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SPECTRUM FOR LIVING PROMSUIT, DRESSDRIVE

PASCACKVALLEY

Spectrum for Living seeks formal wear and prom dress/suit donations for its second annual client prom, this year themed “An Evening in Hollywood,” on June 14 at Florentine Gardens in River Vale.

The organization is collecting all sizes of new and gently used evening gowns and bags, jewelry and accessories, suits, ties, vets, and belts. Donations are accepted until June 1.

According to Nicky Napolitano, Spectrumʼs director of central recreation, “This is an opportunity for our clients to get all dressed up and walk the red carpet and dance and have fun. Weʼre doing photo booths, corsages, boutonnières — basically a prom that they might not have been able to attend when they were in school.”

Call (201) 836-3721 or write nnapolitano@spectrumforliving.org.

‘Check in’ to storied Grove

BY KRISTIN BEUSCHER SPECIAL TO PASCACK PRESS

MONTVALE

BUILT INTHE 1870S shortly after the railroad came through, the Grove House was a hotel that stood on the northwest corner at Kinderkamack Road and Grand Avenue, near the railroad station, in what is now downtown Montvale.

In 1900 Montvale only had about 415 residents, but like other Pascack Valley towns in that era, it had its own little hotel. During the summer months this region was a vacation destination for New Yorkers looking to escape the stifling city streets in favor of some time in the country. In our local communities it was common to find the railroad station, a hotel, and a livery stable (for renting horses) all within walking distance of each other.

The Grove House was also an important meeting place in early Montvale and it was where elections took place. When the village broke off from the Township of Washington to form its own borough in 1894, the men went to the Grove House to cast their votes. At the time, John A. Blauvelt was the proprietor. The poll was unanimous in favor of forming a borough, with 49 votes.

The photograph above must have been taken after 1902, which is when Blauvelt died and the hotel changed hands. The new owner was William C. Baur, whose name we see on the sign. In this wintertime photo we can also see wagon tracks all over the unpaved road, muddied by melted snow, and there are hitching posts along the front porch for tying up horses.

Born in Germany in 1840, Baur had come to America as a child. He was a widower and ran the Grove House in the first decade of the 1900s with help from his sister-in-law.

After he died in 1913, the running of the hotel passed to another German family. William Wilke and later his widowed wife, Marie, ran the business in the 1910s and early 1920s.

William and Marieʼs son, Henry C. Wilke, was born in the hotel in 1911. Later in life he recalled that the hotel had 15 rooms, with six downstairs and nine upstairs. There was no furnace in the building; each room downstairs had