Summit Lost, Summit Found

What's their connection to Summit, NJ?

Born: 1937
Died: 2024

We live in a disposable society.

Once buildings such as these are gone, we will never have anything equal to them again.

Born: 1913
Died: Soon

Congregation voted 103-14 today to sell 4 Waldron Avenue. Sure the neighbors will love what comes next and, if they don’t, they can blame themselves.

In light of today’s Supreme Court arguments, today, of all days, it seems it would have been worthwhile for Summit to have saved Anthony Comstock’s house at 35 Beekman Road from destruction,

(One more reason the Historical Preservation Commission is laughable here. Just disband it, for all the good and “protection” it does.)

Streetscapes/35 Beekman Road, Summit, N.J.; 1892 House Built by a Famous Crusader Against Vice (Published 2001) Christopher Gray Streetscapes column on Anthony Comstock (1844-1915), famous crusader against drink, obscenity and gambling, whose house in Summit, NJ, built in 1892, is now vacant, in disrepair and facing uncertain future; photos (M)

It’s not just your imagination,
Running away with you…

Hamilton Wright Mabie, president of the Kent Place School for Girls board of directors in 1903.

Died at his home at 3 Fernwood Road in late December 1916, with funeral services on January 3, 1917 at Calvary Episcopal.

This explains the season, or lack thereof.

Source: Washington Post/GridMET data

Seventy three dead from Summit in World War II, as noted on the plaque hidden away in a less than prominent corner of Overlook.

Special honors, recognition and praise to the Spadone family, who gave up two sons, Amedee and Mitchell.

Those 73 represent 0.45% of Summit’s 1940 population of 16,165. An equivalent sacrifice today would equal 101 souls.

We regret to inform you, especially those no longer residing in or near 07901, that the Diner pulled out the self-service water machine and ice sink in mid-November, 2023.

In olden times, an enterprising reporter at a local weekly newspaper could have spent half a day reporting and writing a cute feature. Starting with Jimmy the owner, extending to the servers and on to the customers, alongside a paragraph referencing the age and manufacturer of said iconic fountain, and a photograph.

One of our original buckets of blood. (Never knew it had a working kitchen though. Not in my day. This is from no later than 1953-1954).

The reference to its location opposite the station is ironic, since I remember E-L conductors drinking their 25c-35c beers at the bar.

The present Summit House bears no relation whatsoever, except in name alone.

The Kellington-Perrine plot thickens on Chapel Street, according to the front page of the Elizabeth Daily-Journal on Thursday June 15, 1893.

Mrs. Kellington's story, as told by her sister, is that she's prone to fainting spells, experienced one such episode on Monday, when the helpful boarder Dr. Perrine picked her up, carried her to the sofa and was stroking her head when Mr. Kellington came home. (Unh huh. Insert sarcasm here.)

By Thursday, Mrs. Kellington (we still don't know her given name) remains MIA, last seen at her sister's in Orange, where she left the 7-year-old daughter. The husband John Kellington travels to Orange and threatens to kill the Mrs., gets a warrant for her arrest, but leaves his "pen knife" behind at the Orange Police Department.

Meanwhile, the sister says Kellington previously "has threatened to shoot his wife on several occasions."

To Be Continued...

P.S. By now, and with Monday's thrashing of Perrine by Kellington three days distant, the New York Times has completely given up on this story.

Ah ha! As suspected, Dr. George Perrine wasn't really a dentist after all.

(Gotta love 1893. Perrine is charged with adultery with Kellington's wife -- it was consensual -- but Kellington, who beat Perrine to a pulp, isn't charged at all. In fact, Kellington files charges against his missing wife to boot.)

Elizabeth Daily Journal, front page, above the fold, Wednesday June 14, 1893.

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoofs of the great Dr. George Perrine of Summit.

(If, in fact, he was a dentist at all.)

Whereas we previously read the New York Times story of June 13, 1893 explaining the Adultery on Chapel Street in Huntley, on the same day the Elizabeth Daily Journal ran its own account on the front page, above the fold.

In which we learn the 36-year-old Mrs. Kellington went to a neighbor's house as her husband beat Perrine senseless; John Kellington followed her there but was somehow "repulsed" by the same neighbors; Perrine "dragged himself" from Chapel Street to "his former home, now occupied by his son-in-law Swope, where he was arrested at nine o'clock that night..."

Too weak from his beating at the hands of Kellington, "he was carried to Morrisey's Hotel" at Springfield and Chestnut Avenues; and the Summit constables who watched him that night were either brothers or father-and-son, John and Jeremiah Britt.

But the kicker is saved for last.

In the Daily Journal we learn that Perrine, at Morrisey's Hotel, "begged the Britts" for a pistol to kill himself, offering $41 and a gold watch in the bargain. When that failed, Perrine smashed his head into a door.

[To be continued...]

Steamy adultery between a spiritualist dentist and a 36-year-old blonde mother of three on Chapel Street in East Summit makes the New York Times June 13, 1893.

The dentist had money and connections, ($10,000 in real estate; an assemblyman for a lawyer; able to travel to Florida in the 1890s; president of the Florida Dental Association; formerly practiced in New York).

There so many amazing details to pursue in this story:
-- Why was Dr. Perrine boarding at a carpenter's house in "Huntley," having once owned "Perrine's Mountain Home"?
-- If he wrote long, loving letters to Mrs. Kellington from Florida the prior winter, why was he allowed to board at the house a second time?
-- Why was he regarded as a "star boarder"?
-- Where was Morrissey's Hotel (and Perrine's Mountain Home, for that matter)?
-- Whatever happened to Mrs. Kellington, whose given name we never learn, but who apparently ran off, leaving her children behind?
-- Whatever happened to Dr. Perrine? And J.C. Kellington?
-- And, as ever, why was little Chapel Street called Chapel Street? There's no record ever of a chapel there. Maybe it was someone's name.

"Well Known People Who Are Stopping in Summit"

New York Times
August 26, 1894

The "Huntley" section -- where there were just a smattering of homes in any event -- is distinguished from rather than grouped together with "East Summit."

Mrs. John Sheridan of "Huntley" was hosting Mrs. William Duffy of Abilene, Kansas! Population?

More Sunday School news from Spring Lake in 1894.

On Wednesday Sept. 19, the Sunday School of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Millburn traveled to "Briant's Grove" in "Huntley" for an "enjoyable picnic." The Township of Summit isn't even mentioned and was almost five years away from becoming a city.

In July, the NY Times had called it "Spring Lake Grove" but by September it was referred to as "Briant's Grove," bearing in mind that these notices were no doubt written by the churches themselves.

Spring Lake/Briants Pond may be unrecognizable today, but St. Stephen's is still there on Main Street in Millburn.

Once again, the means of conveyance can only be imagined, but it would have either been by horse and carriage or by train to Summit's Huntley station and then to the "grove," whether Spring Lake or Briant's, by foot down the hill.

In 1894, there were hardly any homes in the area, no dam or stone wall at the pond, no paved roads and no Broad Street at all.

In 1894, church groups made picnic outings to what was then the "Spring Lake Grove" (now Briant Pond) in Huntley (now East Summit). Such outings even warranted mention in the New York Times on Sunday August 12, 1894.

The "Silver Lake Sunday School" traveled from Essex County to Huntley's Spring Lake, although by what means isn't known.

Silver Lake Sunday School probably took a DL&W train to Huntley Station and walked down to the grove, although it could have also traveled by horse and carriage.

Not by automobile, not by bus, not by the Morris County Traction Company and not by the Rahway Valley Railroad. None of which were available in 1894.

The pond only 9.5 years ago. (Photos: Craig Walenta, May 2014)

The good news is, the 93-year-old Briant Pond dam is inspected every two years and isn't at risk of failing.

Satisfactory
No existing or potential dam safety deficiencies are recognized. Acceptable performance is expected under all loading conditions (static, hydrologic, seismic) in accordance with the minimum applicable state or federal regulatory criteria or tolerable risk guidelines.

Briant Park Dam in Union County, NJ The USA TODAY Network provides dozens of databases to help you navigate critical topics that impact your life.

Before it was Briant's Pond, it was simply the Spring Lake. (The spring was still there in the 1960s, and so pure that Italian immigrants would bring glass jugs to fill).

In this view of the Spring Lake, taken from the west in 1906, can be seen a structure at the eastern end, site of today's dam. It must either be the flour mill seen on an 1879 map of Summit, or its remains.

Today's dam wasn't built until 1930.

Werner Motor Company
507-523 Springfield Avenue

Chrysler Plymouth dealer, opposite City Hall, between DL&W railroad and Brough Funeral Home (535 Springfield Avenue).

Snack bar, last day of the Summit pool season, Labor Day 2023

Street level view of Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Summit switching tower, looking north, from Railroad Avenue.

Respect to the DL&W engineers who put the tower into the retaining wall when the tracks were lowered in 1904. A friend quotes a RVRR source as saying that into the 1960s, the Rahway Valley Railroad would receive its waybills from this tower, and that the tower probably had something to do with managing the large freight yard on the other side of Summit Avenue and, possibly, traffic moving up to Dover and Gladstone and back.

Roof destroyed by fire circa 2012.

(Photo: Jeff Jargosch)

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Summit switching tower.

Roof destroyed by fire circa 2012. Abandoned and in disrepair and never to see these days again.

“If one has been absent for decades from a place that one once held dear, the wise would generally counsel that one should never return there again.

History abounds with sobering examples: After decades of wandering the seas and overcoming all manner of deadly hazards, Odysseus finally returned to Ithaca, only to leave it again a few years later. Robinson Crusoe, having made it back to England after years of isolation, shortly thereafter set sail for that very same island from which he had so fervently prayed for deliverance.

Why after so many years of longing for home did these sojourners abandon it so shortly upon their return? It is hard to say. But perhaps for those returning after a long absence, the combination of heartfelt sentiments and the ruthless influence of time can only spawn disappointments. The landscape is not as beautiful as one remembered it. The local cider is not as sweet. Quaint buildings have been restored beyond recognition, while fine old traditions have lapsed to make way for mystifying new entertainments. And having imagined at one time that one resided at the very center of this little universe, one is barely recognized, if recognized at all. Thus do the wise counsel that one should steer far and wide of the old homestead.

[But] as it turns out, one can revisit the past quite pleasantly as long as one does so expecting nearly every aspect of it to have changed.”

— Amor Towles

This is how you know Summit meteorological conditions are truly apocalyptic.

Rut-Roh. I’ll contribute to a fundraiser for Jimmy to restore the old one or buy a a replica, but only if this becomes an opportunity to bring back the neon!

Found a third labyrinth in Summit, at 695 Springfield Avenue — the former American Red Cross property now owned by Beacon Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Summit Lost a truly kind, gracious, loving mother and neighbor and parishioner this week. We will not see their like again.

Carole Lackaye, Rest in Peace. You were a helpful, hopeful, fun-loving beacon. At least to a neighbor's boy it sometimes seemed you had adopted, but who you certainly took under your wing as if he was one of your own.

Carole A. Lackaye Obituary Share Memories & Support the Family.