The first eighth-grade graduation class at Hillcrest School in 1947 with teacher Mariam Brauer Cudney. (Photo provided)
With the construction of the Hillcrest consolidated school on Macopin Road in 1946, students from throughout West Milford began to attend the same school as one class.
Before then, the community schools throughout the township were independent of each other, and activities such as graduations were held in the individual schools or other nearby buildings,
A couple of the rural schools were still open in 1947, when 21 students graduated from Hillcrest School.
Members of the first Hillcrest graduation class were Robert Twomlow, Joseph Phillips, Richard Hemmer, Warren Babcock, John Cox, Edward Sanders, Herbert Henderson, Dwane Wormuth, Vincent Cahill, Donald Stephens, Donald McFarland, Barbara Hensel, Ida Mathew Hand, Helen Cahill, Florence Morgan, Joan O’Dell, Helen Baker, Darlene Miller, Betty Quackenbush, Doris Jacquel and Evelyn Eggenhoffer.
After completing high school and college, Eggenhoffer returned to Hillcrest School as a second-grade teacher.
The Hillcrest School graduates in 1947 were from West Milford Village, Hewitt, Upper Greenwood Lake and Macopin.
The West Milford Village rural schoolhouse still stands and has varied uses.
The Hewitt School on Greenwood Lake Turnpike became a home and was destroyed by fire. The large family living there at the time was not at home when the fire broke out.
The Macopin School was destroyed by an arson fire allegedly started by a former student.
The Upper Greenwood Lake (Moe Mountain) rural schoolhouse on the small triangular property at the corner of Clinton Road and Warwick Turnpike was torn down and replaced by the schoolhouse on Warwick Turnpike.
When it was closed, that building became the Roos family’s Schoolhouse Deli. It is now known as the Old School Pub.
Echo Lake School was torn down and replaced by St. Joseph Parochial School.
The Oak Ridge School became an entrance to a residential development and provided some parking space for Oak Ridge Presbyterian Church.
The former Newfoundland School now is the Grasshopper Irish Pub.
Not everyone went on to Butler High School in 1947. Some graduated from eighth grade and became part of the work force or started businesses.
For many of the West Milford students, it was the first time they met and got to know some of the people who came from the various rural schools that had not yet closed.
Students in the Butler High School Class of 1950 who came from Hillcrest, Echo Lake and other township schools were John Banker, George Bomerman, Phyllis Richards, John Chardavoyne Jr., Lois Davenport, Frank Devlin, Claire Due, Alfred Gallant, Thomas Gilroy, Mabel Howard, Joyce Jennings, Madelyn Kimble, Lorraine McCormick, Lorei Paul, Joseph Polo, Evelyn Post, Walter Rude, James Schaffer, Doris Schneider, Joan Sisco, Betty Squitieri, Hope Struble, Betty Taffe, Shirley Tice, Katherine Treiber, Betty Vander Bush, Katherine Van Wyck, Betty Lou Widmann, Dorothy Yomans and me.
Veronica Wiggins of West Milford died during junior year on April 4, 1949.
George Bomerman was chosen “Class livewire” and Claire Due as “Most musical.”
New N.J. constitution
1947 was a significant time in New Jersey history. After weeks of meetings at Rutgers University, delegates to a constitutional convention that summer drafted a new document that consolidated state agencies and commissions.
It restructured the judiciary under a seven-member Supreme Court headed by a chief justice. The role of the governor was strengthened to allow two four-year terms rather than the single three-year term of the prior charter and providing the governor with veto, appointment and fiscal management powers.
The new state constitution was approved by voters in a referendum. It established what most analysts described as one of the most powerful governors of any state.
Residents were most interested in restarting lives interrupted by World War II. Men who had been serving in the military were reunited with families or began new ones.
To meet the housing demand that was created, residential builders looked to the suburbs, with much of the development being built along newly constructed or expanded highways. New schools were built, and many of the existing ones received additions.
In July 1947, the Roswell, N.M., UFO incident about a supposed downed extraterrestrial spacecraft being found brought great interest. In October, Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager, a test pilot, flew the Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than the speed of sound for the first time.
“The Best Years of Our Lives” was the Academy Award choice for Best Picture of the Year. It was the first year that the Christmas classic “Miracle on 34th Street” was shown in movie theaters.
Jackie Robinson, signing a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was the first Black playing in Major League Baseball.
The Cold War began. To fight spread of communism, President Harry Truman signed an act of Congress implementing the Truman Doctrine. The Department of War became the Department of Army, a branch of the new Department of Defense.
Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, married in London in November.
Elton John, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton and author James Paterson were born that year.
It was a time of many new beginnings.
Construction date?
Paul Havemann raised a question about the construction date of the Junior Order of United Mechanics (JOUM) building that became the first location of the West Milford Fire Company 1 firehouse at 1468 Union Valley Road.
The Looking Back column published in the Aug. 22-28 issue gave the date as 1930, which was provided by West Milford lawyer Louis Wallisch when he was a guest speaker at a West Milford history course for township teachers in the 1980s.
Havemann said he has a postcard showing the building and the postmark is clearly 1906.
If anyone has information, please send it to Ann Genader at anngenader@gmail.com
To contact Ann Genader, send email to anngenader@gmail.com