A family friend from Oakland has recently passed away. Shortly before her death, Sonya shared a short story she had written years before. As a gesture to her family, I offered to have this published in print or on a known site. It is a very clever and possibly unique story line. Since this site is just being launched, it is only fitting that Sonya is the featured writer. To underscore her importance to Oakland, see the photo of her with Kevin Heffernan touring the Hansen House. Sonya wrote several more stories, but this is my favorite. Aunt Etta It was unusually quiet; but I guess when someone dies people…
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The Roots and Origin of the Hansen House
July 3, 2018 The Roots and Origin of the Hansen House Oakland, New Jersey 1938 – 1973 The Portobello Banquet Facility as a Time Capsule Summary and Conclusion The core of the Hansen House is believed to originally be a farmhouse built at or before 1861 and greatly expanded by Mrs. Florence Vernam in the early 1890s. The Case for Its Origins as a Simple Farmhouse 1. The original foundation is crude stone rubble typically deployed by farmers building their own farmhouses. 2. There is evidence of late 19th Century masonry in the basement of Portobello’s Banquet facility indicating a significant expansion of the building during that period. 3. A…
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Sonya Hansen Huhn – Growing Up in the Hansen House
Sonya Hansen Huhn Recalls Her Life and Times Growing Up in the Hansen House with Her Parents Mom and the Men Who Came to Dinner Growing up in a boarding house/ vacation resort/ tourist home is different than growing up in a regular house or an apartment. We always had guests. In the summertime guests would fill all of the 27 rooms. Usually they’d stay a week at a time. When the summer ended my folks would welcome boarders. Some stayed a month…the ones I remember best stayed longer. There was this one man called, “ Christiansen” he came for a weekend in the summer and stayed for two years.…
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Sonya Hansen Remembers Ruth and Didi Nielsen and the Nielsen House
Sonya Remembers Ruth and Didi Nielsen and the Nielsen House Nielsen House located on the site of the Post Office Parking Lot Across from the Ponds Church Ruth and Didi They were sisters, but you never said….Ruth or Didi…it was always the Ruth and Didi. Ruth committee suicide at 57….four years later Didi died of cancer. Neither married… we could only speculate on why Ruth killed herself. She was a nurse, and she died from an overdose. After Ruth died, Didi was alone, she was teaching math in Butler High., I don’t know why she decided to retire so young, perhaps then you could retire with a pension at that…
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Memories of Oakland by Bradford Boone
by Bradford Boone Memories of Oakland may be slightly shaded these days. What remains, however, are a multitude of impressions treasured by a young man who lived through the depression era in a quaint, bucolic village cradled in the Ramapo Valley. Yet, the roads, grasslands, ponds, trees and buildings that lent their charm to the tranquility of yesterday have all but disappeared. That was yesterday, but yesterday’s gone, and changes over the years have all but obliterated the Oakland of my youth. Fortunately, memory is a unique resource. It brings pleasure upon recall and reaffirms the joys of better times. It embraces the spirit and inspires a never ending quest…
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The Pulis House and Pond
The Pulis House and Pond Sometime In the early to mid 50s, my wife Elaine’s father John Oldenburg rented a house on Ramapo Valley Road and opened Bergen – Passaic Engineering and Surveying. Soon after, he accepted a position as Borough of Oakland Engineer and became close friends with Milt and Aggie Pulis. Before moving to Oakland in 1957, Elaine recalls frequent trips to the Pulis home with her brother John and mother Betty, who would later become the Valley School Nurse. . One of Elaine’s special recollections is of the top of a massive concrete piling that came up from the basement and ended flush with Pulis’s living room…
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Email Conversation About the Hansen House and Oakland in the 1930s and 1940s by Those Who Lived It
My name is Sonya Hansen. I Just found your wonderful article about Oakland. I was especially excited to see the picture of the Neilsen house. Alf Neilsen was my uncle. My parents Dagny and Hans Hansen brought life into an old building that was about to be torn down. They were able to purchase it for 3,000 dollars for back taxes. We had wonderful neighbors, Pulis, Boone, and Bredimus. Frank Ahlers ran the gas station across the street from us, but I never cared for him. Grumpy, mean old man as far as I was concerned, but I digress. There are five of us, that used to live right there,…
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Memories of Oakland from the 1930s and 1940s
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The Boone Family and Neighbors – Census
The Boone Family and Neighbors 1930 Census Records Results 1-11 of 11 RecordsCategories Matching Person (from family trees) See more like this… Ilsley Boone Williams Family Tree Matching Person details Spouse: Ella Murray Boone Children: Irene Ferris Birth: 1879 Residence: 1930 Bergen Matching Records 1930 United States Federal Census 1930S View Image Record information. Name Bradford Boone Birth New Jersey Residence 1930 Oakland, Oakland, Bergen, New Jersey, USA 1930 United States Federal Census 1930S View Image Record information. Name Ilsley Boone Birth New York Residence 1930 Oakland, Oakland, Bergen, New Jersey, USA Pennsylvania, Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966 PENSION RECORDS View Image Record information. Name Milton O Boone Birth 15 Jun 1891…
