Prices quoted are a out of date but some interesting info in any case. I have removed some of the out of date info..... Please check the NYTimes.com Archives for the complete article.
January 9, 2000
If You're Thinking of Living In/Mountainside, N.J.; A Rural Borough of Single-Family Homes
By JERRY CHESLOW
THE dense concentration of retail stores and strip malls along New Jersey Route 22 turns to greenery and office buildings for 2.7 miles as the highway threads through the Union County borough of Mountainside. Under a 50-year-old zoning ordinance designed to preserve the beauty of the borough, retail services, except for restaurants and a multiplex movie theater, are banned along the highway.
''Our municipal officials were always concerned that the highway not become a jungle of strip malls,'' said Mayor Robert F. Viglianti. ''We were challenged in court by developers, but our zoning was upheld.''
Just off the highway, the peaceful tree-lined streets -- many lacking sidewalks -- are also evidence of early zoning that was designed to preserve the rural character of Mountainside. There are no apartment buildings, condominiums or town houses, and virtually all the 2,400 housing units are owner-occupied single-family detached homes. Most of the houses were built before 1970 in a variety of styles, including Capes, split-levels, colonials, ranches and bilevels.
Some Streets at the top of the First Watchung Mountain, has a view of the Manhattan skyline and backs up to the Watchung Reservation, a 1,945-acre Union County park.
''The higher you go up the mountain, the better the view of New York City and the higher the price,'' per a local realtor.
She described recent sellers as mainly empty nesters, and the buyers as a mixture of young professional couples in their late 20's to early 40's and older people seeking to escape the higher taxes in neighboring municipalities.
Despite its relatively high housing prices, the borough has the lowest effective tax rate of the 21 Union County municipalities, the mayor said. Largely responsible for the tax rate are the 225 corporations that have offices or light industrial facilities in the borough. Besides the highway office buildings, these concerns are in an industrial zone just off Route 22 on Sheffield Street.
Indeed, taxation has been a major concern of Mountainside residents since the borough split from neighboring Westfield in 1895. At the borough's founding meeting, a resolution was passed condemning the use of tax dollars paid by the local farmers for the improvement of the Westfield downtown. The borough took its name from the fact that it was the side of Westfield that included the mountain.
THE only shopping area is the three-block retail district on Mountain Avenue. It was renovated three years ago with interlocking concrete paver sidewalks and Victorian-style streetlights. Most of the cost of the $330,000 project was provided by a grant from Union County. Longtime residents say the retail district looks very much like it did in the 1930's, when it was built.
''We even have most of the same stores, but under different ownership,'' said Marilyn Hart, a retired university professor who has lived in the borough since 1934. ''We have a bakery, a deli, a grocery store, an antiques shop, a shoe store, a bank, a couple of restaurants, and a post office, among others.''
For supermarket shopping, many residents go to Westfield. The closest large malls are about a 15-minute drive away -- Short Hills to the north and Menlo Park to the south. Among the better-known restaurants in town are the Spanish Tavern and the Alexis Steak House, both on Route 22.
Melissa D. Clappsy, 29, and her husband, Nicholas, 34, bought a four-bedroom colonial on a half acre on New Providence Road in Mountainside in January 1998. Both are professionals -- he works in international shipping in Manhattan and she works as a marketing professional for a brokerage firm in Jersey City. They saved for a home in Mountainside while living in a rental apartment in Bayonne, N.J.
''We wanted something that felt suburban, but was close to New York City,'' Mrs. Clappsy said. ''Living here really is the best of all worlds because we are near shopping and entertainment, yet have a peaceful, quiet life style.''
Mrs. Clappsy said that she was also attracted by Mountainside's educational system, since the couple are considering starting a family.
About 40 percent of the population is 65 or older, Mayor Viglianti said. However, housing turnover is already having an impact on the K-8 Deerfield School, the borough's sole school, where enrollment has grown by 8 percent, to 614, in the last year. The school superintendent, Gerard A. Schaller, said that by 2005 the student body is expected to grow by 41 more students.
''We are already using every inch of our building and will have to find more space,'' he said. ''Studies are now being conducted to determine how to manage our growth.''
Currently, the school is supplementing its space with two trailerlike classroom modules. Among the more permanent solutions under consideration are an addition to the school or the takeover of another building that is leased to Union and Morris Counties for a combined special-education program.
Deerfield starts foreign-language instruction in kindergarten, with a world languages program that teaches children some basic French and Spanish vocabulary. Each classroom has a cluster of five computers with Internet access. By mid-January, Dr. Schaller said, the school will complete its network, which will connect all the building's computers, including those in the school library.
Mountainside students go on to Governor Livingston High School in neighboring Berkeley Heights, to which the borough pays tuition. Currently 220 Mountainside youngsters are at the school.
The high school offers 13 advanced-placement courses in English, history, mathematics, the sciences and foreign languages. It has 18 sports teams, and its Highlanders marching band is renowned for its bagpipes and kilts. Two years ago, the band defeated 28 other high school bands to win the Atlantic Coast championship.
Of last year's 182-student graduating class, 95 percent went on to higher education. That class had a combined average verbal and math score of 1,101 on the College Boards, which was 95 points above the state average.
Mountainside is also home to Children's Specialized Hospital, an 87-bed facility on New Providence Road, providing rehabilitation services. It was established in 1891 as the Children's Country Home.
About a third of the borough is public parkland, most of it county-owned and administered. This includes about half the Watchung Reservation, on the borough's northwestern border with New Providence, and most of the 147-acre Echo Lake Park, on the southeastern border with Westfield.
THE reservation has woodland trails, a new playground, the county-owned Watchung Stables and the Trailside Nature and Science Center, which features a planetarium, a weather station, a natural history museum and a butterfly garden.
Echo Lake Park provides boating, fishing and free concerts on Wednesday and Thursday evenings during July and August. The most widely used municipally owned recreational facility is the Mountainside Pool complex, just south of Route 22. It includes an Olympic-sized pool, a children's pool, a basketball court and a picnic area. Annual membership costs $190 per family. A complex of four tennis courts is located between the municipal building and the pool, just south of Route 22. Residents pay an annual $20 permit fee to use the courts.
The Mountainside Historic Preservation Committee is headquartered in and runs a museum in the historic Deacon Andrew Hetfield House. In 1760, the deacon built the structure as a wedding present to his daughter Abigail, who married a local tanner named Smith Williams.
Mr. Hetfield later fought in the Revolutionary War and is buried in the Westfield Cemetery. The beige center-hall colonial with two bay windows on its first floor is on the National Register of Historic Places. On Constitution Plaza just off Route 22, the house has a collection of historic photographs, artifacts and period furniture. It is open Sunday afternoons from 1 to 3 p.m. in the spring and fall. Admission is free. On The Market GAZETTEER POPULATION: 7,100 (1999 estimate).
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $140,000 (1999 estimate).
AREA: 4.1 square miles.
MEDIAN PRICE OF A ONE-FAMILY HOUSE: $315,000.
TAXES ON MEDIAN HOUSE: $5,000.
MEDIAN PRICE ONE YEAR AGO: $300,000.
MEDIAN PRICE FIVE YEARS AGO: $250,000.
GOVERNMENT: Mayor Robert F. Viglianti, Republican, and six council members. Mayor is elected for four years and council members for three-year staggered terms.
CODES: Area, 908; ZIP, 07092
SCHOOL SPENDING PER PUPIL: K-8, $9,901; high school, $12,500.
DISTANCE FROM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN: 24 miles.
RUSH HOUR COMMUTATION TO MIDTOWN: 56 minutes to Port Authority Bus Terminal via New Jersey Transit bus; $5.30 one way, $39 weekly.
CRIME OF THE CENTURY: In 1831, two men broke into the home of a wealthy farmer named Baltus Roll in what is now Mountainside. They dragged him outside, beat him and dunked him in a puddle of icy water. His wife fled the scene and called neighbors, who entered the house and found Mr. Roll's body in a pool of blood. The killing was reported in newspapers throughout the country, which called it ''the crime of the century.'' Two local thugs -- Peter Davis and Lycidius Baldwin -- were reportedly seen near the house shortly before the incident. Davis was arrested and Baldwin committed suicide. Davis was later acquitted for lack of evidence. A hillside that was on Mr. Roll's property was later named Baltusrol Mountain. In 1895, when a golf course was built near the hillside, in neighboring Springfield, it adopted the name. Over the years, the Baltusrol Golf Club has been host to seven United States Opens.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
