Borough Museum's Open House Takes Visitors Back in Time

The Fair Lawn Historic Sites Preservation Corporation captivated visitors during an open house at the Cadmus House Borough Museum on Sunday afternoon with timeless photographs, farming apparatus from the early 1800s, and classic firefighter and police uniforms.

Longtime Fair Lawn resident Howard Kessel even found a copy of his Fair Lawn High School 1977 yearbook.

"I didn't expect this," he laughed.  

Jane Lyle Diepeveen–the corporation's trustee and Fair Lawn's municipal historian–offered complimentary informal tours of old Dutch-style stone building, sending history enthusiasts and the like back in time.   

In 1985, the aging Cadmus House structure was transported via truck from Fair Lawn Avenue to its current location adjacent to the Radburn New Jersey Transit station, avoiding demolition in the process. A state grant issued by former Governor Thomas Kean and an Eagle Scout fundraising project by Rich Ball (the corporation's current president) financed the relocation. 

The museum teems with donated artifacts such as Lenape Indian arrowheads and World War I and II uniforms. Russell Zito's archived photos display events from the 1940s to the 1970s, including vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon's visit to Fair Lawn in 1952, and wide-eyed children gazing at the elephants of Deitch's Kiddie Zoo, located on Saddle River Road, in the 1960s. Visitors could view a computer slideshow of Zito's 900 photos.

Ridgefield Park resident Marcus Grasso stumbled upon the open house while riding his bike through Fair Lawn.

"I find that every town I bike to has it's own little historic niche," he said. "I really want to check out the parks of the planned community of Radburn."

A year ago, Grasso began cycling through towns such as Ridgewood, Alpine, Hackensack, and Montclair, uncovering their local historic treasures. 

In the commemorative firefighters room upstairs, photos of the 1941 Radburn Plaza Building fire and the more recent October 2002 blaze were artfully placed side by side. In the Victorian-style "Carl Koenig Room," the faces of young Fair Lawn soldiers from World War I and II sat upon early 1900s furniture.  

Kim Brown and her enthusiastic 6-year-old son stopped by the exhibit.    

"When we pick up his dad from the train station, my son always wants to go into the museum, but it's usually locked," Brown said. "We we're really excited to come in today."  

Kessel admired an old photo of Deitch's Farms.

"I've been meaning to come to the museum for a long time," he said. "As a kid, I didn't realize how amazing it was that Fair Lawn had elephants."

The open house also displayed an exhibit called "Lost Fair Lawn," photographs of a collection of historic structures lost to redevelopment, including a sketch of Bergen's original structure in the early 1700s, photos of Radburn football players on the old 1950s Plaza Field, and a bookshelf of Fair Lawn High School yearbooks.

The open house was supported by the Bergen County Department of Parks's Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs and the New Jersey Historical Commission.