Contact NHS via email
Contact Room Rental, via phone, not email, Call
973-667-1528
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When You Visit
Museum tours available upon request
For school groups and private
museum tours, please
CALL 973-667-4270
NOTE: SECOND FLOOR MUSEUM
IS NOT HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE
Got Historic Nutley Stuff?
Our
trustees and docents continue to itemize, catalog and preserve as much
Nutley history as we can. If you
have an item tied to our town's history, please consider donating it to
the Nutley Museum. Give us
a call 973-667-1528, or
email us for more
information.
NUTLEY Yesterday - Today - Ann Troy
& Vivian Noyes Fikus
Where
all great study of Nutley history begins
The importance of history in general cannot be doubted. It sets
before us striking instances of virtue, enterprise, courage,
generosity, patriotism and, by a natural principle of emulation,
encourages us to copy such noble examples. History displays the
dealings of God with mankind. It often leads us to view with awe His
darker judgments and again it awakens the liveliest emotions of
gratitude for His kind and benignant dispensations.
In 1945 the founders of the Nutley Historical Society wrote into its
constitution the statement that:
“It shall be the purpose . . . of this association to do all in its
power to collect all the available historical material connected
with . . . the history of Nutley and carefully to preserve the same.
. . . This shall mean ultimately the writing of the history of the
town. . . Down through the years, work on this project continued
until the present volume has been prepared.
So now, since History never stops, we in the Nutley Historical
Society in 1961—like those who wrote the first History of Nutley in
1907— pass on the torch to those coming generations who at some
future time will feel the need to once again issue a . . .
“HISTORY OF NUTLEY”
Robert F. Heald
First President 1954 to 1961
March 5, 1961 The Nutley Historical Society
From the Foreword
Hardcover keepsake
copies
are available
at the Nutley Museum
Nutley Historical Society
Membership
Benefits
As
a member, you and your family are welcome to participate in any or
all of our upcoming events.
When you join or renew your membership, the Nutley Historical
Society will be able to continue and expand our work to bring
you interesting, informational and fun programs throughout the year.
By making our history available and known to those who visit the
museum, we continue to move forward by knowing about and
appreciating our past. We can only accomplish this with your help.
Join Now
Now is a
great time to join or renew your Nutley Historical Society membership.
Thanks to all our members who supported the Nutley Historical Society’s
events and activities.
If you are interested in volunteering to be on one of our
committees or for any additional information, please call 973-667-1528.
Membership Form
Rent the historic first floor of the Nutley Museum
for your event
Call Kerry Flynn,
caretaker
to
Rent the Hall: Call
973-667-1528
PLEASE CALL AND
LEAVE A MESSAGE BEFORE YOU EMAIL FOR RENTAL AVAILABILITY INFO -
Thanks
Seating for up to 70 people.
Handicap accessible
More information on the Nutley Museum, and meeting room rental
with photos.
Save time, download forms:
Hold Harmless Agreement
Rental Agreement
For Room Rental: Call
973-667-1528
1910 artist's view of Nutley, Ann Troy
Gallery
Nutley
Historical Society Celebrates 75th Anniversary
Thanks to all
who joined
us to raise a toast in celebration of the seventy-fifth
anniversary of the founding of the Nutley Historical Society on
March 5, 2020. Events included cake cutting and a birthday toast, an update
on recent museum acquisitions and activities, and a special tour of
museum highlights by the museum director.
Also of Interest
in Nutley, N.J.
Kingsland Manor
Van Riper Trust
Nutley
Little Theatre
Nutley Historic Preservation Committee
Nutley High
Yearbooks
Back to top of
page
Web site
development & maintenance provided at no cost to Nutley Historical
Society,
sponsored by:
Nutley
Books
Email
Webmaster
Links are subject
to change
Contact NHS via email
Contact Room Rental via phone only, not email, Call
973-667-1528
Arbor Day at the Nutley Museum
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Featuring: *Memorial Tree dedications in memoriam to past board
members: Past President Ed Stecewicz, Annie Oakley expert trustee
Nancy Gruelich, Van Riper historian Patricia Williams, and trustee
Michael Slomkowski.
*Arbor Art featured local Artists including Nutley Students
Sponsored by Nutley Historical Society, Township of Nutley, NJ,
Arbor Day Foundation, and Nutley Tree Rescue
See Event Photos Here
Special Exhibit: Artwork of Carol Fortunato
The Nutley Historical Society hosted an exhibition of the works of Carol Fortunato (1958-2022) on November 11 to November 19 at the Nutley Museum, 65 Church Street, Nutley, NJ.
Fortunato resided in Nutley for many years before moving to Montclair in 1990. She was a Fine Artist in the Montclair area for many years. Carol’s paintings were
exhibited in Dorset Vermont, and also in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
She earned a Bachelor of
Arts Degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. After
graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York with a degree
in illustration, Carol continued her studies at the Art Students
League. During this time, she discovered an interest in chiaroscuro
(use of light and shade) painting.
Carol joined The Christina Gallery – On the Island of Martha’s Vineyard in 2009, and her still-life
paintings were admired by many. She had solo shows at the renowned
James Beard House and French Culinary Institute.
Carol enjoyed her quiet time
in the studio but also loved painting en plein air landscapes
in Vermont. In 2013, she spent the summer in south central England
painting the Cotswolds and fulfilling a lifelong dream.
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