Lambiase Farms - A bit of history about our houses and streets.

Radcliffe School, Nutley, New Jersey

Lambiase Farms

12-acre farm considered for part
of new Nutley Junior High
between Bloomfield  Avenue and Ridge Road

Commission Plans Street Across Junior High Site

Ignorant of School Board's Aims,

Votes To Buy Land Needed For Project

Caption: On a hilltop in Ridge Road, will all Nutley rustling below and the skyscrapers of New York forming the Eastern horizon, lies the Lambiase 12-acre farm which, along with about 2 acres of town-owned land, the Board of Education seeks to acquire as a site for the proposed Junior high school. In the photo above the farmhouse, barn and barnyard are shown. At the right of the photo, the peach orchard of several acres covers the soft-rolling hillside. Peacocks now roam at liberty under the heavily-laded trees. It is the Board's desire to have the main building where this farmhouse stands and use the sloping terrain for a play area. (Photo not available)

(The Nutley Sun, Aug. 20, 1948) -- Unwittingly, the Town Commission almost cut into the plot of ground which the School Board wants for the proposed new Junior High School by carving out a semi-circular street running from Chestnut Street to Bloomfield Avenue to open up for disposal a tract of 13 building lots, now landlocked, which the Town owns. Until today the Board of Education had not informed the Town Commission of its selection of a school site.

Finance Director Robert R. Anderson introduced the resolution at Tuesday night's Commission meeting calling for the purchase of enough land to open up the tract which is now cut off from the streets. The Anderson resolution, seconded by Commission Lucy, passed on the first reading was phrased as follows:

"That the town of Nutley purchase from Andrew E. Bloxmorn and William E. MacFarland property known as Block 196 south side of Chestnut Street, for the sum of $1,500, said property being acquired in order that the town of Nutley may open a street running from the south side of Chestnut Street to the west side of Bloomfield Avenue as shown in the master map of the Town Planning Board."

The thirteen town lots lie at the extreme northern edge of the fourteen acre tract which the Board of Education seeks to acquire as a school site. Without the town owned lots,, the site would not be large enough to accommodate the school and all the needed play area.

As soon as District Clerk Everett Zabriskie learned of the Commission's action, Wednesday, he communicated with Miss Florence Koclea, Town Clerk, and recalled the letter which the School Board had addressed to the Commission two months ago asking the town authorities not to dispose of the land.

It is likely, however, that even if the town does not sell its lots, it will proceed  to make the $1,500 investment in Chestnut Street property so as, eventually, to be able to open up the landlocked tract  if the School Board fails in its efforts to obtain a bond issue to finance the building. The question arose yesterday of holding the Lambiase farm and adjoining town owned plot for future town or school as one of the last plots of that acreage left open in Nutley. If the bond issue is defeated at the October election, the Board would be without authority to but the tract. If that situation arises, however, it is not impossible that the School Board would return almost immediately before the voters with another plebiscite on the question of buying and holding the land without building until prices come down.

It is generally agreed that in view of the great amount of construction now in progress in Chestnut Street and Bloomfield Avenue, the Lambiase farm would not long remain untouched, and once that tract is subdivided there would not be a single plot of ground of 14 acres left open in town anywhere north of Chestnut.

The Board of Education has also begun negotiations with the holders of land easements for the three water pipelines and one telephone cable which cut across the proposed school is an angle from the head of Chestnut Street to Church Street.

There are three water pipelines side-by-side just under the surface. One is owned by the Passaic Valley Water Company, another by the City of Newark and the third by the New Jersey District Water Supply Company. They carry reservoir water from the Wanaque region to North Newark. The telephone cable carries long distance lines from Newark, and like long distance lines all through the state may then be placed underground.

See Also: School Board gives its reasons for Lambiase Farm site (Nutley Sun, Aug. 20, 1948)

The above map shows, plotted, the area of 14 acres which the Board of Education has selected as the site for the proposed new Junior High School. The bulk of the site consists of the Lambiase farm extending from the peach orchards on Ridge Road to the building sites on Bloomfield Avenue. Besides its peach orchard,, the farm is famous for its peacocks which roam across the sloping hillside from which all Nutley and the New York skyline are visible. On the above map all the area north of the line of dashes is town owned property. The area south of the line of dashes consists almost entirely of the Lambiase farm. The underground water pipeline and the overhead powerline right of way extends across the property from the top of Chestnut Street to Church Street.

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