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THE HOLDRUM ESTATE (continued) Holdrum Estate The large estate became too much of an upkeep for the owner, Garret Holdrum, plus the fact that Mr. Holdrum did not want anyone to live in that house who was not a Holdrum or a descendent, thus it was torn down and the property sold, probably sometime in the 40's. They didn't have garage sales in those days so they auctioned off all the excess furnishings as was the usual practice at that time. I remember the auction and even then I felt kinda sad knowing that this indeed was the end of an era. I've recently noticed that the big, old locust trees there were at the end of the footpath leading up to the big house are still standing in the same cluster that they were in 1935, and even long before that. There were several other large, well-cared for homes in town, but the three mentioned were the most impressive to me.

THE FIREHOUSE About 75 feet south of Holdrum's Garage, where the present day firehouse now stands, was the only firehouse in town. This building housed whatever fire trucks that River Vale owned. I seem to remember that in the early 30's one of them had solid rubber tires, an oddity even back then.

River Vale Firehouse

This building was a great place to spend a rainy or snowy day or a day that was too cold or too hot. The door was usually unlocked and the couple of kids in the neighborhood would go in and play board games or just sit around and kill time talking or whatever. We were always careful to leave the place exactly as we found it, so no one would think that it was necessary to lock the place up. The building was also the town hall and unmanned police station. It was also used for town parties or meetings, so very often it was a busy place. Or at least as busy as sleepy old River Vale ever got. That, too burned down, probably sometime in the early 70's.

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