Dunkerhook house endangered

[pwnorris]

There is an application before the Paramus Planning Board for a subdivision of the lot at 273 Dunkerhook Road in Paramus.  The applicant also "seeks approval .. to de-designate/terminate any historical designation at the premises, if any."  The drawn plan shows that all structures would be demolished for the building of two new houses.  This home is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the "Stone House Survey."  It is known as the Zabriskie Tenant House and "is of special importance because it is the best of the surviving sturctures from the typical small tenant/slave settlement on the .. [Dunkerhook Road] and is one of the few early stone houses which have a documented place in Bergen County's black history." (quote from the Stone House Survey form)  

The Dunkerhook section is important in African American history as an enclave of probably freed slaves who onece worked for the Zabriskie family as slaves and then tenant farmers during the 18th and 19th centuries.  .. They built houses, a church and a school for their slaves.  Later, as the slaves became freed, they became tenant farmers leasing the land from Zabriskie descendants."  (Bergen County Historic Sites Inventory No. 0246-S1a)

For additional information see Kevin Wright's post on this message Board. http://bergencountyhistory.org/forums/index.php/topic,242.msg461.html#msg461

If you can support those who would like to see this piece of history saved, the application comes before the Paramus Planning Board on Thursday, 6/17/2010 at 7 pm in the municipal building.

[pwnorris]

REVISED DATE  Planning Board Hearing will be Thursday, JULY 1, at 7 PM.  Postponed at the request of the applicant because of the interest it has generated.

[Pete E]

That will be the second house lost on that street

[pwnorris]

Here are some photos of 273 Dunkerhook.  If this one goes, there will be only one original house left.

[pwnorris]

The Paramus Planning Board meeting on July 1 was attended by about 20 people in favor of saving the Zabriskie Tenant House.  We were allowed to speak before the presentation of the applicant and there was sympathy (but not solutions) evidenced by the Board and the applicant.  There is an automatic 6 month waiting period because the house is on Paramus' list of landmarks before the Planning Board can take action.  Now the work begins to find a solution--a new, sympathetic buyer, a different subdivision with a preservation easement, or ...  Let's hear from you!

It was a great example of citizens making their voices heard and of the interconnectedness of our communities and our history.  Only one person who spoke in favor of the house was from Paramus.  The rest of us ranged from Englewood to Virginia to Paterson.  But it's all our history.

The newspaper article in the Record made a difference.  See  http://www.northjersey.com/community/97573869_Fighting_for_future_of_house_with_a_past.html

[Steenrapie]

Paramus Planning Board
Borough of Paramus
Paramus, New Jersey 07652

                                                                                      June 30, 2010


Re: Application before the Paramus Planning Board for a subdivision of the lot at 273 Dunkerhook Road in Paramus.

To Whom It May Concern:

Since I have been unable to reach the Historic Preservation Commission, established by ordinance in June 1983, I am writing as a local historian out of concern for what I believe to be a significant physical remnant and reminder of the Jersey Dutch, a colonial folk culture widely admired for their distinctive sandstone architecture. I urge you to make every effort to save the historic residence at 273 Dunkerhook Road.

New Jersey was the most culturally diverse colony on the Atlantic seaboard, bringing different cultures and ethnicities into community throughout its complicated settlement history. Through a process of conflict and accommodation, the Jersey Dutch achieved a complex multicultural society, blending significant contributions from the indigenous Lenape, Netherlanders, Angolan Africans, English, Germans, French Huguenots, Scots, Scots-Irish, Scandinavians, Polish Silesians, and others, into a distinct regional folk culture. This process of “creolization” is evidenced in the development of a Jersey Dutch dialect, folk architecture and material culture, including distinctive styles and traditions of furniture, tools, utensils, and decorative objects.

According to my research, the small sandstone portion of the dwelling house at 273 Dunkerhook Road was built for Christian A. Zabriskie, upon his father’s farm, shortly after the American Revolution—perhaps in 1786 when he first appears as a merchant in tax assessment lists. The operation of a store on this lane may have prompted the application to make Dunkerhook Road a public thoroughfare in 1793, in effect opening another route west to Paterson from the fertile Paramus Plain. On October 4, 1793, the inhabitants of the neighborhood petitioned for a public road to be surveyed: “Beginning at the Bridge near the house of John Vanderbeak in the precinct of Saddle River and from thence to Run Easterly nearly as the Road now goes over the lands of Jacob Zabriskie, Andrew Zabriskie & others until it comes to the Post road [now Paramus Road] that leads from Hackensack to Hoppertown near the house of said Andrew Zabriskie.” Christian A. Zabriskie eventually moved his mercantile operations to a more convenient site for trade downstream, purchasing a tract of land on the south side of the mouth of the Saddle River and on the east side of the Passaic River from Casparus Van Vorst on September 4, 1801.

The stonework of the east wing of 273 Dunkerhook Road suggests a date of construction shortly after the American Revolution.  This stone wing, however, may have been built as the kitchen ell of a frame house adjacent to its west gable-end; the original frame dwelling has been either entirely replaced or considerably enlarged and improved at the same time that a nearly identical frame addition was made to the residence at 263 Dunkerhook Road, immediately to the east, in the late nineteenth century. The frame dwelling of side-hall plan—now the oldest portion of 263 Dunkerhook Road—may have been built for Christian’s son, Cornelius C. Zabriskie, about the time of his marriage in 1803.

Christian A. Zabriskie, son of Andrew C. Zabriskie and Mary Ryerson, was born February 22, 1751 and christened at Paramus on February 24, 1751. He was listed in the New Barbadoes tax assessments as a “Householder” on his father’s farm until 1784, when he first appears as owner of 70 acres of the family homestead. In 1786, he is first listed as a merchant. He served as a Chosen Freeholder from 1790 to 1793. He died January 10, 1813.

When Christian’s father, Andrew C. Zabriskie, died in January 1819, his grandson, Cornelius C. Zabriskie, occupied his sandstone residence on the east side of Paramus Road. Thereafter, African-American farmers likely occupied the cottages on the north side of Dunkerhook Road as tenant houses.

The Map of the Counties of Bergen and Passaic, New Jersey, published by G. H. Corey in 1861, shows two dwellings on the north side of Dunkerhook Road, corresponding to the extant frame house at 263 Dunkerhook Road and the stone dwelling at 273 Dunkerhook Road. These dwellings are marked “C. Zabriskie.” According to census records, the families of Samuel Bennett and Jack Stewart occupied these residences. The main Zabriskie dwelling house, situated on the east side of Paramus Road, nearly opposite the intersection of Dunkerhook Road, is also marked “C. Zabriskie.”

According to her last will and testament, probated in 1892, Catherine Law (Zabriskie) Wessels, daughter of Cornelius C. Zabriskie, devised “to Benjamin Bennett and Bartholomew Westerhaven (both of my service)...to each of them to be held and enjoyed by him during his natural life the cottage or dwelling now occupied by him at Paramus on the road leading to Paterson with the single lot or parcel of land on which said cottage stands and which is now fenced or enclosed therewith.” On December 12, 1921, Frederick Z. Board and Anna, his wife, conveyed four tracts to William Ross Proctor of Brookwood Farms of Barryville, New York, for one dollar and other valuable considerations, including 6.46 acres along Dunkerhook Road. The cottages remained tenants houses for some years afterward, for a deed dated April 27, 1928, whereby the Paramus Realty Company conveyed eight tracts of land in the Borough of Paramus to Norman W. Morison of Brooklyn, New York, notes, “it being the intention to convey all lands owned by the party of the first part lying west of the Paramus Road, subject to the rights of two tenants Taylor and Behm, in two houses on the north side of Dunkerhook Road, which tenants were yearly tenants whose lease expired October 1, 1927, and have held over since then.” The cottages were included in another deed of sale on September 10, 1936, whereby the City Housing Corporation, of New York City, conveyed several tracts of land in Paramus to Radburn, Inc., of Fairlawn. They were first sold to individual owners in 1938.

I thank you for your kind attention and I again urge you to preserve not only this particular historic home, but also other significant architectural evidences of Paramus’ irreplaceable heritage.


Best regards,

Kevin Wright
Past President,
Bergen County Historical Society

[HGelfand]

Hope your holiday weekend was a pleasant one.

I spent a couple of hours on Saturday with Ted Manvell, who lives in the second of the two remaining slave/ Free Black houses on Dunkerhook Road.  He photocopied a large number of items relevant to 273, which I will be forwarding on to Preservation NJ in Trenton, along a copy of the original National Register nomination that included 273, and the notation from the Bergen County cemetery inventory that I co-conducted that  includes the cemetery that was once part of this community.

Ted and I walked around and through 273 with the permission of the owner's grandson, who is now living there.  I would first note that the exterior of the house (the western half is frame, the eastern half is stone) is in remarkably good shape.  As is typical with these houses, the sandstone on the south (front) side of the house is quite uniform and regular, while the east and north sides feature beautiful, random stonework.  We saw the main floor, which includes the original front door and some exposed ceiling beams.  It looks like the current decor/ work dates to the 1960 or 70s and that not much has been since then in terms of updating, but it is beyond me where the developer came up with the idea that the house is dilapidated.  I saw absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever.  There are two other buildings on the property, one a large garage (I'd say mid 20th century) and one that is probably a cinder block house (probably late 19th/ early 20th century), and a ruinous swimming pool.  Ted stated that until a major storm three years ago, the property actually included farm animals.

During our conversation, he mentioned a woman who was at the Paramus Planning Commission meeting and lives at 295 Dunkerhook Road.  Curiously, she testified against saving the house, stating "I don't want nothing to do with slavery!  It was evil!  We don't need reminders of it!"  Ted noted that when she was having her house built, she was so adamant about erasing the past that she had the foundation of the slave/ Free Black church destroyed and the stones removed.  Ted says that his brother-in-law clearly recalls seeing the foundation in situ in the 1960s and early 1970s.  Her property corresponds to where Dunkerhook Road begins to veer toward the southwest and the Saddle River.  It is also at the top of a gradual hill, and matches up closely to the church’s location in the 1876 Walker Atlas of Bergen County that Peggy Norris shared (attached) so Ted and I were speculating that it stands to reason that the church and cemetery were probably right there; a paved bike path likely goes right over the area.

We went and looked at this area, and then walked through a massive volume of dirt and leaves that the county has deposited just along the east side of the Saddle River, and to the northwest of 295 Dunkerhook Road, and across the bike path, and there visible in these piles are large, cut pieces of sandstone.  Ted believes that these stones, and a large number of others closer to the river, are the remnants of the foundation, and that this woman simply had her contractor deposit the stones there.  If there were to be an archaeological study, it seems that area would be a good place to begin.  When we drove by 295 Dunkerhook Road, we even noticed a number of pieces of sandstone along the property line.

Best wishes,

H.

H. Gelfand
Assistant Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
http://web.jmu.edu/history/faculty/gelfand.html

[DPowell]

Here's an aerial of the site. Is "A" 273 Dunderhook Road?

[Pete E]

House C was razed by the contractor that wants to build on the property mentioned last year .

[pwnorris]

More than 2 months has gone by since the first hearing on Quattro4 LLC's application to subdivide the property at 273 Dunkerhook Rd and tear down the structures including the Zabriskie Tenant House.  The second hearing is Thursday, September 16 at 7 pm at the Paramus Borough Hall, right off Rt. 17 North. History needs your presence, your ideas, and your comments.

I am writing a letter proposing a front and back subdivision as a possible solution.  Others are coming up with their own ideas. We need lots of ideas, lots of possible solutions, lots of pressure for preservation.  Pass the word.  Notify as many Paramus residents as you can and come to the meeting!

[pwnorris]

The next Planning Board meeting regarding the possible demolition of the National Register home at 273 Dunkerhook Road in Paramus is October 7 at 7 pm at Paramus Municipal Building 1 Jokish Square, Paramus. We need your support, your ideas, your presence.  Paramus has some of the oldest history in the County.  Let's make sure as a history community that it's preserved.

Regards, Peggy

[pwnorris]

Paramus Planning Board Hearing on the request to demolish 273 Dunkerhook Road is Thursday February 3 at 7 pm.

[peterzabriskie]

Paramus Planning Board Hearing on the request to demolish 273 Dunkerhook Road is Thursday February 3 at 7 pm.

Thank you very much. I am very interested in what is happening here. I remember this house well . Catherine Law Wessels Zabriskie was my Great Grandmother and I remember only too well the many other family homes destroyed.  I am Grandfather today of grandchildren with Afro-American ancestry and would dearly love them to know how their families on both sides of the slavery issue behaved and lived. I am available here and through the other internet social sites to discuss this. I am a physical laborer for Fedex and Substitute Teacher for the Monroe Co. Indiana schools and unable to contribute cash to the purchase of this home for the Historical Society, believe me I would buy it outright if I could. I was saddened by the report of the woman who bought a Bergen home only to destroy it because she thought it's connection to slavery was ugly. Let me say that the history is forever writen in the people who participated in it, and for many in New Jersey it was a history of emancipation, the destruction of property to cover it up is something a totalitarian like Hitler does to re-write history the way he likes to present it. Nothing is so compelling to a new generation as the physical evidence of history. Yours truly, Peter Zabriskie Bergen Co Native.

[pwnorris]

Well-said, Peter.

The Paramus Planning Board met February 3 to consider the request for permission to demolish the house at 273 Dunkerhook Road.  You "shoulda" been there, if you weren't.  The Paramus Planning Board is taking the historic status of the house seriously.   The next hearing is April 7, 7 pm.  Mark your calendars.  The process of democracy, in the preservation of history, is most interesting.

The developer's presentation started with the professional engineer presenting the plans for the subdivision.  Then the architect presented his assessment of the house.  The lawyer and he took pains to point out that they are not denying the historic significance, but that the architect is merely reporting on condition of the house.  However, in reporting condition he made value judgments about what parts of the house were historic and he made assumptions about the original architecture without evidence.  He reported that the house was in disrepair, particularly that the foundation leaked and there was mold, and that it was not worth saving.  Several members of the audience were able to question him, but were not yet able to testify.    A written report was entered into evidence and we should be able to see a copy.  Questions from Planning Board members show that they are being thoughtful with regard to this application.

What's next?  At the next hearing, scheduled for April 7 at 7 pm the professional engineer will continue his testimony and people will have the opportunity to question him.  If they have additional testimony, they will present it.  After they are finished anyone else will have an opportunity to testify.  Tim Adriance, architectural historian and restoration expert, will speak directly to the architectural and structural issues in their historic context.  Others are prepared with testimony regarding other aspects of the necessity of saving the house and proposals for doing so.

Several members of the press were present--The Record, The Town Journal, and Paramus Patch (see link below).

Link to Paramus Patch posting on the Planning Board meeting:  http://paramus.patch.com/articles/yeshiva-expansion-plans-approved

[BLeafe]

Several members of the press were present--The Record, The Town Journal, and Paramus Patch

The Record - February 5, 2011 - page L-3


Case is made against historic house

Architect hired by developer says it is not sound


BY STEPHANIE AKIN
The Record
STAFF WRITER


PARAMUS — The original structure of a house linked to Bergen County's historical freed slave community is in such poor condition that it would be almost impossible to preserve, an architect representing a developer testified on Thursday.



DON SMITH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A developer wants to build homes on the site of the Zabriskie-Wessells-Board house in Paramus, which housed freed slaves.



Speaking in support of a plan to raze the so-called Zabriskie-Wessells-Board slave house on Dunkerhook Road, architect Peter Wells said that renovations and neglect during the building's 250-year history have diminished its historical value.

"It doesn't even actually resemble the way it was originally built," Wells said.

The testimony was among the first since developer Sal Petruzzella's proposal was submitted to the borough in March, inciting opposition from preservationists and descendants of the original occupants as far-flung as Baltimore.

Petruzzella wants to split the 48,000-square-foot property to make way for residential construction similar to three large stone and stucco houses he built across the street.

The historic house, also known as the Zabriskie Tenant House, is listed in the Bergen County and National Historic Registers for its Dutch sandstone structure — now obscured by brick and blue clapboard — and its connection to a freed slave settlement in the area.

The house was built by the wealthy Zabriskie family, then later used as tenant housing for African-American farmers. It was willed to two longtime family employees by a Zabriskie descendant in 1892, according to Bergen County Historical Society records.

Its nomination to the historic register mentioned that it was one of the only remaining stone houses that have a documented place in Bergen County's African-American history.

It is also one of 22 properties listed in the borough's historical preservation ordinance, which requires a six-month review period before a structure can be demolished.

Mark Sokolich, Petruzzella's attorney, said he thinks the waiting period would have started when the application was first submitted, meaning it has already expired.

Sokolich, who is the mayor of Fort Lee, added that Petruzzella and his representatives have spent the time meeting with opponents of the proposal to consider alternatives to demolishing the house, including leaving it on the property and finding someone to restore it or moving it to another location — options they ultimately rejected as unfeasible.

"We have not turned a tin ear to the sensitivity of the issue," Sokolich said.

He asserted that the historical listing is the only glitch in an application that would otherwise sail through the board.

Planning Board members said during the hearing that they would prefer to find a way to keep the historical parts of the building intact but added that the borough is not likely to be able to raise the money to buy it.

"The position of this board is they don't want to see this historical building razed," said board member Martin Schwartz. "But the finances of the situation are difficult."

Opponents said Petruzzella had brushed off their concerns.

"He didn't think he could market two $1 million houses with the historical house in front," said Peggy Norris, a Ridgewood town historian and member of the Bergen County Historical Society.

T.B. Harris, one of five family members attending the hearing who say they can trace their lineage nine generations to the early occupants of the Zabriskie house, had T-shirts printed with the slogan, "Help save the Hook."

"They want to erase my history by taking down this house," Harris said. "In return, they replace it with their history, so they can tell their kids and descendants how wonderful they were, but I can't tell mine."

Among the additions to the house that Wells, the architect, said diluted its historical significance were a modern kitchen, an expanded second floor and a door cut into the rear of the building.

Moving the building would be difficult, because much of the original stone foundation has been removed and replaced with crumbling rocks, Wells said. Restoring it to its original, two-room condition would involve removing three-fourths of the structure and replacing much of what remained.

"It would be a replica, not a reconstruction," he said.

The next hearing on the proposal is scheduled for April 7.


E-mail: akin@northjersey.com



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