A 135-year-old Queen Anne Victorian positioned in Tenafly’s East Hill part is the place the borough’s basis was laid.
Available on the market for $1.65 million, 54 Magnolia Ave.’s first residents had been Frederic L. Colver and his spouse Lillian (Warren) Colver.
The house’s first proprietor
Frederic Colver was a famous writer who spearheaded the township’s 1894 incorporation and later grew to become mayor. Lillian Colver had an outsized social affect and was “a type of answerable for Tenafly Public Library,” The Document reported in her March 1932 obituary.
“They moved to Tenafly within the spring (of) 1888, the place they’ve since been recognized with each essential civic, non secular and social exercise,” the newspaper reported.
A Nineteenth-century exterior with a transformed inside
Their dwelling, now 135 years outdated, was restored by the present homeowners within the mid-2000s beneath the watch of an knowledgeable in historic preservation, mentioned Reed Tighe, an actual property agent with Corcoran Baer & McIntosh.
The house has customized stained glass home windows, three wood-burning fireplaces and a wraparound porch. It additionally options 19 kinds of parquet flooring unfold over three completed flooring that sit atop an unfinished, walk-out basement. Deeply set again, the house nonetheless has a yard sufficiently big for a pickleball court docket, Tighe mentioned. Including a pool is a risk, he added.
Although it seems decidedly Nineteenth century from the surface, the kitchen and loos have been transformed inside the final 4 years, he mentioned. All however one of many 4 loos function radiant heating.
The trendy facilities mix into the six-bedroom dwelling’s rustic areas, Tighe mentioned. In a market that usually calls for new building, Tighe mentioned the house will not be essentially for everybody. It’s, nevertheless, for many who admire historic craftsmanship and allure, he added.
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Positioned in a historic district
The Victorian-era ambiance goes past the house. Fifty-four Magnolia options meticulous landscaping and is flanked by two different historic houses amid the Magnolia Avenue Historic District.
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“It is on a road that’s simply lined with historic houses,” Tighe mentioned. “All of them are magnificent in their very own method, however this one’s just a bit bit extra distinctive. Every room tells a special story.”
The individuals behind the house’s historical past
The realm was developed by native lawyer Ashbel Inexperienced to lure middle-class and rich New Yorkers, in response to borough data. Amongst these she attracted was 24-year-old Colver, a Milwaukee native who had been residing in Brooklyn, New York for the earlier 22 years, James M. Van Valen wrote in his 1900 “Historical past of Bergen County.”
A writer by the age of 17, Colver ran a publishing syndicate with a future Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Edward Bok, earlier than beginning as an advert supervisor for the Frank Leslie Publishing Home in 1889. A decade later, he succeeded Leslie as president and majority proprietor. He offered the corporate in 1906 earlier than working for the New York Instances, Lippincott’s Journal and Boy Scouts’ publications, the Instances reported in his Nov. 1927 obituary.
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Domestically, Colver made his title fundraising for the 1912 building of an outdated Tenafly Borough Corridor, spending 25 years because the superintendent of Tenafly Presbyterian Sunday College and organizing the motion that led to the borough’s 1894 incorporation. He was additionally the editor of the Tenafly Document newspaper, a member of the primary borough council and mayor in 1912-13.
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