Autumn Years Summer 2023

The Depression and World War II stymied development in Closter. Then the end of the war brought former sol diers to the area looking to start fami lies—and houses were needed. One idea

and donated to the Borough of Closter for the purpose of preserving, housing and ex hibiting the works of Abram Belskie.) The fourth notable artist-resident of Closter was Marcel Jovine. His most wide

Abram Belskie.

acts. When talkies ar rived, the theater was hesitant to upgrade its equipment, so it closed. By 1935, the building (540 Du rie Avenue) housed

a roller-skating rink and four bowling lanes. (Today, Closter’s Landmark The ater operates at 130 Vervalen Street and shows feature films.) In 1933, a club for flying enthusiasts rented a 30-acre farm field on the border of Closter and Norwood. Accessed from Closter’s Blanch Avenue, it was called Closter Airport. The Closter/Norwood Airport was rogue and completely un sanctioned, and the state eventually shut it down. (For more on Bergen County’s airports, see Autumn Years , Winter 2022/23.) Closter has a tradition of sculpture. In 1899, J. Massey Rhind, a sculptor who worked on Grant’s Tomb, set up a stu dio in town. Next came Robert Alexan der Baillie, a master carver who created much of the work at Brookgreen Gar dens in South Carolina. Then came Abram Belskie, who worked as a carver in Baillie’s studio and later be came a master in the creation of medical models. His work can be found in the Mu seum of Natural History (New York City) and the Cleveland Museum of Health. (In 1993, the Belskie Museum of Arts and Sci ence was created by the Closter Lions Club

Hess family posing in front of the Lustron House.

for easing the post-war housing shortage was developed by the Lustron Corpora tion of Ohio, which made houses entirely of prefabricated steel parts and shipped them as kits directly to owners’ lots. In Closter, Harold Hess purchased one with an attached garage from a New Jersey dealer and assembled it in 1950 at 421 Durie Avenue. All of the walls (inside and out), roof and chimney are porcelain-enameled steel panels. Today a museum, the Harold Hess Lustron House, is the only house museum in the New York metropolitan area dedicated to the post-war period.

ly known works were the popular “Visible Man” and “Visible Woman” anatomical model kits with removable plastic organs. A SUBURBAN TOWN The dream for a bridge across the Hud son River moved closer to reality in 1890, when The North River Bridge Company was formed. As a result, speculators— hoping the bridge would be built near their land—began acquiring property all along the Palisades as well as in Closter. In 1925, plans were on the table for the George Washington Bridge. That same year, Closter’s first major subdivision of 300 lots was created.

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SUMMER 2023 I AUTUMN YEARS