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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
US 202 runs through an Erie R.R. underpass and crosses the Ramapo
River at 0.4 m.
At 1 mile is the junction with State 2 (see Tour 16).
US 202, known here as Old Valley Rd., runs straight ahead. Shaded
with maple and shot through with the pungent odor of pine, this 3-mile
stretch of macadam cuts into a district untouched by industry. Low, rambling, white-painted brick houses built by Dutch landbreakers are today
the homes of Wall Street brokers and gentlemen farmers, their estates still
enclosed by the winding stone fences with which the tidy Dutch marked
their lands' limits.
The residents' feeling for the quiet countryside is not always expressed
in a forbidding insistence on privacy. The RAMAPO WATER GARDEN,
1.4 miles (R), for example, is marked by a large sign that gives the impres-sion of a commercial establishment; but inquiry reveals that its proprietor,
a retired movie-theater owner from Brooklyn, has had the sign erected
only to be hospitable, so that travelers will be encouraged to view his three
fine lily ponds and tropical aquaria.
At 1.7 miles is (R) the JAMES CLINICAL LABORATORY (private), where
Dr. and Mrs. Robert F. James do general clinical work in a small white
brick building that looks almost as old as their home but happens to be
practically new. The blue-shuttered house, constructed of stone and mud
with trimmed saplings for uprights and with a white clapboarded exterior,
dates, in part, to Colonial times. It is one of three dwellings in this neighborhood that have been identified at various times as the original Hopper
House, in which General Washington planned an attack on New York
City.
At 2 miles is (R) a two-story, dormer-attic STONE HOUSE (not open), its
old white paint curling along its walls. During the Washington Bicenten-
nial Celebration of 1932, when the New Jersey countryside was being ran-
sacked for historic spots, this was declared by its present owner to be the
original Hopper House. A marker was erected, but lasted only a couple
of months because Henry O. Havemeyer, owner of the adjacent property,
protested that a house standing on his estate was really the Hopper House.
The ensuing dispute was settled when the New Jersey Historical Commission awarded the honor to the Havemeyer building and placed its marker
there. But into the argument Mr. Havemeyer injects several last words, with
a framed, typewritten statement attached to the marker. The closest Washington ever got to this present house, he says, was while warming his feet
by the fireplace moved here from the old Havemeyer Inn, no longer standing. The Havemeyer HOPPER HOUSE is at 2.5 miles (R), a three-story square
brick dwelling back of which is a tremendous gray barn once used as a
carriage house. In an adjoining field is a small obelisk, carrying no inscription but marking the spot where Washington is said to have hoisted a
diminutive Hopper maiden to his saddlebow.
At the ivy-covered CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (L)
and the DARLINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL (R), 2.9 miles, the road drops
sharply. The red brick and limestone IMMACULATE CONCEPTION SEMINARY is atop the hill, well off the road (L) at 3.3 miles.
North of Oakland there is a change in the character of the district;
along with the old Dutch houses, their backs to the road, there is a sudden
clump of "roadside rests." These have been the object of considerable acrimony on the part of some wealthier newcomers in Valley Rd. The beer
and hamburger purveyors, however, find no harm in making their living
out of a country in which they have spent all their lives.
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