Hidden Plainfield: July 3 property ID

House is on northwest corner of Watchung and Summit, in North Plainfield.

Yesterday's Hidden Plainfield home got a lot of responses (10) and almost all pegged it as being on Watchung Avenue in North Plainfield. The exact corner is Summit Avenue.

I got to chat with some of the stonemasons working the day I took the pix. They have been at work for months, and expect to be several more weeks.

It is truly imposing -- will others in the neighborhood be inspired to follow suit?

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "Wandering Afield" -- All comments and guesses have been posted.
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: Wandering Afield

Today's home is being transformed into a stone-clad mansionette.

I hope you'll bear with me as we go slightly 'afield' today. Although this Hidden Plainfield home is not in Plainfield, it is nearby and I'm sure hundreds of us pass by this house-in-transformation daily.

The side view is likely street you would pass by on;
note the tower and bumped out rear addition.

It is one of several nearly identical late Victorian frame homes in its neighborhood, except that this one is getting an extreme makeover. From frame Victorian to stone-encased mansionette with tile roof and hexagonal add-ons. A neighbor that is quite similar to the original of today's mystery house is shown for contrast.

The original was quite similar to its across-the-corner neighbor,
except I think that it had long ago shed its porch.

Cinderella going to the ball?

Do you know where this home is?

Answer tomorrow.

---

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Hidden Plainfield: June 19 property ID

The Gilbreths are listed at 711 Ravine Road in the 1912 City Directory.

 

Hey! 60% of those taking a crack at yesterday's Hidden Plainfield got it right: 711 Ravine Road.

Awright, so there were only five checking in -- after all, it WAS Father's Day, and folks had important stuff to do (I hope).

As to whether I was right or wrong about the Gilbreths living there, all I can say is I checked the City Directories at the Plainfield Public Library and they are listed at this address in the 1912 directory.

The biographical information for Frank Jr. says he was born in Plainfield in 1911, the fifth child and first boy of Frank Sr. and Lillian. The Gilbreths appear in the City Directory for 1912; by 1913, they are gone.

The Gilbreths seem to have been quite peripatetic, at least until they moved to Montclair around 1922. Though I can find no birth place for the oldest child Anne, born in 1905; Mary Elizabeth, the second child (who died aged 5 from diphtheria), was born in San Francisco County, California; Ernestine, the third child, was born in New York City in 1908.

Plainfield seems to have been a temporary perch for this still-growing family.

A Realtor^® who lives in the area tells me that the family who lived in the house at 711 Ravine for years had a framed, signed letter from one of the Gilbreth daughters attesting to their having lived in the house.

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "On Father's Day, Cheaper By The Dozen" -- Includes all the comments on location.

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: On Father's Day, Cheaper By The Dozen

'Cheaper By The Dozen' author Frank Gilbreth Jr. was born in Plainfield.
The family lived  in this house, where is it?

The book and movie Cheaper By The Dozen are about a family that lived in Plainfield a hundred years ago. The house is pictured above. I thought the connection would be perfect for a Hidden Plainfield selection. So, Happy Father's Day and see if you can locate the house.

Frank Gilbreth Jr. and his sister Ernestine Gilbreth Carey wrote the humorous account of their large family's upbringing in Montclair, to which they appear to have moved soon after Frank Jr. was born in Plainfield in 1911. Published as a book in 1948, it was turned into a film in 1950.

Frank and Ernestine's humorous take on their
upbringing in Montclair was published in 1948.

Their parents, Frank Sr. and Lillian, were pioneers in industrial time-and-motion studies, though their interest seems to have been more in safety and relieving worker fatigue than in speeding up production, which was the aim of the other early industrial engineering pioneer, Frederick Winslow Taylor (he of stopwatch infamy, see more here).

Frank Sr. is the person who first suggested that a nurse be assigned in the operating room to act as a 'caddy' (his word) to the surgeon, handing over the sterilized instruments as needed. He died of a heart attack at the Montclair train station in 1924 at age 55.

The family vacationing on Nantucket, ca. 1922-3.

I find Lillian a far more fascinating person. Not only did she bear and rear twelve children (one of whom died in childhood), she was a partner with Frank in his consulting business and after his early death had to manage running the business, raising the eleven children, the youngest of whom was barely two, and developing a professional career.

Lillian went on to have a long and pathbreaking career of her own in both psychology and engineering, becoming the first female engineering professor at Purdue in 1935. Among other universities, she was also a visiting professor at the Newark College of Engineering (now NJIT) and Rutgers.

Lillian Gilbreth in 1921.

She often lent her skills to serve the nation, chairing the women's section of the Emergency Committee for Employment under President Herbert Hoover as the nation fell into the Depression. During WWII, she advised the War Manpower Commission, the Office of War Information and the Navy, mostly on women in the workplace. She served President Harry Truman on his Civil Defense Advisory Council. For twenty years she was on the national board of the Girl Scouts.

Applying her analytical eye to the home, Lillian gave us the 'work triangle' (see here), which is the foundation of the modern kitchen that you and I know (and work in) today.

While it is Father's Day, which is what led me to find this home in the first place, I want to acknowledge this truly remarkable and inspiring woman. My only regret is they didn't stay in Plainfield longer.

A still from the movie, which featured Clifton Webb as Frank Gilbreth,
and Myrna Loy (famed from the Thin Man series) as Lillian.

Do you know where this home is?

Answer tomorrow.

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• Cheaper By The Dozen:  "Wikipedia" | "Internet Movie Database" | "Movie Trailer" (Video)
  
• Authors of the Book:  "Frank Gilbreth, Jr." | "Ernestine Gilbreth Carey"
  
• The Parents:  "Lillian Gilbreth" | "Frank Gilbreth"
• About.com:  "What is the Kitchen Work Triangle?"
  
• Find A Grave:  "Lillian  Gilbreth" | "Frank Gilbreth" | "Frank Gilbreth, Jr."
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Mayor Sharon's CNN interview on Plainfield foreclosures

Mayor Robinson-Briggs, with residents and Jacques Howard,
in CNN story on Plainfield foreclosures.

Once again, Plainfield gets bashed by the national media, this time in a lurid story on foreclosures featured on CNN yesterday (see video here).

Painting with breathless broad brush strokes and exclamation-point statements ('foreclosures are nearly three times the national average'..., 'crime is now rampant in Plainfield'..., 'police spend their time breaking up gang activity'...), CNN correspondent Poppy Harlow does a pretty one-sided job of trashing Plainfield under cover of a 'news' story.

Using RealtyTrac information that there are 900 foreclosed properties in a city with approximately 9,000 residential structures, Harlow's story fails to provide any sort of nuanced picture, and then, worse, gins up a 'connection' between the foreclosures and crime, a point into which she draws Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

Here is a transcription of part of Harlow's voiceover --

...crime is now rampant in Plainfield, and the police spend their time breaking up gang activity, and determining which came first is a chicken-and-egg situation for Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs...

The suggestion is that there is a connection between crime and foreclosures, and Mayor Robinson-Briggs falls for it.

RealtyTrac map of a portion of Plainfield.

The reality is far more complex, but hey this is TV. Consider --

• Plainfield's real estate market has collapsed as elswhere, because of MARKET CONDITIONS not because of CRIME;
  
  
• Plainfield was especially hard hit by the SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE BUBBLE, foisted on uninformed buyers by hustling realtors and mortgage reps;
  
  
• This is a totality of foreclosures that have ACCRUED OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS, and is more than the market can absorb;
  
  
• There is no attempt to separate out the properties that are DELINQUENT IN PAYMENTS, those in FORECLOSURE PROCEEDINGS, and those already FULLY FORECLOSED;
  
  
• No distinction is made between SINGLE FAMILY homes in which the homeowners couldn't keep up and MULTI-FAMILY properties where INVESTORS were caught out by the real estate bubble's bursting;

It is beyond me why Mayor Robinson-Briggs did not take on Ms. Harlow on the spurious crime-and-foreclosure connection.

And then Robinson-Briggs says, 'Do we want more help from the banks? Absolutely.'

No details are in the clip about what that would mean, whether or not the Mayor offered any to Ms. Harlow. (But we can recall this is the same Mayor whose idea of 'help' for those in danger of foreclosure was to host a bus tour of the City for PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS IN FORECLOSED PROPERTIES.)

Followers of Plainfield's struggle to get a handle on its finances will be surprised to learn from the piece that '50% of the city's workers have been cut since February'. How could the Mayor let an outrageous statement like that go unchallenged?

Bad as all this is -- and I don't think the piece will have a long-term impact on the local real estate market -- it pales in comparison with the trashing Plainfield received at the hands of the New York Times in 2002 after our local police broke up an international sex trafficking operation on West Front Street.

Though Plainfield protested to the Times over the shabbiness of the story, we never got so much as an apology. (See my coverage of that story here, and here -- with links to the NYTimes and Slate magazine's coverage.)

Is Plainfield better off for the Mayor's participation in CNN's 'foreclosure' charade?

You tell me.

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• CNN:  "The bank owns my town!"

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Hidden Plainfield: June 5 property ID

This Barcelona fan's home is in the 740-block of West Front Street.

Sunday's Hidden Plainfield home is in the 700-block of West Front Street, just as Mike T says. Actually, it's across the street from the gas station where I had the flat tire that stars in another post today.

And Paco, whom many know from his years of work on the Cultural & Heritage Commission, is right too that the banner is not an official one of the European Cup champs, the Barços, as they are known to true fans.

This computer wallpaper from a fan club
accurately depicts Catalonia's four red bars.

The badge above does show the correct number of Catalan's colored bars.

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "Celebrating Barcelona over Manchester United" -- Includes all the comments on location.

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: Celebrating Barcelona over Manchester United

Homeowner was also a fan of Real Madrid, but Barcelona won.

 

I'm not the greatest soccer fan, but today's Hidden Plainfield home caught my eye for the vibrant display of a banner in support of the Barcelona FC, which defeated Manchester United 3-1 in the European Cup championship (see UK press here; YouTube video here).

Insignia of the Barcelona FC.

Do you know where this home is?

Answer tomorrow.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: May 22 property ID

Home is nearly across from Washington Community School.

 

Yesterday's Hidden Plainfield home is on Darrow Avenue, nearly across from Washington Community School.

The sad condition of the deteriorated brick entryway sets this once elegant home apart from its neighbors, most of which are well-maintained, if less grand architecturally.

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "Faded Glory" -- Includes all the comments on location.

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: Faded Glory

Classic elegance, somewhat faded.

Once a neighborhood of tidy, well-kept homes, today's Hidden Plainfield finds that some are faded remnants of their former glory, including today's example.

Long-deferred maintenance leaves brick stoop unusable.

Do you know where this home and neighborhood are?

Answer tomorrow.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: May 15 property ID

Photo was taken from the end of DeKalb toward the southeast.

Yesterday's Hidden Plainfield is the tranquil suburban neighborhood at the Green Brook end of DeKalb Avenue.

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "A tranquil suburban neighborhood" -- Includes all the comments on location.

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: A tranquil suburban neighborhood

One of Plainfield's many suburban neighborhoods.

'Twas a tranquil Plainfield morning, dew glistening on the lawns, birds chirping in the trees, the sun just beginning to reveal the warmth that would make this day a real scorcher.

One of Plainfield's many tranquil suburban neighborhoods. But where?

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: May 8 IDs

The lower house remained a stumper.

The lone guess on yesterday's Hidden Plainfield quiz got the upper home correct -- it is on West 8th Street, directly across from Hubbard Middle School.

The other home is on Everett Place, off West Front Street, near the old Mack plant. This home's solar panels have been in place since at least the winter of 2009-10, when I first spotted them.

While it's true that rooftop solar panels present aesthetic challenges, they are hardly worse than those terminally ugly panels PSE&G is mounting on telephone poles, which are drawing increasingly acid comment.

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "Going Solar" -- Includes all the comments on location.

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: Going Solar

These two homes with rooftop solar panels are in two different parts of Plainfield.
Do you know where?

Moms might love today's Hidden Plainfield quiz -- especially if those solar panels meant the household power bills would be reduced. Today actually features TWO HOMES WITH SOLAR PANELS, in two different parts of the city.

However, the hidden side of solar is the cost of buying and installing the panels -- at least, to date. So, how long does it take before the investment is paid off and the 'savings' become real?

I'll bet that's the key to having many more homes sprout solar panels.

Happy Mother's Day to all moms!
 

Do you know where these homes are?

Answer tomorrow.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: May 1 property ID

Olddoc hit the nail on the head.

Plainfield blogger Olddoc hit the nail on the head (see the comments on yesterday's post here).

The 'Joan Crawford Foursquare' is on West 7th Street, adjacent to what is now the BUF Complex, formerly the Grant Avenue Community Center and before that (and originally) the Jewish Community Center.

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "Joan Crawford Foursquare" -- Includes all the comments on location.
• Harriet Craig:  "Int'l Movie Database" | "Joan Crawford's Best" (fan site)

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: Joan Crawford Foursquare

A 'Joan Crawford' Foursquare, but where?

I call this a 'Joan Crawford' Foursquare because it appears to be from her prime period -- the 1940s or early 1950s. This Moderne interpretation of the Foursquare is unusual in two regards: it is not a center-hall, with the entry and staircase in an unusual arrangement against an outer wall of the 'square', and secondly, there is a wing with a separate entrance, which could have been meant for a professional office attached to the residence. (That's as much of a clue as I'm giving.)

Joan Crawford held sway as the house-obsessed 'Harriet Craig'.
Is that shag carpet? Was she prescient, or what?!

Can't you just picture Crawford as Harriet Craig, the woman obsessed with her house and possessions, being shot in this fine period piece? (More about Crawford and 'Harriet Craig' here.)

Do you know where this home is?

Answer tomorrow.

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• Harriet Craig:  "Int'l Movie Database" | "Joan Crawford's Best" (fan site)

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: April 17 Ponzi scheme property ID

'House of Ponzi' is at 1220 Watchung Avenue.

Most everybody knew yesterday's Hidden Plainfield was on Watchung Avenue, 1220 to be exact.

The Ponzi scheme involved an unregistered securities firm -- Serafino Holdings LLC -- whose owner, Anthony Lucchetto Jr. lived at the Plainfield address and was accused by the State of selling unregistered securities invested in construction loans.

Accused of a $15M fraud in 2009 (see AG's complaint here; Bloomberg News here), the case was finally settled recently (reported in the Ledger Wednesday, see here). Lucchetto, who no longer appears to live at the property, agreed to make $7.2 million in restitution to those who were scammed and to pay a $1 million civil penalty to the state.

Both Bloomberg News and the Huffington Post (see here) linked Lucchetto to a much larger, $400 million Ponzi scheme run by Nicholas Cosmo and centered in Long Island.

Lucchetto's defense lawyer, William Hood III, said at the time that Lucchetto was a victim of Cosmo's scam. The settlement suggest he was unable to prove that to the State's satisfaction.

Proceeds of the scam were evidently not spent on the property.

While Ponzi scamsters are often reported to live the high life -- including swanky properties -- on their ill-gotten gains, no such claim has been made against Lucchetto. As can be seen from the photo above, it hardly appears he invested his money in the Watchung Avenue property, and the construction permit stickers below dated 2008 show no evidence of work having been done. In fact, the house is vacant and winterized, though it is not clear whether it is a bank foreclosure.

Two construction permit stickers from 2008
show no evidence of work having been done.

Where shall we go next week?

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• Hidden Plainfield:  "The Fall of the House of Ponzi" -- Includes all the comments on location.
• Lucchetto Accused:  Attorney General | Ledger | Fraud Talk |
• Implicated in $400M Ponzi Scheme:  "Bloomberg News" | "Huffington Post"
  
• Settlement Announced:  "Plainfield investment firm to pay $8.25M in fraud settlement"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Hidden Plainfield: The Fall of the House of Ponzi

Homeowner ran Ponzi scheme.

Regular followers of Plainfield news may have noted in recent days the story of a Plainfield-based Ponzi scheme brought to justice.

Finally resolved two years after the state's complaint was filed, the mastermind of the scheme lived in the today's Hidden Plainfield home (with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe -- for his short story The Fall of the House of Usher, see here). The settlement required payment of more than $7.2 million to the scammed investors, plus $1 million in civil penalties to the state.

I'll not say more now, to avoid tipping my hand. All will be revealed tomorrow.

Let's just say that the proceeds of the scheme evidently were never invested in THIS house.

Whatever the proceeds of the Ponzi scheme were spent on,
it seems not to have been the house.

Do you know where this home is?

Answer tomorrow.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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