WWC's Bergen History Brunch at the Blauvelt

May is Historic Preservation Month and The Water Works Conservancy is hosting A Bergen History Brunch Celebrating Immigrant Innovation with Author/Speaker Clifford W. Zink, Saturday, May 21, 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM, The Hiram Blauvelt Mansion, 699 Kinderkamack Road, Oradell, NJ.  The Bergen History Community, the public, WWC Members and guests are invited to an elegant Bergen History Brunch at the beautiful, but endangered Hiram Blauvelt Mansion catered by Oradell’s Great Foods.  

At the History Brunch, WWC will be honoring Blauvelt owners Bonnie and Jeff Wells, Senator Gerald Cardinale and Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk for their unstinting support of WWC and historic preservation.   The Wells will be leaving the Mansion in July and the future of the historic mansion is of grave concern to the historic preservation community and area citizens.      Senator Cardinale and Assemblywoman Vandervalk of District 39, will no longer be representing Oradell.  WWC will also be welcoming their new District 38 Representatives, Senator Robert Gordon and Assemblywoman Connie Wagner.  Other special invited guests include the Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, and Bergen Freeholders, the Mayors of Oradell, River Edge, Westwood, Haworth and Emerson and Council members, Senator Loretta Weinberg, Carol Messer, Director of the Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs, Hackensack River Keeper Captain Bill Sheehan, Rutgers Professors Wolfram Hoefer and Beth Ravit and others.

As part of WWC’s continuing year-long celebration of immigrant history, Guest speaker, author Clifford W. Zink, will discuss the remarkable Roebling family, German immigrants to New Jersey and the innovations at the Hackensack Water Works.  The Roeblings built the cables on the George Washington Bridge, called the “Super Bridge,”  a bold leap in pioneering technological  as it was twice as long as any previous suspension bridge.  In order to do that, the Roeblings had to develop special, new cable-making technology.  The Bridge changed the nature of Bergen County by bringing easy access to NYC and access to Bergen County and led to a huge expansion of the suburbs, which the railroads had already begun.  It led to the construction of major roads,  Route 4 for example, to enable passage from Bergen County to NYC.  Mr. Zink's new book, The Roebling Legacy, and his book The Hackensack Water Works, will be available for purchase and signing.  Oradell Borough Historian Frank Vierling will be available to answer questions about the Blauvelt's original owner, Kimball Chase Atwood and to sell and sign his book about the mansion. 

The Water Works Conservancy and The Hermitage initiated the Bergen History Breakfasts in 2006 and since that time, the history community (Community Historians, workers at Historic Sites, museums, preservation groups and other history groups in Bergen) has gathered 2 or 3 times a year to meet together and share ideas on historic preservation and history education

Join Us!  This may be the last opportunity to see this elegant, historic Victorian mansion, intact.

Tickets for the Bergen History Brunch are $35, WWC Members $30.  For info, call WWC 201-265-1000.  You may mail in your reservation with a check made out to WWC, include your name, address, e-mail and the number in your party, and send to WWC, PO Box 714, Oradell, NJ 07649.  Or order with a credit card online at  www.HWWC.org,  click on EVENTS and follow the guides to order tickets

The Water Works Conservancy is an educational and preservation advocacy organization dedicated to telling the story of the Hackensack River and the people who have lived in the Hackensack River Valley, Glaciers to suburbs.  For more information, please call 201-265-1000 or visit WWC's website: www.HWWC.org and click on EVENTS.   The WWC received an operating grant from the NJ Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.