Historic 1740 Bergen County home of eccentric inventor faces demolition. Here's why
An old home to some, the David Baldwin House in Midland Park is a monument to others.
The red sandstone home near the Ridgewood border dates back roughly 185 years to a property owner and inventor who claimed he developed artificial silk and the telephone. Described in county records as eccentric, Baldwin had an electrical device that sent audible alerts when poachers fished at his pond and a telegraph device that ran from his mill-turned-laboratory to his home. The latter is what he evidently claimed helped him discover voice transmission by wire.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Baldwin's former home at 60 Lake Ave. was one of 35 historic Bergen County buildings photographed and recorded in 1942 to permit reconstruction in the event they were bombed during World War II. It is now slated for demolition, said members of the Bergen County Historical Society.
The house was one of about 200 early stone Bergen County homes documented and listed on the National Register of Historic Places about 40 years ago. All represent a style of construction seen only in this region, said Deborah Powell, a society member.
The homes are becoming increasingly rare, as many fall into disrepair and are demolished to make way for new construction. Another in Midland Park, the circa 1736 Van Vile House, was demolished in 2019. Only three others remain in Midland Park: the Lozier House and Van Riper Mill at Goffle Road and Paterson Avenue, the Myers-Masker House on Park Avenue and the Wortendyke-Demund House on Demund Lane.
"It's unfortunate," Powell said of the Baldwin House's pending destruction. "There's nothing that really says Bergen more than these homes."
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Baldwin's red sandstone features Greek revival eaves but is typical of the Dutch-style construction seen in many of Bergen's oldest standing homes. The thick stone walls are representative of the settlers' origins in Western Europe and the harsh conditions they faced in the New World, Powell said.
Though one of dozens of preserved sandstone homes in Bergen County, the David Baldwin House is one of the finest examples, Powell said. The oldest part of the home dates to about 1740 and contains a mortar mix of mud and horsehair. The larger part dates to about 1820. Baldwin lived there from about 1840 until his death in 1898. The home stayed in his family until 1935, county records show.
Though some of his claims were shaky, Baldwin was without a doubt an investor. In 1875, he received a patent for a small motor driven by the weight of the operator on a plunger-like seat. Designed for sewing machines, it negated the use of a foot pedal or treadle but never made it to practical application.
After Hilaire de Chardonnet revealed his silk substitute based on nitrocellulose in 1899, Baldwin wrote to Scientific American several times saying that he had done the same by treating cellulose fibers with tannic acid to increase their strength. He more famously claimed to have independently invented the telephone in Midland Park, according to local lore. Among the items on offer during the executor's sale following his death were his team of bay horses, 20 gallons of vinegar and a telegraph apparatus, The Paterson Evening News reported.
His home evaded bulldozers once before. In the mid-1970s, a developer out of Palisades Park eyed the property for garden apartments. A tumultuous November 1975 zoning board meeting ended with officials denying the project a variance for the undersized, half-acre lot.
Robert J. Miller, a retired contractor from Wyckoff, stepped in. He bought the house and led a four-year renovation. The seemingly well-preserved home was last purchased by an LLC in November 2022 for $575,000. Society members said neighbors had received notice of a September demolition.
This time, no proposal for the future of the site has gone before the town's land use board. Dense redevelopment is nonetheless possible. The property next door, a 0.42-acre lot at 72 Lake Ave., is expected to get five townhouses in a pending redevelopment project, local records show. Midland Park has no active Historic Preservation Commission to designate, regulate and protect historic sites, such as the David Baldwin House. Society members said the municipal commissions are effectively all that stands between Bergen County's old stone homes and the wrecking ball.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Historic Bergen County NJ home in Midland Park faces demolition
