House and Garden 
Vol. VIII 
July, 1905 
No. 1. 
DUTCH BYWAYS IN NEW JERSEY 
By Oliver Coleman 
TT is unfortunate that to most Americans 
the word “ jersey” is a term of reproach. 
It carries with it ideas of swamps and sand 
dunes, suburbs and mosquitoes. To the 
general public the inspiring and fertile fields 
with waving crops, to be found in the central 
part of the state, little is known, while the hilly 
and even mountainous portion near the New 
York State line is equally a terra incognita. 
All that part of the state which lies north and 
west of the salt meadows of Newark Bay, 
the lower Hackensack and the Kill von Kull, 
is of the latter type, and the Dutch settlers 
seem from the first to have followed the 
waterways which debouch about lower New 
York Bay. 
During the early settlements of Hoboken 
and Communipaw it was to be expected 
that farms should radiate in all fertile 
directions; but as the development of the 
settlers was 
more success¬ 
ful in the line 
of trade and 
barter than in 
that of agri¬ 
culture it is 
natural that, 
whereas all 
the world 
knows of Fort 
Orange a n d 
Albany, very 
few have fol¬ 
lowed the 
track of the old 
settlements up 
the Hacken¬ 
sack Valley into the Ramapo hills. Within 
thirty miles of New York, here are to be 
found fine stretches of unbroken forest, 
crowning abrupt hills and low mountains, 
and, if one is interested in farmhouse types, 
much of artistic inspiration. The names of 
the towns upon this line of settlement, 
Hackensack, Bogota, Wortendyke and Wyc- 
koff, show well their Holland otigin. Having 
lived a summer in these hills it was also 
noticeable that the prevailing family names 
of the farmers are equally in evidence; Van 
Winkle, Quackenbush, Van Houghton, Van 
Blarken and Mastenbroek are ever recurring 
names upon the small letter boxes which the 
rural delivery has established before every gate. 
We hear a great deal about various other 
types of Colonial architecture, but little of 
the Dutch type; hut here is a mine of 
extant examples of pre-Revolutionary houses. 
The type is 
pronounced 
in character, 
the houses, 
miles and 
miles apart, 
being almost 
duplicates 
of each other. 
These houses 
are generally 
small and verv 
unpretentious. 
This is to be 
expected, of 
course, for the 
hill country 
is rocky and 
THE PACKER HOUSE, WYCKOFF 
Copyright, 1905, by The John C. Winston Co. 
1 
