Nutley
Historical Society and Museum
Founded 1945
65 Church
Street, Nutley N.J. 07110
973-667-1528
A not-for-profit organization dedicated to serve the educational, cultural and historical needs of our community.
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.
Nutley Historical Society
An Evening with Artist Gary Erbe
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Fall Pumpkin Festival
Come join the fun for pumpkin painting and light refreshments
NUTLEY NJ -- Paint Your Real
Pumpkin. All are welcome. Fun for children and families.
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!
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.
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.
Ann A. Troy
Nutley Historian and Educator Serves as a Model Today
She spent many years improving the
quality of life in Nutley.
Ann Troy was the editor of
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.
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.
Call Kerry Flynn, caretaker to rent the hall
PLEASE CALL AND LEAVE A MESSAGE BEFORE YOU EMAIL FOR RENTAL AVAILABILITY INFO - Thanks
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
”Annie Oakley: Little Sure Shot” by Gary Erbe
NEW: Video Tales of Nutley History!
The Story of Annie Oakley and Her Time in Nutley
The Story of the Nutley Velodrome
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
Dr George Bronson Philhower MD
Much more than a 'country doctor with a casual approach'
A brief history by David Wilson
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 ...
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).
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
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
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.
Nutley Was Born in Strife, Strategy and Secession
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].
Seven Foot Baron Made Nutley’s First Ice Cream
From Edmund Guthrie
Ice Cream for History Night Celebrates Guthrie’s
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 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.
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.
Founded 1945
65 Church
Street, Nutley N.J. 07110
973-667-1528
|
Official
Web Site |
2024 Calendar
October 17
What’s it Really Worth?
An opportunity to have
valuable items evaluated locally by a renowned expert
October 20
Fall Pumpkin Festival
October 24
An Evening With Artist Gary Erbe
Subject to change
Copyright & Reprint Information
Contact Room Rental, via phone, not email, Call 973-667-1528
Follow/Like Us on Facebook
Check-in When You Visit
For school groups and private museum tours, please
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
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.
Call Kerry Flynn, caretaker
PLEASE CALL AND LEAVE A MESSAGE BEFORE YOU EMAIL FOR RENTAL AVAILABILITY INFO - Thanks
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
Nutley Historic Preservation Committee
Web site
development & maintenance
provided at no cost to Nutley Historical
Society,
sponsored by:
Links are subject to change
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
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.
Email Nutley Historical Society
The Nutley Historical Society is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serve the educational, cultural and historical needs of our community.
65 Church
Street, Nutley N.J. 07110
973-667-1528
Web Master/Social Media: Anthony Buccino
Nutley Notables in two volumes:
The men and women who made a memorable impact
on our
home town, Nutley, New Jersey
