Bob Spear on his Ancestral Home-The Bush Residence

7/10/2013

“My great grandfather’s home circa 1870 on Valley Road- later the home of David C. Bush & Anna F. Spear and much later the Oakland Jewish Center. Henry I. Speer’s farm was next door opposite Ponds Church burying ground. The kitchen area on the right, huge barn in rear where my brother played as a child,”

Bob, Thanks for adding additional info on this building. Please post your your comment as I think that it would be good for everyone to know and appreciate both your and Oakland’s heritage. At the bottom of the pic is a hand written notation, “The Bush residence”. I date the pic to be about 1910 because of the telephone pole since the pole on RVR has no lines on it yet. The Oakland Sanitorium would eventually step up and have the first telephone in town. So, this pic pre-dates since the tele line would have been strung on it to the Sanitorium. While you would know better than I, your ancestral home became the Bush-Spear Palace, an upscale hotel catering to the Oakland tourist trade back in the day.

Oakland Tourist Trade

Bob wrote: “Thanks Kevin- although that had been eluded to “the upscale hotel story” I never knew it as such, that was as much new info to me as anyone! It was simply my Aunt Annie’s house when I was growing up in Oakland, Before being the Bush residence it was my Great Grandfather’s home and farm. He had been a very progressive agriculturalist in his day, also a very prominent member of Ponds Church. My Aunt Anna played the organ in the old Ponds Church on the corner. The actual “center” of the Ponds (pre-Oakland) in those days revolved around the Ponds Church at the corner of Valley Road & Ponds hill road (aka Long Hill road) A one-room school house was nearby and the “burying ground” on a knoll above the cold running brook. The “Town Center” as it were shifted North in 1869 when the NJ Midland Railroad tracks reached there. The Station was built shortly afterwards and the Ponds..finally became Oakland, due to the Railroad Stop naming. Henry I Spear (1795-1887) owned a large farm there, bought in 1828. His grandson, David H. Spear (Sr) built the home in the picture. My grandfather, Andrew I Spear, Superintendant of Bergen County roads, circa 1898 had used many of the Original narrow-gage railroad rails as steel beams for several houses he built!. Prior to my moving to Florida I still had a chunk of one on my small workbench!. The large Saw blade that was given to the Van Allen house collection had come from Henry I Speer’s sawmill. It had been given to Frank Scardo who then presented it to the museum. Just a few more tidbits of “Life in old Oakland”…..”