I heartily recommend Mr. James O. Betelle of the firm of Guilbert & Betelle. He is a genial man, easy to work with, and considerate of the needs and pocketbook of his clients. — Pierre S. du Pont, Hagley Museum and Library
Well this is interesting. A company in rural Pennsylvania called Firefly Landing appears to be in the business of making nothing but wood blocks die-cut in the shape of the schools and buildings of Maplewood, New Jersey. Talk about targeted marketing!
According to the site, “The vintage images are digitally printed, mounted to maple hardwood blocks, stencil-cut, and finish-coated. Perfectly sized for display on desktop, bookshelf, or window sill.”
All of the Betelle schools are represented here in glorious 3D wooden-extrusion. The images seem to be taken from vintage postcards as best I can tell from the small images (there would be words if they took any of my photos…). Marshall looks pretty good, but South Orange Middle, well, the less said the better (as is always the case with the “Pink Palace”).
I’m not sure who would actually want to purchase one of these, but I suppose the folk(s) at Firefly are Maplewood expats, so I wish them well in the endeavor.
Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc., plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country’s worst performing public school systems.
Potentially to be matched by funds raised by Mayor Cory Booker. I’d be interested to see if any of the funds will go to upkeep, renovation and/or restoration of Newark’s classic Guilbert & Betelle schools.
Over the past few months, I’ve been getting letters from readers about an abandoned school in Garden City, Long Island, called St. Paul’s, on the verge of being demolished. Last Friday, I hopped the train with my bike and camera to have a look for myself.
This amazing 1879 Victorian pile—apparently in fine condition—is likely to be razed for no pressing reason. The article dismantles the logic of the demolition with stinging wit. Another great one from SNY.
Ten beautifully restored chandeliers were recently installed in the auditorium at the Washington Irving Intermediate School of Tarrytown, New York.
The school recently underwent a major renovation which included larger classrooms, an expanded library, a new art room, renovated music rooms, a new nurses station and renovations of the existing offices.
A wonderful restoration job from 2009. The article does makes a few errors; the Washington Irving school isn’t in “Betelle’s signature collegiate-gothic style”, but rather Georgian, and Guilbert & Betelle was located in Newark, NJ, of course, not NYC at that time (I know, I can’t help nitpick).
I recently acquired a 20 minute reel of 16mm silent color home movies, shot in Maplewood, New Jersey, in the 1950s-60s. In it are typical scenes of a family’s life; Church, Christmas, Halloween, hanging out at the pool, etc. Interspersed with this are scenes around Maplewood that any resident will easily recognize. Cars and clothes have changed, but the buildings and landscape remain much the same.
The filmographer apparently loved Guilbert & Betelle’s Maplewood Municipal Building, which is featured heavily (Columbia High School also makes a brief appearance). I’ve added some music and edited the film to focus on these aspects. Enjoy.
James Oscar Betelle (1879-1954) was a Newark, NJ based civic architect. Public schools were his speciality—if you grew up in the New York Tri-State area, there's a good chance you went to one.
Betelle drifted in obscurity for sixty years, until the day I paused to wonder, "who designed my school?" More…
