Jay Levin

When their daughter turned 5, Virginia Toledo, an interior designer, and Jhovanny Hernandez, who works in banking, decided to trade their apartment in Forest Hills, Queens, for a house in the suburbs. But Toledo had one nonnegotiable requirement: an old-fashioned front porch.

That limited the couple’s tristate search, but led them to Hawthorne, a northern New Jersey borough with a Dutch lineage, early 20th-century homes, a quaint business district and a citizenry that tends to stay put. Some families have been there for generations.

In 2013, Toledo and Hernandez, now 37 and 39, paid $400,000 for the first house they looked at in town: a century-old, three-bedroom American foursquare opposite a county park. The wide porch had been enclosed, so they restored it to its original appearance.

“When we’re on the porch, we look out at the park,” Toledo said. “I drink my coffee there. Spring and summer, we’re out there with friends. It’s such a draw.”

The porch makes a convivial place feel even more so. “Within a month or two, I knew everyone on the street — and that struck a chord, because in Forest Hills, we didn’t know a lot of the neighbors,” Toledo said.

Around 20 miles from Times Square, on Passaic County’s eastern fringe, Hawthorne is more homey than polished. “You get the warmth of yesteryear and the small-town feel of being able to walk to the library, the movie theater, the coffee shop,” said Anthony J. Cali, of ERA A.J. Cali Real Estate, in Hawthorne. “You’re not getting lost in a big town, like Wayne,” he said, referring to the sprawling and pricier township farther west in Passaic County.

But west of the borough center, beyond the serpentine county park that clings to either bank of Goffle Brook, the terrain rises sharply, and Hawthorne’s character changes. Newer homes on spacious lots, some with Manhattan views, dot a mountainside where quarries once operated. “We refer to it as ‘living on the hill,'” said Richard S. Goldberg, the mayor, who lives there.

Those on the hill coexist with wildlife and occasionally deal with their own weather. “It could be snowing at my house,” Goldberg said, “and by the time I get to downtown, it isn’t.”

Janice and Eric Johannesen, who previously lived in the Salt Lake City area, wound up on the hill last year after Eric Johannesen, 46, took a technology job with an investment firm in New Jersey. They had thought of returning to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where they lived before moving out West, but were drawn to Hawthorne by a private Christian school similar to the one their three children attended in Utah.

The Johannesens paid $649,900 for a four-bedroom, four-bathroom raised ranch on a half acre bordering woods, in a neighborhood without sidewalks. “To afford something that big in Bay Ridge was not an option,” said Janice Johannesen, 43, a health coach. “We knew we wanted the suburbs.”

They have found their new town to be low-key and friendly. Janice Johannesen pointed to the youth sports programs, the farmers’ market in the library parking lot and summer concerts at the bandshell next to the community pool. The family’s Christmas tree came via the volunteer Fire Department’s fundraiser. “Hey, we figured let’s buy a Christmas tree and support our community at the same time,” Johannesen said.

— What You’ll Find

With a population of 19,000 in a little more than 3 square miles, Hawthorne borders seven other municipalities, including urban Paterson and the upscale Bergen County communities of Wyckoff, Glen Rock and Ridgewood. Relatively few New Yorkers buy in Hawthorne, although it has rail service and is accessible to highways, including Route 208, which cuts through town and leads to Route 4 and the George Washington Bridge.

“Most of the New York City crowd filters into Bergen,” said Robert J. Lucibello, a broker associate with Van Orden Realty in Hawthorne and a lifelong resident of Hawthorne. “We’re a Passaic town.”

The housing stock has a bit of everything: older colonials, multifamily dwellings, a neighborhood of squat Cape Cods without basements and, in the hills, Highview at Hawthorne, a 1980s-era private community of single-family homes and townhouses.

Rentals are plentiful. Forest Mill is a turn-of-the-20th-century hosiery factory converted into 21 apartments; nearby Hawthorne Square was recently built from scratch, with 140 units. Royal Quarters, a high-end complex of 27 apartments, is scheduled to break ground in the spring.

Unusual for northern New Jersey, Hawthorne has no supermarket; no Starbucks; no McDonald’s, Burger King or Wendy’s; and more independent drugstores (two) than chain drugstores (one, a Rite Aid). “We’re a mom-and-pop type of place,” said Robert Meier, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

— What You’ll Pay

“You can go anywhere from a starter home, such as a small Cape for $250,000 to $300,000, to a more modern home on a larger piece of property in the hills, for $600,000 to $700,000,” said Lucibello of Van Orden Realty.

From April 1, 2018, to Jan. 31, 2019, 132 single-family houses sold at a median price of $355,000, virtually unchanged from a year earlier, according to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service.

On Feb. 14, the listing service’s website showed 23 single-family houses priced from $249,900 to $599,999. Listed at a shade below the median was a four-bedroom, two-bathroom Cape on a corner lot on Alexandria Avenue, with annual property taxes of $9,092. At the higher end, listed at $529,900, was a three-bedroom, 3 1/2-bathroom Mountain Avenue contemporary house with Manhattan skyline views and property taxes of $14,377.

— The Vibe

The close-knit borough holds a fall festival with pony rides and a petting zoo. Christmastime brings a Santa parade and a toy drive centered around a historic train station, headquarters of a volunteer railroaders group. The Hawthorne Caballeros, a drum-and-bugle corps sponsored by the American Legion, has been winning national competitions for decades. Curbside signs boasting about the Caballeros greet motorists at the borough’s borders.

“Hawthorne’s old school in a lot of ways, but it’s becoming hipper,” said Toledo, the Forest Hills transplant.

By that she means the food scene. There is a gluten-free bakeshop, a sub shop owned by a fine-dining chef and a new Irish pub steps from a movie theater with a vintage marquee. Especially popular are the Front Porch, a rustic watering hole (with a front porch, naturally) that serves Asian-fusion fare; Bella Fig and Justin’s Ristorante, for Italian cuisine; and Kirker’s Inn, a German spot known for its thin-crust pizza.

— The Schools

The Hawthorne public school district has about 2,300 students, roughly 60 percent white and one-third Hispanic. Three elementary schools serve kindergarten through fifth grade, and the lone middle school serves sixth- through eighth-grades.

Hawthorne High School enrolls 690 students. Average SAT scores in 2016-17 (the most recent available from the state) were 526 in reading and writing and 508 in math, versus 551 and 552 statewide. Of the 2017 graduates, 72 percent went to college that fall, just above the state average.

The borough has two private schools: Hawthorne Christian Academy, affiliated with Hawthorne Gospel Church, for kindergarten through 12th grade, and St. Anthony School, affiliated with the local Catholic parish, for kindergarten through eighth grade.

The Boys and Girls Club of Hawthorne offers after-school programs.

— The Commute

The Hawthorne train station is on New Jersey Transit’s Main Line. The ride to Penn Station in Manhattan, which requires a transfer at Secaucus, takes 50 minutes to an hour; the fare is $8.50 one way or $254 a month. An annual $2 sticker allows residents to park near the station. Bus service to Manhattan is limited.

— The History

Troops led by the Marquis de Lafayette, the French officer who joined the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, encamped along Goffle Brook in autumn 1780. Lafayette Avenue, the borough’s main drag, recalls the aristocratic general.

The origin of the name Hawthorne is less clear: It pays homage either to a profusion of thorny hawthorn bushes or to novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, a New Englander. The borough of Hawthorne was incorporated in 1898.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/realestate/hawthorne-nj-more-homey-than-polished.html" id="58e0d2aa-f1f4-35a7-a7e3-65050ccd0ad8">The New York Times</a>.

(Living In)

A Suburb More Homey Than Polished

Plotting their escape from the Upper East Side of New York City, Elizabeth Greenfield Estersohn and Matthew Estersohn pored over test-score data and Google Maps images of train stations. Their quest for a suburb with good schools and a reasonable commute led them, in 2014, to a brick colonial in Radburn, a historic planned community at the heart of Fair Lawn, New Jersey.

“When we went to look at the house, it was bright and sunny, the birds were chirping, and the air literally smelled of cookies,” said Greenfield Estersohn, 31. “It all made Fair Lawn seem surreally perfect.”

The aroma, they learned, was from the Nabisco factory where Mondelez International makes Oreos. The hulking bakery is a landmark in the unpretentious Bergen County borough, but for the Estersohns, a more familiar landmark is the Dutch Colonial revival-style Radburn train station, a quick walk from the four-bedroom house they bought for $430,000. The couple, parents of a 3-year-old and a 10-month-old, commute to midtown, where Greenfield Estersohn works for an animation company and Estersohn, 33, is an accountant.

Fair Lawn, which is about 12 miles west of the George Washington Bridge, has a population of 34,000 — including robust Russian-Jewish, Hispanic and Asian communities — a growing public school district, more than a dozen parks and nearly 500 commercial and industrial properties. There is even a hint of Queens: Most addresses in Fair Lawn are hyphenated, some with numbers as bizarre as 0-01.

“We’re not one of those sleepy, up-north Bergen County towns,” said Kurt Peluso, the mayor. “There’s a lot of stuff going on here.”

Greenfield Estersohn, a native of rural Sussex County, New Jersey, serves on Fair Lawn’s Green Team Advisory Committee and sees the town as a balance between leafy and busy. “It’s comfortable for people coming from either the country or the city,” she said. “There isn’t culture shock from any direction.”

Irina and Charles Ventura, originally from Upper Manhattan, moved to Fair Lawn in 2015, renting a three-bedroom, two-bathroom Cape Cod on a street lined with similarly modest houses. “When I was little, we visited relatives in Fair Lawn, and it was the only place in New Jersey I knew," Irina Ventura said. “Because I was kind of familiar with it, I investigated and kept hearing about the school system.”

Charles Ventura, 41, is an operations manager at a hospital in Westchester County, and Irina Ventura, 38, is a program manager at a nonprofit in Newark, about 15 miles south. In July, they bought the house they were renting, paying $340,000.

“Is it our forever home? Probably not,” Irina Ventura said. “But it’s a great starter home.”

For now, though, she is fairly certain the family is staying put, because “our kids would kill us if we moved out of Fair Lawn.”

Their 11-year-old son plays on multiple sports teams, and their 8-year-old daughter participates in arts programs at the recreation center. The sand-bottom municipal pool at Memorial Park costs $200 per family for the summer. And the neighborhood streets are easy to bicycle. “You feel a sense of community here right away,” she said.

What You’ll Find

Fair Lawn occupies 5 square miles between the shopping malls of Paramus and the city of Paterson, to the west across the Passaic River. Route 208, a state highway, bisects Fair Lawn diagonally, and Route 4 runs through the southern portion as Broadway, in the largest of the borough’s three principal commercial districts. The others are in Radburn — which Peluso said will be rehabilitated and made more pedestrian-friendly in the coming year — and along River Road.

Cape Cods, split-levels and bi-levels abound, with newly constructed colonials mixed in. “Fair Lawn has a lot of midcentury houses with good bones,” said Paula Royak, a Fair Lawn native who works as a sales associate with Terrie O’Connor Realtors in Ridgewood. “They’re solid, with features like brick exteriors, plaster walls, hardwood floors and steel-beam construction, and distinctive finishing touches certain builders were known for.”

What Fair Lawn lacks is Victorian architecture, so those looking for wraparound porches and other 19th-century flourishes will be disappointed. But there is charm to Radburn, created in 1928 as “a town for the motor age.” The community’s 680 homes, most single-family, are set amid cul-de-sacs, pedestrian pathways, parkland and gardens. The association fees Radburn homeowners pay on top of municipal, county and school taxes — $2,000 a year is a typical assessment — afford them the use of tennis courts, two swimming pools and summer recreation programs for children. But to maintain Radburn’s ambience, homeowners must abide by architectural rules that include restrictions on things like fence heights (not to exceed 36 inches).

“Homes in Radburn are definitely on the quainter side and not for everybody,” Greenfield Estersohn said. “Those who want a large house or a large, private yard won’t find it in Radburn but will find it elsewhere in Fair Lawn.”

Radburn is the site of the borough’s largest new housing development, Crossings at Radburn, 132 three-story luxury town houses under construction at the edge of the community. Fair Lawn also has 1,600 rentals in complexes ranging from redbrick garden apartments to Fair Lawn Promenade, a mixed-use project on a former Route 208 industrial site.

What You’ll Pay

With single-family home prices starting in the $300,000s, Fair Lawn is affordable for many first-time buyers and young families, said Zohar Zamir, founder of the Zamir Group, a local real estate agency.

“The sweet spot is $450,000 to $600,000,” Zamir said. “In that range, you can get an updated split or Cape with three or four bedrooms.” (The units at Crossings at Radburn start in the mid-$500,000s.)

In 2018, through Nov. 30, 318 single-family houses sold in Fair Lawn at a median price of $440,500, compared with $410,000 during the same period in 2017, according to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service.

On Dec. 19, the listing service’s website showed 71 homes for sale, from a two-bedroom cooperative apartment listed for $189,900 to a newly built, five-bedroom, four-bathroom colonial for $1.195 million. Near the median price was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom brick Cape Cod on Tunbridge Road listed for $429,900, with annual property taxes of $7,977.

The Vibe

Fair Lawn is more than Oreos. The borough supports five bagel shops, three diners, a Texas wiener joint, a pork store, a luncheonette that makes its own ice cream and a kosher bakery known for its challah. A popular spot for burgers and drinks is the Dutch House Tavern, in a sandstone structure that predates the American Revolution. Fine dining can be found at Oceanos (seafood) and River Palm Terrace (steak).

The Schools

Public school enrollment stands at 5,200 and is projected to rise by some 100 students a year in the near future. To address crowding, voters recently approved a $25 million middle-school expansion and renovation that will shift fifth-graders from the six elementary schools to the two middle schools, which currently serve grades six through eight. The realignment is planned for 2020-21, said Nick Norcia, the schools superintendent.

“The fact the referendum passed overwhelmingly shows how much the residents of Fair Lawn value education,” Norcia said.

Fair Lawn High School, with 1,500 students, has a planetarium that supports an astronomy curriculum and presents public shows; the drama program won notice this year when a student production of “Once” received top honors at a regional high school musical competition.

Average SAT scores in 2016-17 were 578 in reading and writing and 581 in math, versus 551 and 552 statewide. From the Class of 2017, 78 percent went on to four-year colleges, compared with 70.5 percent statewide.

The Commute

Fair Lawn’s two rail stations, Radburn and Broadway, are on New Jersey Transit’s Bergen County Line. Traveling to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan takes about 50 minutes, including the transfer at Secaucus. The fare is $7.75 one-way or $270 monthly.

New Jersey Transit buses reach the Port Authority terminal in 40 minutes to an hour; the fare is $6 one-way or $167 monthly.

The History

The Dutch farming community took its name from Fair Lawn, the hilltop house David DePeyster Acker built in the 1860s, which had a broad, sheep-grazed lawn bordered by a semicircular carriage drive. The railroad appropriated the name for its station, and residents created the borough of Fair Lawn in 1924, after breaking off from the Saddle River township.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/realestate/fair-lawn-nj-an-unpretentious-place-that-smells-like-cookies.html" id="2f2b9c00-504f-340b-a87e-294fe19c2f24">The New York Times</a>.

Fair Lawn, New Jersey: An Unpretentious Place That Smells Like Cookies

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Jay Levin

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A Suburb More Homey Than Polished

Fair Lawn, New Jersey: An Unpretentious Place That Smells Like Cookies