Bernardsville, NJ: A Gilded Age enclave that looks to the future

After nearly seventeen years of traveling more than an hour each way from North Jersey to his company headquarters in Basking Ridge, Ray Wierzbicki finally moved with his wife Bernadette last December to a home just minutes from his office – a house in English country style. in Bernardsville, N.J. Seven months later, he retired from Verizon, where he had worked for 43 years, most recently as senior vice president.

His colleagues joked that he should have moved south a little sooner and tried to encourage him to “stay a little longer,” to which Mr. Wierzbicki replied, “No thanks, I’m fine.”

He is busy enjoying his new life in the five-bedroom 1885 home on five acres that the couple bought for $3 million, which he described as “something you would see in one of my wife’s magazines.”

“We feel like we are blessed to wake up here every morning,” said Mr. Wierzbicki, 69. “We love history, and you can drive around every weekend and see all the houses and learn about their past.”

As one of the premier country enclaves of the Gilded Age, Bernardsville is steeped in history. After railroad lines were extended from Manhattan to the area in 1872, the scions of New York City society flocked to the neighborhood, purchasing large tracts of land and hiring notable architects to design what they called “summer cottages.”

“This was the average kind of house here at the time,” said Molly C. Tonero, sales associate at Turpin Realtors, during a recent drive through Bernardsville’s numerous grand estates and rolling pastures. “When financiers came from Manhattan, they had deep pockets and they bought as much land as they could. They wanted fresh air, acreage and views.”

Many of those homes still stand, although ownership has passed from turn-of-the-century industrialists and banking magnates to today’s leaders in media, fashion, entertainment, and technology. But not all of Bernardsville’s nearly 8,000 residents have deep roots or outsized wealth.

Mayor Mary Jane Canose, a resident for 52 years, said the community has seen a lot of turnover since the pandemic. “Bernardsville tended to have an older population,” said Ms. Canose, 73. “But because of Covid, a lot of those people wanted to sell their homes and move south, so now we’re seeing a lot of young families with children moving here.”

Heather Grabin is part of that influx. She moved to the area from Jersey City in 2022 in search of better schools for her children, Priya, 11, and Gobind, 6. Ms. Grabin, 36, a hospitality consultant, rented a house in neighboring Far Hills a year earlier. buying a three-bedroom colonial home in Bernardsville for $693,000 in August.

“Everyone is so welcoming here,” she says. “I think the city is diverse to some extent, and that adds to its appeal. There is always something to do to help other people, and it is important that I have my children nearby.”

According to the United States Census Bureau, Bernardsville’s population is 91 percent white, but the regional school system’s population is about a quarter Hispanic.

Natzar Hill came to New Jersey from Costa Rica when she was seven and moved to Bernardsville 12 years ago. Ms. Hill, who describes herself as an “unofficial liaison” with the Spanish-speaking community, said she helps families assimilate into the neighborhood. She recently launched a project selling homemade evergreen gnomes to support families in need; in three weeks she sold 58 and raised almost $4,000.

“We’re painting the town red with leprechauns and inviting the Spanish-speaking community to be part of the process,” said Ms. Hill, 40. “It’s all about inclusion, trying to support each other with resources we already have here, but which many may not be aware of.”

What you will find

Most residents of this 12-square-mile borough in Somerset County define where they live as “the mountain” or “the village,” reinforcing what Daniel Lincoln, an architect, describes as a historically “split” identity.

“Since the 1880s, you had your wealthy people on the mountain, and in town you had the merchants, farmers and immigrants who helped build those mansions,” said Mr. Lincoln, a member of the Bernardsville Historic Preservation Advisory Committee. “Nowadays there is a whole new generation that earns a lot of money. And we have a fairly significant Latin American population, from Uruguay and Paraguay, who work in construction and landscaping and have their own contracting companies.”

Although there is no defined boundary between the two areas, those who live within walking distance of the schools and downtown are generally considered to live in the village, while the area northwest of Route 202 and the train tracks is considered the mountain . Properties in the mountain area are zoned to a minimum of five or ten acres and, for the most part, are not on the municipality’s water or sewer systems. The mountain is also home to historic estates, although a small area near the high school is designated as the Olcott Avenue Historic District. Neighborhoods south of the railroad tracks have more modest homes, including ranches, split-levels, and smaller colonial homes.

Most of the community’s commercial activity – specialty shops and services, a handful of restaurants and the historic Bernards Inn – occurs along Morristown and Mine Brook Roads, or Route 202.

Apart from the conversion of the parish house of St Bernard’s Church into twenty luxury apartments four years ago, not much in the way of condominium or apartment development has happened in the city. But that’s about to change, with a proposed mixed-use development recently gaining city council approval. Located at a major downtown intersection, the Palmer Square project will include 68 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking. Some, like Mr. Lincoln, have raised concerns about the proposed four-story height, while others have questioned the tax breaks given to developers and the lack of apartments that will meet the state’s affordable housing needs.

The developers, Advance Realty Investors, will contribute to the township’s affordable housing fund for future affordable housing projects, said Ms. Canose, who believes the project is essential to the revitalization of downtown Bernardsville. “We try to do enough projects that maintain the character of the city, but that also bring people to the city,” she said. “If you don’t change, you die.”

What you pay

As of mid-December, there were 20 homes for sale in Bernardsville, including two for more than $12 million. One, a 32-acre estate with an 1886 castle-like home designed by George B. Post, is owned by fashion designer Marc Ecko; it is listed for $13.75 million. The second, a 25,444-square-foot home built in 1998 on 32.88 acres, is priced at $12.995 million. At the lower end of the market, a two-bedroom bungalow built in 1930 goes for $390,000.

The average price of the 94 homes sold through December 12 of this year was $795,000; According to the Garden State Multiple Listing Service, 117 properties sold in the previous 12 months for an average value of $780,000.

While most homes listed for less than a million dollars have only been on the market for a few weeks, others, like the two-bedroom 1950s ranch that Mikayla Walsh, 25, and Mike D’Elia, 31, bought in May, stuck around much longer.

After tracking the house for months and seeing the price drop, the couple made an offer for $580,000, which was accepted. “I tell people we bought the house for our two dogs,” Ms Walsh said, referring to their 1.28 hectares of wooded land with a stream running through it. “We wanted real estate, not something brand new. It takes a lot of work, but it is the perfect house for us.”

The atmosphere

A valuable guide for those wishing to visit Bernardsville’s mountain estates is the two-volume “New Jersey Country Houses: The Somerset Hills,” by John K. Turpin and W. Barry Thomson, which describes dozens of local mansions built between the years 1880 and 1880 were built. WWII.

There also is a walking guide through the city center, compiled by the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee and Friends of Historic Bernardsville, with information on sites such as the Bernards Inn, built in the early 20th century, destroyed by fire and then rebuilt into what is now a boutique hotel, with the new Red Horse by David Burke- restaurant. A few doors down, the Bernardsville Cinema also recently reopened, showing current films on three screens.

Near the schools there is a municipal swimming pool, tennis courts and sports fields called the ‘polo field’.

The schools

Bernardsville is part of the Somerset Hill School Districtwhich shares services with Peapack-Gladstone and Far Hills for elementary and middle schools, as well as Bedminster for high school.

Students in kindergarten through fourth grade attend Marion T. Bedwell Elementary School, which enrolls approximately 450 students. Those in fifth through eighth grades attend Bernardsville Middle School, which has about 470 students. About 800 people attend Bernards High School in Bernardsville, which offers 27 Advanced Placement classes, a media center and championship competitions in math and science. During the 2021-2022 school year, average SAT scores were 599 in reading and writing, and 592 in math, compared to state averages of 538 and 532.

Private school options include Far Hills Country Day School and Mendham Country Day School, for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and Gill St. Bernard’s School in Peapack-Gladstone, for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

The commute

Bernardsville is located about 40 miles west of New York City; commuting by car takes about an hour, depending on traffic.

New Jersey Transit offers train service from Bernardsville to Penn Station in Manhattan, with direct trips during rush hour and transfers in Newark or Summit after hours. The train runs on average about an hour and a half; Tickets for both cost $15 for a one-way ticket or $436 for a monthly pass.

The history

Rep. Millicent Fenwick lived in Bernardsville most of her life and served in local government before running for Congress at age 64. An outspoken, pipe-smoking civil rights advocate, she was the model for Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury character Lacey Davenport. She died in 1992, at the age of 82, at her home in Bernardsville. A bronze statue of herthe first outdoor statue of a woman in New Jersey, was unveiled in 1995 and stands near the train station.

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