Sledding on Snow Days in Fort Lee

Growing up in Fort Lee, where did you and your friends use to take your Red Flexible Flyers?

Fort Lee is a town, unlike any other Bergen County town, bifurcated by a bridge. Not just any bridge--the George Washington Bridge. Growing up in Fort Lee, your geography was defined by whether you lived north of the bridge or south of the bridge. It also defined where you played, strayed and misbehaved. For a small town, there were enclaves of even smaller communities--Coytesville, The Hollow, Lower Main Street...and many more. And each had their own place to go sledding. Growing up in Coytesville, east of Lemoine, the place to sled was Interstate Park, behind Fort Lee High School, known by my generation as Sunny Park. Back then, (did I really just say back then?) Sunny Park had an ice skating rink that was guarded (trust me, guard is the…

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Spotlight On: Deli on the Cliffs

Serving Fort Lee and Englewood Cliffs breakfast and lunch for years.

As the only deli in Englewood Cliffs, Deli on the Cliffs has a corner on the sandwich market in the area north of Coytesville. Serving breakfast and lunch in the same location for many, many years, Deli on the Cliffs draws a crowd of loyal regulars from both Englewood Cliffs and Fort Lee. On any given day, you will find police officers, fire fighters and business people lined up at the counter placing their breakfast or lunch orders. The deli also does a vibrant business delivering lunch and breakfast orders to the area businesses.    The deli, under the ownership of Kathy Sung, maintains the same quality of food and service that prevailed under the previous owners. Deli on the Cliffs offers all of the sandwiches you’d expect a deli to …

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From the Archives

Fort Lee’s British Invasion 2012

The British are Coming to Fort Lee Again! But this time it is a welcome home of sorts.

A recent Patch archive piece centered on the Coytesville section of Fort Lee, which sits in the northernmost section of the borough atop the Palisades. Not to be repetitive, but some visitors from across the pond this week make a follow-up story on Coytesville unavoidable. Call it, if you will, the third British invasion in Fort Lee’s storied history. Local history buffs are well aware that our very own Main Street served as General Washington’s retreat route, or as we call it, the "Retreat to Victory." Washington and his troops were encamped in Fort Lee in the summer and fall of 1776. Their huts were built in and around Monument Park; the park was once a pond, Parker’s Pond, and the soldiers drew water from it. Here, 2,000 of Washington’s…

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Tom Meyers

9:07 pm on Friday, August 31, 2012

We have worked in the past (Fort Lee Historical Society) re clean ups at Woodland Cemetery - we hope to work with the fairly new Englewood Cliffs Historical Committee to have regular clean ups with our volunteers and their volunteers.   more ›

From the Archives

History of a Fort Lee Neighborhood: Coytesville

Coytesville, USA, is one of the sections of Fort Lee with its own unique historical identity.

From time to time this weekly archive piece has touched on the neighborhoods and distinct sections of Fort Lee. Our borough, incorporated in 1904 but named by General Washington in 1776, has a rich neighborhood history.  Originally part of Ridgefield Township, Fort Lee includes sections that had, in a way, very separate identitie over the years. Take the West Fort Lee section, or as it was once called, Taylorville, or the Palisade section. Future columns will center on these two sections of our borough. The section I will highlight today is a result of a wonderful photo placed on facebook and sent to me by my friend and longtime Fort Lee resident Pete Bailis. Pete is a man of many interests, and he is not one to be afraid of heights, …

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rich v.

1:42 pm on Saturday, November 24, 2012

Joanne, the little candy store on Washington street? ??? I lived on Third street, we moved to the woods of West Milford during the first great migration in 68. However when ever any of us little, little kids(born in 61) would have a penny or find a nickel in the dirt ....."b" line straight to the bubble gum jar!   more ›

From the Archives

Macfadden’s Pond: The Walden Pond of Coytesville

Coytesville's Fishin' Hole: Macfadden's Pond.

The summer heat wave brings memories of childhood in Fort Lee and the many ways we devised to beat the heat in the pre-air-conditioned houses of our youth. Growing up in the 60s and 70s in Fort Lee meant, in large measure, playing outdoors in the summer. Why? Well, we had no video games nor computers and such to keep us tethered to our rooms. But, more importantly, most of us working class kids of Fort Lee did not have air conditioners in our rooms, and in many cases in our homes. The section of town I grew up in, Coytesville, saw not only the kids outdoors but parents too.  How many of you have memories of summer nights with your parents and neighbors sitting on the front stoop or in lawn chairs as they drank their gin & tonics?  I …

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Tom Meyers

11:12 pm on Sunday, July 8, 2012

Thanks Tommy...hopefully future archives pieces will key in on Piggy Pond..we have color silent film footage of Piggy Pond from the late 40s donated to the Fort Lee Museum by a wonderful Fort Lee lady who grew up in the area and still lives there. We will screen that footage in the coming year at the museum an upload it to the Fort Lee Historical Society web site.   more ›

From the Archives

Fort Lee Dead Sea Scrolls Part 2: A Price in the Attic

Fort Lee lost records found and include information on Fort Lee born artist for The New Yorker magazine, George Price.

A few weeks ago, From the Archives piece, "The Dead Sea Scrolls of Fort Lee," was about how a missing 81-year-old Mayor and Council minutes book was found in a former mayor’s home prior to the house being razed.  Well, one thing leads to another, and this past week, I was called over to the attic of the Fort Lee Senior Center by Fort Lee’s man about the borough, Tony Lione, who has worked for the borough for many years keeping all of its buildings clean and its parks in great shape, along with his crew. Lione heads the Fort Lee DPW, and he told me to get over to the Senior Center as they were cleaning out the attic and found a treasure trove of borough books, ledgers, tax rolls and maps dating back to at least the 1920s.  As I warily …

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Bridge Views

Bridge Views: Jersey Boys of Summer

When time moved slow and stickball ruled

This is the time of year when the summer sun shines its light upon our memory and casts shadows of those golden Fort Lee summers of our youth upon the screen of our monotonous present. When together, banded by friendship, we walked these streets, climbed the cliffs, fell in love. Those perfect summers when the toughest decision had nothing to do with which bill to pay first, but whether we were going to Hiram’s or Callahan’s. For me, it’s the summers of the 70s. For you, it may be the summer of the 60s, 50s, 40s or 30s. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that every summer of our youth called us forth and filled our empty days with endless possibility. In the end, what we’re left with is a string of bloated moments hemorrhaging meaning and …

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