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As soon as you would turn off Rivervale Road and go into that driveway with the huge pines overhanging the driveway and parking areas you would have thought that you were someplace far from River Vale. The outer areas of the estate were maintained by a Mr. Albert Miller from River Vale who worked for the Conlin family. The inside of the house was managed by a very charming and cheerful Japanese lady, who was relocated in the East from California, against her wishes, by the U.S. Government during the early days of the war. As I remember, Irene was born in Japan, but came here as an infant and was considered a "threat" to our country and thus shipped East. Irene was a dear person who always kept us supplied with cookies, wonderful sandwiches and ice tea during the summer months.

The entire estate was sold to John Handwerg (the golf course builder) in the late 40's and soon became a 27 hole golf course. John Jr. moved into the big frame house and remained there until about 1950 when the beautiful house burned to the ground. A very sad day for all of us who knew the place as we did. One somewhat interesting sidelight of this fire was told to me by John Handwerg himself. On the night of the fire when the Handwerg family was sound asleep they were awakened by a loud clanging bell. This enabled the entire family to get out of the house alive. But what was that bell? It seems as though Julius Kessler had a big fire alarm system installed in the house probably prior to World War I. No one even knew of the system until the firemen went thru the ruins and discovered the thing in the cellar. When the time came the thing did exactly the job that it was supposed to do.
 

In looking back at our little town, I am reminded that it seems as though every corner in the road, every bridge, every house had a name assigned to it. The corners in the road were usually given the name of the family living closest to the corner. Names such as Leslie's corner, Ford's corner, Fondiller's corner or Lachmund's bridge, Overbrook bridge, Slunski's bridge, Leslie's bridge, Fondiller's bridge were "assigned" to these places. Not necessarily an official name, but one give to the place by the locals to describe or identify a particular place. Almost every house had a name too, most always the name of the family living in that house. Not always, however. Sometimes the name of the original owner stuck with the house regardless of who was living there at the time.

There were several Sears Roebuck "pre cut" houses throughout the town and it took awhile for them to wear off the name "Sears Roebuck houses." They are still standing. At that time, one could purchase a house right out of the Sears Roebuck catalogue and have them construct it or even - if you wanted - build it yourself. One of these houses is the Hashagen house, next door to the police station/firehouse. It is now the town DPW office. There are several others in the Cleveland/Rokland Avenue area also.

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