Tag: The Bergen 250-250th Anniversary of Bergen County NJ

Instituto Italiano di Cultura (The Italian Cultural Institute of New York) 686 Park Avenue New York City, NY 10065

Instituto Italiano di Cultura (The Italian Cultural Institute of New York) 686 Park Avenue New York City, NY 10065

Instituto Italiano de Cultura (The Italian Cultural Institute of New York)

686 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10065

(212) 879-4242

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My review on TripAdvisor:

Instituto Italiano de Cultura at 686 Park Avenue

The Institute of Italian Culture has a small gallery in it that several times a year hosts small art gallery events that are open to the public. This one caught my eye when I saw the picture of Sophia Loren looking back at me when I passed.

I thought it might be interesting and I stopped to see “Italians: Italian Women who changed the World” by artist Salvatore Catalano. The gallery held about fourth pictures of Italian women from all over the world and of different time periods who influenced art, fashion, politics and business.

There were many names I recognized and a few who I did not know. The works were very interesting and engaging.

The sign that welcomes you to the gallery

The main gallery at the Instituto Italiano di Cultura for the “Italiana: Italian Women Who Changed the World” exhibition

The exhibition Italiana: “Italian Women Who Changed the World” by artist Salvatore Catalono highlights the many impressive achievements by Italian women over the course of the last few centuries, until today.

(From the museum website):

These formidable women all greatly impacted the world in one way or another, often also against the odds imposed by a “male-ruled” society. The selection of 22 portraits includes scientists, politicians, entrepreneurs, artists, humanitarians and writers. These women all accomplished incredible feats and have contributed to the world in ways that still continue to resonate nowadays.

The Institute of Italian Culture exhibition sign:

The show Italiana: Italian Women Who Changed the World”

These were my favorite sketches from the show and women I most admired in the show.

Miuccia Prada, of the Prada fashion empire

Catherine de Medici, who revolutionized French Culture

Sophia Loren, the famous Italian actress

Lidia Bastianich, the Chef and restauranteur

The sketching’s represented different eras.

(From the museum website)

They are not all household names, but they are all at the top of their professions and exemplify the spirit of Italy. Salvatore Catalano uses his art as a vehicle to transmit these stories and to highlight the lives of these incredible Italian women.

Artist Salvatore Catalano

https://www.salvatorejcatalano.com/

https://www.instagram.com/catalano7127/

(from the Italian Cultural Institute of New York website)

Salvatore Catalano is an artist, illustrator, and educator. Catalano works in all forms of visual communication. His art has appeared on everything from postage stamps to billboards and his work is in many private and corporate collections. He is an educator at the college level, teaching in New York City and Florence, Italy.

Catalano has worked with The United Nations, U.S. Government, Department of The Interior, National Audubon Society, The New York Times, The New Yorker, ABC, CBS, NBC, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, N.Y. Zoological Society, Merck, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Seagram’s, General Foods, Sony, Panasonic, Citibank, Scholastic, Harper-Collins, Bantam-Doubleday, Dell, MacMillan, DuPont, Exxon, State of New Jersey Children’s Television Workshop, McGraw-Hill, Ranger Rick, among others. He has also worked on more than thirty books for children.

The History of the Instituto Italiano di Cultura in New York City:

(from the Instituto Italiano di Cultura website)

The Italian Cultural Institute in New York was founded in 1961 by the Italian Government. Its mission is to promote Italian language and culture in the United States.

Under the guidance of its trustees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its advisory board, and its staff, the Italian Cultural Institute in New York fosters cultural exchanges between Italy and the U.S. in a variety of areas, from the arts to the humanities, to science, and technology.

Central to the Italian Cultural Institute’s activity is its collaboration with the most prominent academic and cultural Institutions of the East Coast. The scientific exchanges, the organization of, and support to, visual arts exhibitions, the grants for translation and publication of Italian books, inspire and nourish the Institute’s initiatives.

In particular, we focus on the relationship between memory and innovation, and the multiplicity of identities in the Italian civilization. The Italian Cultural Institute in New York, therefore, provides an “open window” on main cultural and social aspects of past and current Italy.

Sturr Family Cemetery 375 Pulis Avenue Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417

Sturr Family Cemetery 375 Pulis Avenue Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417

Sturr Family Cemetery

375 Pulis Avenue

Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2227047/sturr-family-cemetery

https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/STURR

My review on TripAdvisor:

The Sturr Family Cemetery sits on a bend of the driveway of the Chabad Jewish Center of Northwest Bergen County and is a small cemetery that once sat on the edge of the J.H, Sturr farm.

The Sturr Family Cemetery

The farmhouse of the Sturr Family sits on the lot across the street from the cemetery property. This is located on a small buff on what was the edge of the farm.

The Sturr Family cemetery tombstones

The tombstones of the Courter and Carlouch family members

The grave of William Courter

The only visible tombstones that are left in the cemetery are an Ackerman family member, Anny Ackerman and members of the Courter and the Carlouch family’s (who must have married into the family).

The Ackerman family tombstones (the one to the right was unreadable)

The other tombstones are broken and no one is sure who is buried where in the cemetery.

The History of the Cemetery:

(From Find a Grave website)

The cemetery is located in Franklin Township, Bergen County, New Jersey, on what was once the family farm of J.H. Sturr. As of October 1991 only 6 markers were still remaining.

The Sturr Family Cemetery in full view

History of the House:

(From the Franklin Lakes Municipal Website)

H. Sturr House or Blue Meadow Farm
Built 1860
378 Pulis Avenue, Block 1510, Lot 8
Franklin Lakes, New Jersey 07417 

The Sturr House – also known as Blue Meadow Farm -is a handsome and little altered example of mid 19th century vernacular architecture which incorporates several stylistic elements such as gable returns and frieze area of the early 19th century Greek Revival style. The Borough of Franklin Lakes lists the erection year of the house as 1860. 

The façade of this 2 ½ story house consists of clapboard. The front porch has five bays with square posts and a rectangular entrance door with rectangular sidelights. Two tall 1st story windows are on one side of the porch. A single hitching post with iron rings sits in front of the porch stairs. The building has a frieze area with linear design. Semi-circular headed louvered vents are in all gable ends. The rear of the house has a one story wing.  There is a detached garage to the west side of the house as well as a round frame well. Further west of the house is a stable which has been extensively remodeled and converted into a residence in recent times. The house combined with associated structures is a significant remnant of the large farmsteads which ones dotted the Borough’s landscape prior to the recent suburban housing boom.

History of the Family:

(From the Franklin Lakes Municipal website)

This Sturr house and the nearby more altered house at 402 Pulis Avenue were duplicate structures and were probably built around the same time by members of the Sturr family. The 19th century Sturr family was descended from Conraedt Sturr who purchased 190 acres of land in this area with John Coeter from Robert Livingston in 1793.

The non-extant homestead and mill was located at present-day 930 Old Mill Road. It is known that Henry Sturr, the son of Conraedt, had a fanning mill at this location in 1850. In a will dated 1852 he bequeathed his property and mill to his grandsons John, Henry, and Daniel (Maria Braun – 1976 page 26 & 27).

The property along Pulis Avenue upon which these houses are situated was probably included in this will since the homes were built around the mid-19th century. Future deed research is recommended to identify the original builder and the construction date of the house (1861: H. Sturr, 1876 Estate of H.M. Sturr). Presently the house is privately owned and occupied.

Union Cemetery 316 Darlington Avenue Ramsey, NJ 07446

Union Cemetery 316 Darlington Avenue Ramsey, NJ 07446

Union Cemetery

316 Darlington Avenue

Ramsey, NJ 07446

(291) 327-3879

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1680177/union-cemetery

https://www.countyoffice.org/ramsey-union-cemetery-ramsey-nj-4cf/

Open: Sunday-Saturday Dusk to Dawn

My review on TripAdvisor:

The Union Cemetery of The First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey, NJ

History of the Cemetery:

(from the church website)

Union Cemetery is a religious cemetery located at 316 Darlington Ave. in Ramsey, NJ. The cemetery is owned and managed by the First Presbyterian Church in Ramsey. As a religious cemetery, the cemetery is restricted under New Jersey state law and is not open to the general public. Only members of a Christian church and their immediate relatives may be interred at the cemetery.

The historic cemetery from the road. To the left is the oldest part of the cemetery

Entering the cemetery from Darlington Avenue

The newer part of the cemetery is to the right of the driveway

I was visiting the Union Cemetery in search of veterans of the Revolutionary War and found an interesting cemetery with a deep history in Bergen County. Many first families of Bergen County are buried here and veterans not just from the Revolutionary War but the Civil War all the way up to today are buried in this active town cemetery.

The older part of the cemetery is to the left of the driveway. These tombstones are from the early 1800’s.

The older part of the cemetery dates back to before the Revolutionary War

Many of the early family plots are located here with well known names like Hopper, Christie, Ackerman and the town’s namesake, the Ramsey family, whose family plot is in the oldest section of the cemetery.

The grave of Hannah Jane Ramsey in the Ramsey family plot

Part of the Ramsey family plot

The Ramsey family plot

The Union Cemetery to find the graves of Revolutionary War veterans and found some but not all of them. The tombstones are so worn after over two hundred years that they either had disappeared or were so worn you could not read them.

The oldest section of the cemetery where many veterans both from the Revolutionary and Civil War are buried. It was hard to read many of the tombstones. Some the veterans were buried in their family plots, others with their spouses separately. The burials were concentrated in the oldest part of the cemetery. Most of the veterans have been honored with American flags.

The first tombstones I found were from Ackerman family members

https://www.njgsbc.org/files/familyfiles/g0/p10.htm

The grave of veteran John Ackerman

The grave of veteran James Ackerman

I could not make out the name of this Ackerman member but I figured it was one of the brothers wife

The grave of veteran John P. Post

The Post family history:

(from the Saddle River Historical Society website)

The Post family was of Dutch descent. The first Post was a soldier, who came here to protect the new settlements along the Hudson. They soon turned to milling; the name Post is attached to several mills in Bergen and Rockland Counties. Joseph Post, born in 1775, built a mill on the west branch of the Saddle River about 1800. He also opened a tavern and store on what is now West Saddle River Road, just north of Parker Place, across from the entrance to the mill.

The graves of members of the community at that time including the grave of John P. Post

The grave of veteran William Vanderbeck

The grave of a member of the Van Brock family, who was married to James Ramsey

I was not too sure who this was but by the veteran’s flower I am assuming the grave of veteran John Van Blarcom

The grave of Hannah (I believe Ackerman)

The Christie family plot

The Hopper family plot

The Hopper Family history:

(from the Saddle River Historical Society website)

The Hopper family is one of the oldest of European descent in Bergen County. Andries Hopper came from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam in the 1640’s. His widow and her son Hendrick were in the Polifly area (Hackensack) by the late 1600s. There was land to be had in the unsettled areas of what became Bergen County. Hendrick’s two oldest sons, Andries and Jan settled in the HoHoKus area (part of Paramus) around 1712. The Hopper name appears on many old homes and mills on early maps of the area. It was two of Andries’ children, Abram and Jan, who settled sometime around 1730 along the Saddle River in what is now Upper Saddle River.

Wyckoff Reformed Church 580 Wyckoff Avenue Wyckoff, NJ 07481

Wyckoff Reformed Church 580 Wyckoff Avenue Wyckoff, NJ 07481

Wyckoff Reformed Church

580 Wyckoff Avenue

Wyckoff, NJ 07481

(201) 891-1782

https://www.wyckoffreformed.org/

Open: Sunday 9:00am-11:00am (Sunday Mass)

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Profile/R4960NKjustinw/mediabatch/13777849?m=19905

The Wyckoff Reformed Church and Graveyard

The front of the church in the Summer of 2025

The graveyard at the church dates back to before the Revolutionary War. The graveyard has veterans from all the wars since the Revolutionary War to the current wars.

The Wyckoff Reformed Church was built with local fieldstone in 1806. The carpentry inside was done by Daniel Baldwin. The style features vernacular Early Republic, Federal architecture and the windows are done in the Gothic Revival style (Wiki).

The historic graveyard in the back of the church

The back of the graveyard that reaches further back into town

The part of the graveyard from the mid to late 1800’s. There are Civil War veterans buried here.

The back of the church from the 1800’s

The graveyard from the 1800’s

The Revolutionary War era section of the graveyard

The graves of the Revolutionary War veterans

The grave of Revolutionary War veteran Albert N. Van Voorheis

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LXQY-KCH/albert-voorhees-1759-1820

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=12407

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stephensz-2

When Albert Voorhees was born on 24 July 1759, in Bergen, New Jersey, British Colonial America, his father, Albert Van Voorhees, was 54 and his mother, Cornelia H. Van Gieson, was 42. He married Rachael Hopper on 26 July 1788, in Acquackanonk Township, Passaic, New Jersey, United States. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 6 daughters. He died on 17 October 1820, at the age of 61 (FamilySearch.com).

The grave of William P. Winter

The grave of Vanithy Van Voorheis, the wife of Albert Van Voorheis.

The historic part of graveyard right behind the church

The graves of Bridget Ackerman and Martin Myers

The graves of Jack Van Saun and his wife, a descendant of the Van Ripper farm family

The graves of the Van Ripper family

The family plots

The grave of David Stagg

The graves of Peggy Willis and Margaret and Abraham Van Voorheis

The graves of the Mickler family

The graves Abraham and Sara Ann Quackenbush

This historic church and graveyard are really interesting to walk around. It is a glimpse into the past of Bergen County, NJ and the entire State of New Jersey