This morning, February 13th 2022, I woke up to a Winter Wonderland of powdered-sugar snow. Everything looked so pretty that I decided to take a walk and capture on my cell phone scenes that looked picturesque. All these locations are within a few blocks of my house . . .
I found a few automotive Curbside Classics along the way as well . . .
The snow was starting to melt even as I was walking around taking pictures–winter beauty of this kind is very fleeting. But that’s OK–I’m still looking forward to spring!
For another winter walk (featuring more cars), click here.
Wow really beautiful photos!
Some seriously cool houses there. I really like the octagon!
Very nice!
On a couple of those house pictures – particularly the Octagon House, 317 Cornelia St. and the church – I am reminded of how we really come to take for granted the power lines that line our streets and run to houses. Many if not most of the houses in your pictures were built before the turn of the 20th century and therefore even in a place like NJ didn’t have electricity originally (probably got it though not too long after being built). My point is that I’ve always felt that power lines running along streets and to houses were really a blemish on the landscape (if you will). Not something that the architects who designed those houses expected to have snaking in from the street and tacked to the side of the building. But they’re something that we’ve come to accept.
I wonder if 125 years from now people will look back at the pictures, and even homes that are built today, and marvel at how crude electrification was for so many years.
It wasn’t that long ago that many of these fine houses probably had ugly TV aerial antennas up on the roof or mounted to a chimney. Now to see them in pictures they jump out as being especially crude. Nobody noticed how bad they looked while they were watching “I Love Lucy”.
In nearby Morristown NJ, all utility wires are underground in the downtown area. Same with South Orange NJ, which also uses real gaslights! The streets look a lot nicer, and storms won’t cause blackouts. It would be great if Boonton had underground wires and gaslights, but the cost of doing such a thing would be astronomical!
Great selection of vehicles and architecture!
The first photo resembles a house that was down the street from me growing up. It was built by a department store owner in the 1890s, and was remarkably original even 90 years later. The covered entryway on the side of the house was a porte-cochère – designed so that a horse-and-carriage could pull and the occupants could step right out onto the raised porch. I’m assuming that’s the case with this house as well – I always thought that was extremely neat.
An older couple lived in that house when I was a kid, and I used to mow their lawn. One day I noticed, in the back of their carriage house (which was bigger than most actual houses), an old car covered by a tarp. Peeling it back, I found that it was a 1966 MGB that hadn’t run in 10 years. I ended up buying it from them for $250 – thinking (comically, in retrospect) that I’d restore it. Never happened… but I did learn a lesson never to do that again.
Regarding the hitching post, some folks near me installed an electric vehicle charger in front of their home, and incorporated a hitching post (I think to hold the electric cable). It’s a clever idea.
And I love the picture of the snow-covered Olds!
Boonton is a beautiful little town. Being from Sussex County, I had quite a few friends and acquaintances from that area when I still lived in NJ. These photos almost make me a little homesick, but spending Christmas 20 miles from you just a couple months ago cured me of any real calling to return. My head is still Jersey Proud, but my body has become a Floridian. Beautiful photos though.
Great photos, Steve! I always like Boonton. We live in Valley Cottage, NY which is adjacent to Upper Nyack and that is adjacent to Nyack. Both of these villages have Arts and Crafts and Victorian homes. So, we are treated to similar beautiful architecture. The port-cochere is in existence in the Nyacks too. It served well for those who in the 1800’s commuted to New York City via a train that had its terminus in South Nyack and that ran to Hoboken, NJ from where one took a ferry into The City. Private and public horse-drawn cabs pulled up to the station on Depot Place and then transported the denizens to their fine homes and ordinary homes in the four Nyack-named communities. The port-cochere served the better healed folks well. Am I correct that Boonton also has a Packard facility where parts have been gathered for use and replacement parts are made? Isn’t Boonton also home to a terrific toy electric train sales and service operation?
I always wanted to live in an area like that, but it never worked out. And I have reached the age where the idea of taking on the proper care and feeding of such a house is getting lower and lower on my priority list.
And wow, I thought I was long past the age where it would be possible to see a 59-60 Lincoln parked outside in the snow.
Exactly right. I am glad people maintain these fine old homes so we can enjoy looking at them and I am equally glad that I am not the one responsible for their maintenance. And, unless maintenance is kept up these houses can deteriorate very quickly.
Well, I suppose everything in a sense is Curbside…I used to own a big old barn south of Boonton in Essex County – and now I am glad that phase is well over.
These houses are really nice but I’m sure I read somewhere that the best way to get revenge on someone is to buy them an old house!
Mine was built in 1890…
Look at the roof on the house at 75 Grant St. There is no snow over the living space but the overhangs have snow on them. There is probably little to no insulation in the attic and all of that expensive heat is melting the snow over the living space. The cold outside air under the overhangs doesn’t melt anything above it. In the picture of the octagon house there are three houses in the picture. The farthest house from the camera has the same issue. It just amazes me that any one can afford to heat such large inefficient houses. They sure are nice to look at though.
I know of Boonton mostly as the original home of “Boontonware,” a line of melamine dinnerware that was extremely popular in the 50’s and 60’s, and often comes in glorious midcentury colors. I’ve got a full set of the stuff in a salmon color. I understand that the rights were sold to an Ohio company about 20-ish years ago, so Boontonware is no longer made in Boonton. I wonder how many of those homes were owned at one time by executives in the company.
And that Olds really needs to come in out of the weather. Freeze/thaw cycles will accelerate the process of water getting under the vinyl top and all the bad things that ensue.
Me, I know of Boonton mostly as the home of Kanter Auto Parts (662 Myrtle Ave), a longtime big dealer of ’30s-’80s American-brand car parts.
It’s been an unusual winter in many places. This is a rare outdoor skating rink in Vancouver (we had a prolonged cold snap in Dec & January), with the added wrinkle of a barge on the opposite shore that came loose and grounded itself in a major storm & tidal surge in November.
Three months later they still haven’t been able to get the barge afloat. Latest news is that it will have to be cut apart by torch. This may be the defining local photo of Winter 2021/22. 🙂
Photo credit to r/vancouver.
My mom’s grandparents built large turreted and porched houses like the first two. Sadly, both were torn down in the mid 60s before historic preservation became fashionable, and before my memory.
One was auctioned for estate debt in the Depression, and my spinster great aunt rented an apartment in her late parents’ house for 30 years. No cats that I remember. The unwritten rule was that no one should bid against the family so they could buy back furniture, tools, and heirlooms etc as cheaply as possible.
Such beautiful historical houses, my favorite is 307 Spruce St. I’m glad that the importance of preserving these homes is now appreciated. Especially in their original condition. It is sad to see Victorians that have lost their porches, wood siding and ornamentation, replaced with stucco siding and aluminum windows. I understand that the homeowner did what they had to to keep the home in good enough shape to live it. I was a real fan of historic homes, an avid reader of The Old House Journal for years. The only old houses that I could have afforded were in “challenging” transitional neighborhoods and I decided that wasn’t right for my family. So once I gave up on the old house idea I decided to concentrate on the old car idea.
All beautiful, but that octagonal house is awesome. That must have been pretty rad in its time. There were a few octagonal barns in the Iowa countryside. Loved them as a kid. I went back and visited this one when I was last in Iowa; beautiful space inside. It’s on the road out to where the Mennonites I stayed with lived.
We actually have TWO octagon houses in Boonton; the another one is across the street at 224 Cornelia.
In the late ’80s I took this picture of a decagon(?)-shaped stone building. It was located off Old Dover Rd. in the woods just outside Morris Plains. I think there was an abandoned rail line running through there. Not sure what the building was used for. It may be gone now.
Straightened picture:
So beautiful .
I grew up in New England in the 1950’s & 1960’s and well remember these fine old Victorian homes, so many were allowed to disintegrate and are gone .
The fuel oil heating bills were enormous . I remember dragging the long fuel oil house out to the tanks behind these houses, running a 1949 Chevy fuel oil truck .
Still a few left here and there around Los Angeles .
-Nate
Great photography, Stephen! Old cars & old houses are lovely to look at, but not for the faint-of-heart when it comes to maintenance and repairs. We live in Boonton, but in a 1990s subdivision, in a house with less charm but more insulation!
Wow..just been flooded with so many memories.Winter Wonderland in Boonton!!Grew up there,423 Cornelia St.Last I’ve been was briefly 2010.I got as far as Spruce St.and turned,could not bring myself to see the house,have been told 2 houses have been built on the property,just can’t imagine.Loved the stone walls as a kid and now love them even more.
Thank you for the pics!
Great pictures, especially of the 1976 Delta 88 and Porsche 914. The first photo at 314 Cornelia St. reminds me of the house shown in the establishing shots in Minneapolis Mary Richards lived in during the early seasons of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. I believe it is on Kendale Parkway and was sold for over a million dollars in 2017. In the show the house had been subdivided into several apartments.
I love the history of older neighborhoods like this. We just don’t have that kind of thing here in Texas. We don’t have the beautiful old Victorian homes like that. Was this neighborhood developed in the 1850s through the 1890s? The NE part of our country has so much longer history than the rest of the nation. I’d love to tour some of these old houses especially if the owner’s have kept them as original as possible and not done any kitchsy makeovers.
Actually, Galveston supposedly has a lot of great Victorian architecture. The house below is in Austin:
Here’s a link showing some great houses:
https://fiveminutehistory.com/victorians-in-texas-10-historic-victorian-era-homes/
Thanks for sharing. Yes these are nice houses also! I’ve been to Galveston and seen those old homes in person.