Back to the future: Ohio and Pennsylvania decades later
and (oh by the way), Mountain Lakes, New Jersey
At the end of summer 2015, we made a second trip back East, this time the focus was on old stomping grounds. I was born and grew up in Akron, on West Hill near Highland Square. One of my favorite places to hang out was Stan Hywet Hall on Portage Path, surely an Akron treasure. My father taught through his entire life at the University of Akron--if he were to return there today, he'd find much of the campus unrecognizable. Once I got my driver's license at 16, I made forays to our Big City to the north: Cleveland. Happy to say, Cleveland appears to be slowly returning to its early twentieth century grandeur. In Cleveland we stayed at the new Hyatt Hotel downtown, which has taken over the old Arcade. I recall shopping in the Arcade with my mother, when I was little in the 1950s. My aunt and one cousin still live in the Akron area, and we visited them before heading down the much-improved Pennsylvania Turnpike towards Philadelphia. Along the way to see what the National Park Service has done about Gettysburg (serious park upgrade since I was last there in the sixties), then into Philadelphia to check out the bi-centennial inspired upgrades along Independence Mall, last visited about 40 years ago, when I was studying at the University of Pennsylvania.
Finally, we turned northwards, driving the "back route" through Bucks County and across the Delaware River at Washington's Crossing. Then it was across the beautiful part of New Jersey and up to Mountain Lakes, still nestled among the trees at the intersection of routes I-80 and I-280, thirty miles west of Manhattan. Mountain Lakes began as a carefully planned railroad community of large Craftsman style homes, man-made lakes, good schools, and wooded publicly owned parklands. It had its own station on the Erie Lackawanna. (The house I lived in had been built for the railroad's attorney, and the grate in the dining room fireplace was made from pieces of Erie Lackawanna track). I lived in Mountain lakes for twenty years, became active in local government, and raised two children. But it has taken me a quarter century to get back there and (alas) I took no pictures, although such pictures would properly belong here to document this journey to places where I used to live. Perhaps I didn't feel the need, as imagery of Mountain Lakes is still firmly glued into my brain. Much has not changed. But much has. And perhaps it was from fear of what occurred in Mountain Lakes during the development-mad 1990s that I left my camera in the trunk of our car. Too many of already large Craftsmen homes from the 1920s and 30s were destroyed during this decade, or revised into late century mansions. It was starting before my marriage collapsed and we sold that Mountain Lakes house. The I learned that house at 76 Bellvale on an acre of property--one of the town's earliest Lakers--was razed by its new owners, and replaced by two even larger "fake Lakers." Well, the town learned a lesson about the frailty of "volunteer" historic preservation, and I learned one about the economic ruthlessness of the real estate market, but at least this situation, along with half a dozen others. Unfortunately my house was not the only old Laker to be torn down during these years; finally, the town's mothers and fathers were sufficiently appalled to adopt long-advocated legal protections for the town's historic character. As of 2005, shortly before it's centennial celebration, Mountain Lakes achieved listing on both the state and national registers for historic places and developed local ordinances preserving the look and feel of the the old houses and key landscape design features. For those interested in learning more about this, I offer a link to the Mountain Lakes historic photo database here. Our now-destroyed house comes up when you click, but if you scroll down to the bottom on this page you can follow links to more photos and information, including a short history of early Mountain Lakes.)
A bittersweet trip in some ways, but also a wonderful one as memories rose up and slowly knitted together past and present.
Finally, we turned northwards, driving the "back route" through Bucks County and across the Delaware River at Washington's Crossing. Then it was across the beautiful part of New Jersey and up to Mountain Lakes, still nestled among the trees at the intersection of routes I-80 and I-280, thirty miles west of Manhattan. Mountain Lakes began as a carefully planned railroad community of large Craftsman style homes, man-made lakes, good schools, and wooded publicly owned parklands. It had its own station on the Erie Lackawanna. (The house I lived in had been built for the railroad's attorney, and the grate in the dining room fireplace was made from pieces of Erie Lackawanna track). I lived in Mountain lakes for twenty years, became active in local government, and raised two children. But it has taken me a quarter century to get back there and (alas) I took no pictures, although such pictures would properly belong here to document this journey to places where I used to live. Perhaps I didn't feel the need, as imagery of Mountain Lakes is still firmly glued into my brain. Much has not changed. But much has. And perhaps it was from fear of what occurred in Mountain Lakes during the development-mad 1990s that I left my camera in the trunk of our car. Too many of already large Craftsmen homes from the 1920s and 30s were destroyed during this decade, or revised into late century mansions. It was starting before my marriage collapsed and we sold that Mountain Lakes house. The I learned that house at 76 Bellvale on an acre of property--one of the town's earliest Lakers--was razed by its new owners, and replaced by two even larger "fake Lakers." Well, the town learned a lesson about the frailty of "volunteer" historic preservation, and I learned one about the economic ruthlessness of the real estate market, but at least this situation, along with half a dozen others. Unfortunately my house was not the only old Laker to be torn down during these years; finally, the town's mothers and fathers were sufficiently appalled to adopt long-advocated legal protections for the town's historic character. As of 2005, shortly before it's centennial celebration, Mountain Lakes achieved listing on both the state and national registers for historic places and developed local ordinances preserving the look and feel of the the old houses and key landscape design features. For those interested in learning more about this, I offer a link to the Mountain Lakes historic photo database here. Our now-destroyed house comes up when you click, but if you scroll down to the bottom on this page you can follow links to more photos and information, including a short history of early Mountain Lakes.)
A bittersweet trip in some ways, but also a wonderful one as memories rose up and slowly knitted together past and present.