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April 10, 2011

Celebrate Mountain Lakes EducationIn writing the commemorative book Mountain Lakes, 1911-2011: One Hundred Years of Community, resident Patricia Reid Herold combed through hundreds of newspapers, interviewed scores of Laker residents and researched our town’s archive. Using Herold’s fine work, we can learn about the history of our great schools while celebrating our community’s centennial.

The Mountain Lakes Centennial Education Subcommittee welcomes you to our sixth ML100 newsletter. Each newsletter is located online on the ML100 Issuu bookshelf.

This newsletter features selections from Herold’s Mountain Lakes,

excerpts from New York Times, and oral histories from the Mountain Lakes History website.

In the beginning...

Laker pioneers “Lawrence and Sallie Luellen, the first residents of the Mountain Lakes Residential Park, were ready to rough it in many ways, but not when it came to the early education of their two young children, Gerald and Alice. At the time, this was somewhat unusual. In fact, New Jersey ranked only 26th among 48 states when it came to the percentage of children who attended school. Even

when they went, New Jersey schoolchildren didn’t go all the time. The state’s public schools were open more

than a hundred and eighty days each year, but the average student attended fewer than a hundred and forty days. The compulsory part was poorly enforced.

“The Luellens and other Mountain Lakes pioneers considered an adequate school a priority right from the start. Among them, they had about thirty boys and girls to educate-- and no practical place for them to go. Boonton’s schools were the closest, but Mountain Lakes residents had no claim on them, since almost all of the development’s homes sat squarely within Hanover Township’s borders. Hanover schools, the logical alternative, were many miles of rough roads away, a problem in the horse-and-buggy age” (Herold, 137).

Education Newsletter

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Starting BellWhere did the first students go to school? The answer may surprise you!

The First “School”In 1911, the first Laker pioneers expected a school for their children, but Herbert Spencer, the original developer, had his crews hard at work on new homes. It took a year, but the new residents worked with Hanover Township to open a temporary school in a tiny house at 8 Larchdell Way. According to Herold, it was “a building little Gerald and Alice Luellen could see from their porch and walk to in a matter of minutes. Funded mainly by Hanover, it also relied on Mountain Lakes residents’ subscriptions. Each family was asked to pay nineteen dollars, for a total contribution of about nine hundred dollars” (Herold, 138).

Mountain Lakes School of Individual InstructionThe home was soon teeming with students as the community’s school-aged population was over sixty children. “Mountain Lakes School of Individual Instruction... was a dark, cramped place, staffed by two school mistresses who lived upstairs and doubled as Sunday school teachers. Lawrence Luellen himself handpicked the teaching method [that] encouraged students to be independent, resourceful thinkers. Luellen read about individual instruction in the Ladies’ Home Journal, and he corresponded with the magazine to learn more about starting a school along those lines” (Herold, 138). The photo shows teacher Ramona Tripp with her first students.

From Larchdell to MidvaleFinally, in August, 1912, Hanover Township conceded that the fledging township need a bigger space, and they allocated additional funds to rent a more “spacious” learning environment. They made an agreement with developer Herbert Hapgood, who had built a series of Craftsman-styled shops on Midvale Road, to house the new school. Subsequently, “on September 8, 1913, pioneers were informed: ‘The lower floor of the building is to be a recitation room for the smaller scholars. . . . The second floor will be so altered by ... so that one large recitation and two study rooms will be provided for the larger and grammar grade schools’” (Herold, 138-9).

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Hapgood’s School

The First Real SchoolAs much as the “Midvale shop” school was an improvement from the cramped Larchdell Way home, a more permanent solution was needed. “Ultimately, Mountain Lakes’ first ‘real’ school was built...on flat land between the Club and the Boulevard, on the northwest corner of the Big Lake. Hanover provided $23,000 for the building; Hapgood...provided the two-acre lot. Solid and simple, for years it was simply called the Mountain Lakes School, the School House, or the Old Stone School. The name hardly mattered; it was the only school in town. At the time, about ninety houses in the Mountain Lakes Residential Park were occupied, and the population was somewhere between four and five hundred; eighty-seven students attended the new stone schoolhouse. Within six years, the school population had doubled. In 1920, Hapgood expanded the building to accommodate kindergarten through ninth grade” (Herold, 139-140).

In 1977, the New York Times featured a reunion of the Old Stone School students who attended classes there between 1914-1920.

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Lake Drive School

Lake Drive School Opens! A Laker Pioneer Remembers...“In November 1914 Lake Drive School opened its first four classrooms earning Hanover Township cheers and plaudits from an appreciative citizenry. Six years later it had ten classrooms, and that's how I first found it in 1928. We kindergartners in the southeast corner classroom had 1/2 pint of milk and Graham crackers for a snack between weaving and running-around time. In first grade, at the Community Church (space shortage, you know), I reached the highest point of my academic career by demonstrating to Miss Buckman that I could read A. A. Milne's The King's Breakfast, complete with my mother's inflections. When advised of this extraordinary feat, my mother assured her that I was faking it, and it was uphill from there on. As a candidate for most memorable person, Mr. Skidmore, (or Skiddy as we called him), the Lake Drive Custodian, was truly a life-long friend to all who passed through his province. The teachers were generally thoughtful, sensitive, and very well qualified to handle, or perhaps I should say guide, the eclectic bunch of K-through-niners they confronted daily in Lake Drive School” http://www.mtnlakes.org/History/Reminices.htm .

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The ML School“Doretta and David Blattner, now living in Oregon, grew up in the Mountain Lakes School. They remember the librarian (the town’s

library was located in the school), Mrs. Thompson, who lost her son to war at Pearl Harbor. A favorite teacher for both Blattners was Miss Calendar, who taught kindergarten and stayed on at the school for

years. Doretta Steinway Blattner (whose grandfather, Charles H. Steinway, was president of Steinway & Sons, a descendant of Henry Engelhard Steinway who founded the piano making company) loved her; a good thing, because she ended up spending two years in kindergarten. As a girl at the Mountain Lakes School, Doretta Steinway looked forward to visiting the woman who served ice cream at the top of the stairs in the Mountain Lakes Club, right next door. ‘I would go up the stairs at the Club and get a five cent ice cream after lunch, and my mother provided the five cents every day’ ” (Herold, 141).

Tragedy in Lake Drive

Published: January 9, 1953

Copyright © The New York Times

Published: February 14, 1936

Copyright © The New York Times

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Students Serve!When World War II started in 1941, Americans rallied in support of the war effort. According to Mountain Lakes 1911-2011, even our small

community was already engaged with the global conflict prior to Pearl Harbor. Author Patricia Reid Herold notes “the hum of confident preparedness (that) prevailed” in Mountain Lakes. She describes

how Laker Gilbert Higgins formed the Mountain Lakes Defense Council that “organized first-aid classes and converted station wagons and delivery trucks to rescue and emergency cars. Echoing Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mayor Halsey Frederick cautioned residents that ‘our greatest danger is in hysteria and misdirected zeal.’ School officials joined him in discouraging panic, ordering parents not to drive or walk to pick up their children when the air raid alarm sounded. In case of attack, they informed worried parents, ‘there is no time for the children to go home safely’ ” (Herold, 124-125).

Tom Brackin Remembers “I remember each year the Memorial Day service and speakers from the military and people talking about people who were shot down. I remember demonstrations and warnings done by police and army personnel. How to use a fire extinguisher. What to watch for. Don’t spread rumors. If you learn something about a troop ship, don’t repeat it. Lots of things like that went on and it scared all of us. We did in grade school have to go into the center hallway and cover our heads during an air raid warning. We used to bring to Miss Calendar’s class--we’d gather the milkweed pods and bring those in and they’d hang them up and they would dry and then somebody

would come from the military and pick them up and take them away. They made life vests from them. Instead of air inside, they had milkweed pods. We had a place where the parking lot is by where they sell Lionel trains today, there was a little shed and we’d bring scrap metal down there. We collected newspapers and bought war stamps, all for the war effort.”

Wally Mills Remembers“So many of the younger men in town were in the service that we had almost no fire department. So the older high school boys were organized as the Junior Fire Department and they were trained and were quite effective. And if

there was a fire, they got to leave class. They were all there was.

The Lackawanna RR had four tracks at that time. The war freight was very heavy. During several summers, a small group of high school boys worked summers on the RR section gang maintaining the tracks...Terribly hard work and hot and dirty but very macho. I had to lie about my age because I wasn’t quite sixteen. We would show up at Island Beach filthy dirty for a swim.

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Even after the addition to the Stone School was built, there was no room for tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students. So they traveled –by trolley, train, car, or bus –to either Boonton or Morristown high schools.

High School Hijinks!In the early years, Laker teens chose between Boonton or Morristown High School. Bob Bartman recalled how his mother “chose to go to Morristown High because it was a longer ride on the trolley and because Morristown schools opened a bit later than Boonton's. In later years she confessed to me that she and other girls would play hooky and spend their days in Rattlesnake Meadow or on the Tourne. She also told me that many times the high school students would stand on the rear platform of the trolley and bounce up and down until the trolley jumped the track. Then everyone would have to wait for the crew to come and put the trolley back on the track. It was a good excuse for being late.”

High School Controversy “In the fall of 1925, barely two years after incorporation, one of Mountain Lakes’ golden boys, Frederick W. Castle, was suspended from Boonton High School for a full month. President of his class, captain of the debating team, an honor student, and a member of the football squad, he and another boy led a student strike –joined by Mountain Lakes and Boonton students alike, opposing the dismissal of Boonton High principal Albert S. Davis. The principal’s crime? Jack Lee, longtime Mountain Lakes resident and Boonton High School alumnus, chalked it up to educational philosophy. ‘[Principal Davis] was quite active in having his students go on to college which most of the Mountain Lakes student wanted to do. Because of this, the Boonton people were upset, and they fired him. For this reason Mountain Lakes led a strike and . . . . They were joined by Boonton students and were immediately kicked out of school.’

“Castle took advantage of his school suspension to study for the entrance exam for West Point. In World War II...he sacrificed his life in a spectacular display of bravery on Christmas Eve 1944. For his heroism, Castle was awarded his country’s highest honor: the Medal of Honor” (Herold, 145-147).

Published: May 26, 1926

Copyright © The New York Times

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Briarcliff

The New High School: Briarcliff Before Briarcliff was built, Lake Drive graduates “were shuttled off to either Morristown or Boonton High School. The resulting annual confrontations between Mountain Lakes athletes on opposing teams helped spark an intense rivalry between those two schools.

“Briarcliff High School, which came at a price of $196,000, was finally approved on the third referendum when the opposition realized that $70,000 of the cost would come as a PWA (not WPA) grant from the federal government. Briarcliff was opened in 1936 (8 thru 11) and filled in 1937 (7 thru 12). Abe Smith...was our Athletic Director, founder of the Mountain Lakes athletic dynasty, and warmly remembered by all who served and learned under him. The most serious student crisis early on involved the selection of school colors. There was an extended debate, with dialogue including: ‘Just because they are used by University of Illinois doesn't mean that Orange and Blue are compatible colors!’ ” http://www.mtnlakes.org/History/Reminices.htm

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Briarcliff: New Deal or Raw Deal?“In 1935, after much controversy and three referenda, residents finally agreed on a plan for their own high school.

Construction of the imposing gothic building took a year. When the 6-year junior/senior high school finally opened on Briarcliff Road in 1937, Mountain Lakes became a completely self-sufficient district, not having to send its students anywhere. It should have been a triumphant moment. But it was a bitter one

instead. Fervent opposition centered on the acceptance of federal public works funds. A newspaper account likened the conflict over building a new Mountain Lakes School to a civil war: ‘Wife had voted against husband and father against son in a whirl of excitement as seldom grips this borough of peaceful homes. The efficacy of the New Deal recovery measures were fervently defended against charges that Uncle Sam was spending himself out of pocket. Women appealed to pride in the borough’s school system and men grumbled that taxes would be increased’ ” (Herold, 149).

Published: March 10, 1936

Copyright © The New York Times

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The Senior Door

Tradition & Tomfoolery at the Briarcliff Senior DoorAlice Parman “started in the 7th grade when the high school and junior high shared the Briarcliff building. As an honor roll student I could spend study hall periods on the front bench by the ‘senior door.’ When the new high school opened, the superintendent and principal took the opportunity to get rid of some traditions that had become burdensome to some students. They announced that there would be no more senior door. Also, they got rid of fraternities. This proved surprisingly easy. I think everyone was so blown away by the new building that there just wasn't energy to fight the loss of traditions that didn't matter to most people anyway” (HPC).

The image above was a prank played by the last senior class to graduate from Briarcliff School. According to Leslie and Evelyne Dressel, “the Class of 1959 graduated from the new High School. The Class of 1958 celebrated and marked this historic moment by blocking the front doors with a ‘moat’ and a canoe and all kinds of town signs, public and private. All things were returned the next day with no harm done” (HPC).

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Wildwood School

Wildwood: The New Elementary School “The post-World War II years brought the biggest building boom Mountain Lakes had experienced since its earliest years. [These homes were] aimed at young families and returning WWII veterans. Mountain Lakes’ new ‘section,’ probably has gone by more names than any other part of town. Officially Midvale Acres, it has also been called Fertile Valley, Diaper Village, and more recently, simply The Village. Between 1946 and 1953, 241 homes were built during those seven years.

“New construction strained the schools. The school house on Lake Drive and the new high school on Briarcliff Road couldn’t contain all the new residents’ school-aged children. In May of 1951, a site for the new grade school was cleared, and in July the Mountain Lakes Council gave 4.7 acres on Glen Road--adjacent to the Wildwood Field--to the Board of Education for a school--to be known as Wildwood” (Herold, 128-130).

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Wildwood SpecsIn 1967, Wildwood School was featured on “For Parents Only,” a local public affairs program. In the specific documentary, The Donut-Shaped School, the producer described Wildwood as “innovative in the total sense.”

In fact, the architects Harsen & Johns described the school in the following manner in their own promotional materials: “A circular school with movable interior walls, audiovisual aid, programed instruction, and a central library-and-learning area, is how Harsen & Johns provided for the many changes that will occur in education during the life of the

school--some 75 years. Changes in program content, teacher utilization, student learning, and programmed instruction have merely begun to scratch the surface. The very flexibility designed in this structure is required to meet the whatever demands for change may be made upon this educational facility over the next several decades.

“Classrooms accommodate 25-30 students each, or combinations of larger and smaller groups. The classrooms surround the central library-and-learning area and are linked to it without intervening corridors.

“Three out of four classroom walls are movable. Their construction is light and flexible to encourage pupil mobility and regrouping. As part of the flexibility pattern, all furniture is lightweight and portable. The entire design of the school is based on the concept that space should adapt to educational methods rather than limit them.”

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THe New MLHS

The New Mountain Lakes High SchoolAfter a decade of fast growth following World War II, the new baby-boomers were crowding the Mountain Lakes schools. In addition to Wildwood Elementary, a new high school was opened during the 1950s. The image above showcases the original building (that was referred to as the Powerville School in some of the early yearbooks).

The Mountain Lakes High School of 1958 looked this way before various expansion projects that were added during the subsequent fifty years including the auditorium, practice fields, the science wing, the Boonton Township partnership, rooms 220 & 221, the auxiliary gym, music rooms, the media center, the artificial turf field, the athletic training room, parking lots and, most recently, solar panels.

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MLHS Lakers in the NEWS!The triumphs (and sometimes travails) of Mountain Lakes High School students made news well beyond its hallways

and even the borders of our picturesque hamlet.

In 1971 the NYT featured four MLHS rebels including the SGA president & football captain, who in the

spirit of nonconformity, eschewed college after graduation. Perhaps things went back to normal in the 1970s, as the NYT started to profile teenage entrepreneurial Lakers who sold everything they could to make a buck.

However, the most fun news story of the past 50 years may be that of Buzz Clifford, brother of Laker basketball legend Jim Clifford. Buzz had a gold record in 1961 with his smash “Baby Sittin’ Boogie,” and he even performed it on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. An interesting song to say the least!

Students in COURT

In 2009, Laker graduate David Goldman won an international court battle to secure custody of his son who was living in Brazil. The ordeal propelled him to start the Bring Sean Home Foundation that focuses on abducted children.

In 1978, Laker student Debrorah Lipp’s lawsuit against the NJ law requiring students to stand at attention during the pledge was accepted by Federal District Court, and the law was overturned as unconstitutional.

A 1985 NYT article highlights Laker grad Amy Rowley, whose desire to have a sign language interpreter in a former district led to a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court!

Laker STARS

Many of us are accustomed to seeing Laker stars on the MLHS stage. However, did you know that is the early 1960s, MLHS students starred in movies they made themselves?

In 1961 MLHS teacher Mr. Harrison students’ filmed their own western (Vengeance) on location. It was positively reviewed in the the NYT.

In 1963, 16-year old Fred Elmes directed an award-winning film on Mountain Lakes called Our Town. The thirty-minute film won an award by Kodak film and premiered at Briarcliff School.

It would be great if anyone had a copy of these movies!

Good, Bad & the Ugly

Of course not all the news was always positive. In 1940, as WWII waged in Europe, the ML Board of Education buckled under pressure from the American Legion and censored Social Studies textbooks that were considered un-American “propaganda.”

Even worse, a ‘39 MLHS grad was indicted in 1944 for allegedly helping two Nazi POWs escape from Camp Hale in Colorado.

A tragic murder of a New York City psychiatrist’s wife by his mentally unstable patient (who lived in Mountain Lakes and was a former teacher here), scandalized the town in 1961.

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From the Lake Drive Program Website:“Lake Drive was established in 1969 in rented quarters in The Community Church in Mountain Lakes, with one teacher, a teacher aide, a speech therapist, a part-time consultant audiologist, a part-time consultant speech therapist and seven students. Over the next three years the number of students increased to approximately 21. The faculty kept pace and by 1972, having outgrown the physical facility, the school moved to its present location at Lake Drive. For the first 10 years at Lake Drive, our program was housed within the Mountain Lakes fifth and sixth grade building. In 1978, the program became the sole occupant of the building at Lake Drive and Laura McKirdy, Ph.D. was appointed principal, a position she held until her retirement in 2004.

“Today, the school serves approximately 250 students, ages birth to high school graduation, from nearly 100 communities, including Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, New Brunswick, Elizabeth, the Oranges, Plainfield and Trenton, in 12 New Jersey counties. In addition to those in the Lake Drive School building, students are also currently educated at Wildwood Elementary School, Briarcliff Middle School and Mountain Lakes High School, all within the Mountain Lakes School District.”

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Laker Sports

Mountain Lakes may have opened its own high school in 1937, but then they had to create extracurricular and athletic activities to accompany their new

academic program. According to Herold, the “first victory by a Mountain Lakes team was when the basketball team defeated the Bernardsville Jayvees 19-16. ‘Since sports have started in the new high school, the teams have had tough going as far as chalking up any wins on their side,’ lamented Tom Treholm in the

sports column of the Mountain Lakes News. But by February, things were looking up: the basketball team’s record stood even at 8-8.

“When Varisty football finally arrived in the 1930s it captivated the community. Students celebrated the first gridiron victory by snake-dancing down the boulevard. It’s said that Coach Abe Smith, All-American Rutgers’ Quarterback, chose the school colors” (Herold, 150-151).

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Definition: Laker Pride“In the 1980s, then-Principal Wilkins dubbed the blended academic/athletic focus as ‘the spirit that’s here; everybody supports everybody, academics and athletics… it’s the values and spirit of the community’ ” (Herold, 154).

Coach Wilkins (in 2010 retiring after 44 years as HERD coach with a 328-105-5 record)Although a future newsletter will focus solely on sports, it would be remiss not to mention here the twin passion for intellectual pursuits and athletic challenges that is the essence of Mountain Lakes High School. In fact, as Herold reports, “in the last decades of the twentieth century, the high schools’ dual strengths, academics and athletics, were reflected in the appointment of Bill Kogen as superintendent and later Douglas Wilkins, longtime head football coach, as principal. By 1999, when Wilkins retired as principal, Mountain Lakes High School had in some minds, reached the top of the heap” (Herold, 154).

First FieldIn 2011 our Lax and football squads dominate the turf on what is today Wilkens Field. However, where did the first football team play? Before 1941, “home” games were actually held in Denville. Then the American Legion and the municipal council donated over $3200 to create a sports field adjacent to Briarcliff School and across Wildwood Lake. After a year of more fundraising and tree clearing by the townspeople themselves, they celebrated the opening of the Mountain Lakes Sports Field in September, 1942 with a MLHS victory over the Laker alumni, 32-14.

(Dubious) Laker RecordLaker resident Mark Di Ionno recently wrote a column for the Star Ledger on probably the greatest football achievement that occurred in a Laker contest. In 1950 John Giannantonio ran for 754 yards in a single game, setting what is still a national record. Unfortunately, that was against the Mountain Lakes defense! That’s right, Giannantonio played football for Netcong High School. However, Laker fans should take solace in that Giannantonio torched every team he played that year: he still holds a national record for his single season rushing average (595.4 yards a game) and until five years ago the New Jersey record for touchdown totals in a season (41 in eight games, although the new record is for 44 TDs in 12 games). Remember to be on the lookout for our Fall newsletter that will feature only Laker HIGHLIGHTS!

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Lady Lakers“For years, varsity boys and girls teams have achieved championships in a wide range of sports. MLHS won the 2004 NJ Group I Most Outstanding

Athletic Program. In the 2009-2010 school year, 74 percent of students were on one or more athletic teams, with thirteen girls and boys teams winning division, county, sectional, or state championships.

Of course, that gender parity was not always the case! In 1948, legendary gym teacher Miss Hic (Dorothy Hicinbotham), aimed to improve girls’ athletics, organizing the intramural Girls Athletic Association (GAA), whose annual show ran for decades, pitting the Orange Team against the Blue in marching, tumbling, and dance. Blue or Orange ran in families, with hurt feelings if a sister defected to the other side. The tradition ended when girls varsity sports matured – under the influence of Title IX – in the 1990s” (Herold, 158).

Before Title IX

Our current 6th Grade “Green Screen Squad” has been interviewing Laker alumni. During these sessions they have been most intrigued by talk of the GAA. They especially loved hearing about the intensity of the competition that consequently led to the painting (and repainting) of the “Rock” where teens congregated.

Perusing early yearbooks, they commented that cheerleading was the only sport available to girls. Yet they were shocked on how few sports were available to female students in even more recent history. In fact, an interview with one of their friend’s mother, Maryanne Brennan Class of 1983, really brought it home. They couldn’t believe that she had to join the boys’ track team, and even then her coach always reminded her to be careful so she would’t get hurt. Today, the MLHS girls’ track team is one of the best in the entire state!

(from 1960 yearbook)