Highland Park Memoirs

We are encouraging all current and former residents to produce their memoirs either by writing them or dictating them onto tape and donating them to the Historical Society. Consider donating your own memoirs and urge people you know who may not have web access. The memoirs can be any length.

Sample questions to answer and points to discuss are:

* What was Highland Park like when you were younger?
* Describe a typical weekday and weekend day.
* What were your parents' days like?
* What was your favorite store and why? Describe going inside the store using all your senses.
* What did people do for fun?
* What did you look forward to?
* Discuss social interactions.
* Discuss civic organizations.
* Describe your neighbors.
* Tell us about events including community celebrations and newsworthy happenings.
* Discuss changes to the town, both positive and negative.

We hope to receive at least 25 individuals' recollections of Highland Park, the town we all have come to love-newcomers and old-timers alike! Please e-mail your writings to jean.kolva@verizon.net or mail them to PO Box 4255, Highland Park NJ 08904.

We would like to thank Evan Brownstein of B.Beamesderfer Gallery for selling copies of the Highland Park book at his shop on North Second Avenue for the last five years!  Evan is truly one of the beautiful people!

Livingston Manor Historic District is Listed in Registers

After many years of discussion and effort on behalf of the neighborhood, the Livingston Manor Historic District is finally listed in both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places!  More information can be found by clicking on the "Livingston Manor Historic District" button.  Now, the neighborhood needs a dynamic resident to organize a homeowners association.  Hint, hint...the houses in the district will be having their own centennials beginning in 2006. It would be nice to see special street signs and house plaques to commemorate this neighborhood, its milestone, and its historic designation.

New Highland Park History Book To Be Published in 2008

Valeri Drach Weidmann and Jeanne Kolva are working on a new pictorial that will feature Highland Park in the Twentieth Century. It will be published by Arcadia Publishers in 2008.  Keep tuned to this web site for up to the minute information about publication dates. We are looking for a photograph of the movie theater.

Historical Society Display Case at Library

After 1950, the summer house and grounds of Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. at 411 River Road were converted into a retreat house for the Sisters of the Cenacle. To promote the retreat, a set of postcards were generated showing both the exterior and interior views of the house. The Historical Society has collected the full set and it is on view in the small display case near the reference section of the public library. The Library is located at 31 North Fifth Avenue. Phone (732) 572-2750 for their hours or check out their web page at http://www.hpplnj.org/.

Donations

We will take your stuff! The Historical Society is collecting photographs, postcards, scrapbooks, programs, yearbooks, mugs, matchbooks, trophies and other Highland Park ephemera and memorabilia. Please don't throw your items away! Call Jean Kolva at (732) 220-6618 or mail items to P.O. Box 4255, Highland Park, NJ 08904. Thanks to all our previous donors for the mementos!