A House Eighty Years Later

Among the pictures taken by my grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980), is this house. My aunt said it was in Nutley where Clifford's sister, Beryl lived after she married, but nobody remembered the address.

I revisited this project and located the modern-day house and address.

Beryl Lutter (1918-1988) married Harry Nanejian (1901-1986) in 1937 in Suffern, Rockland County, New York. I do not know why they traveled there to marry.

In the 1938 city directory for Nutley, New Jersey (collection at Ancestry.com), Harry and Beryl are living at 104 McKinley Street. This address, accessible via Google Street View, looks like the house in the photograph. The couple moved around in the years that followed, but those houses do not resemble the house in the photograph.

Old Dutch Farmhouse: Jacobus House of Cedar Grove

I toured the oldest house in my hometown of Cedar Grove, New Jersey.  The Jacobus House was built in the 1700s by Roeloff Jacobus.  The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  You will come across the surname Jacobus if you study local Cedar Grove history or people who lived in this area.  (You can see older pictures of the house here.)

The house was recently renovated and is for sale!  If you've been wanting to live in a house like your Dutch ancestors who settled in New Jersey and New York, this is your opportunity.

Jody at the Jacobus House
178 Grove Avenue, Cedar Grove, New Jersey

A living room, kitchen, and full bathroom comprise the first floor.  Notice the beams.  Remember my trip to Amsterdam and the pictures of the beams?  The Dutch built these homes to last.

Fireplace in the living room.
Electricity, heat, and air conditioning have been integrated over the years.

Hearth in the kitchen.

Modern area of the kitchen for the days you feel like cooking on the stove and not the hearth.

300 years of difference in the kitchen

Upstairs you will find three bedrooms and another full bath.

The basement walls:  21 inch thick sandstone blocks.