by Maggie Fazeli Fard
Published in Community Life
When the building of the Pascack Reformed Church began in 1812, the structure was a godsend to Pascack Valley residents who had theretofore worshipped in the churches of Tappan, Schraalenburgh (now Dumont and Bergenfield), Paramus and Saddle River . For decades residents had lobbied for a church closer to home, a church they could call their own, and in their eyes, Pascack Reformed Church was one in a million, nothing else like it for miles around.
Today, walking up the path to the Pascack Reformed Church from the parking lot it shares with the students of nearby Park Ridge High School, it is striking how unremarkable the church now is.
On the outside, there is the locally mined sandstone, the requisite steeple, and even one of those blue historic markers that now dot roads throughout the county.
Inside, there are stained glass windows dating back to 1912, which replaced the original plain glass, and a barrel ceiling, typical of Dutch Reform churches of the era that sets them apart from churches with vaulted ceilings.
But in setting this particular church apart from establishments across northern New Jersey and Rockland County , and even from the handful that neighbor it on Pascack Road, no steeple or stained glass is going to do the trick.
“Shall we go take a look at the cemetery?” suggests Carl Weil, the church historian.
There is an unspoken promise of ghost stories, and, considering the long, hard look at the pulpit that preceded his question, there is no need for Weil to ask a second time. Pulling a dapper DayGlo rain slicker close around his tall frame, he leads the way out of the darkened, empty hall of the church to the dank graveyard adjacent to it.
Staff Photo By Maggie Fazeli Fard When the building of the Pascack Reformed Church began in 1812, the structure was a godsend to Pascack Valley residents.
Actually, at a respectable 196 years old, the graveyard isn’t quite as dank as one would expect. Weil and other volunteers have passed many an hour righting felled gravestones and clearing the small plot of debris. Weil is clearly pleased that the church can provide a proper resting place for the interred residents of 65 Pascack Road, including Katherine Blauvelt, who, having passed away at the age of 6 years old in August of 1813, has the oldest gravesite in the north cemetery.
Weil is less pleased, however, with the north cemetery’s history of graves on the move. In 1893, an addition of a pulpit and choir area required the removal of some of the graves located behind the church. In 1959, the church underwent further renovations, including the replacement of its old, wooden floor with tile, the lowering of the balconies and the installation of new pews, as well as the demolition and replacement of the 1893 addition with a larger structure. Forty-nine graves had to be relocated; remains that could be found were moved to a group vault elsewhere in the graveyard. It is unknown who was moved where in 1893.
“I don’t like it. I’d rather not have the addition,” says Weil, who joined the church after the renovations were made. “I would have done something.”
Relocated graves give ghosts good reason to come back and make the living at least a little weary, no?
Weil laughs, shaking his head at the suggestion with a soft, “No,” and leads the way to the church’s second cemetery, about two blocks south, past the Citgo station, on Pascack Road.
The southern cemetery is considerably larger and once belonged to the Wortendyke family, says Weil. In 1855, the Wortendykes sold off about 15 acres of land. The Pascack Reformed Church ended up with just short of four acres that had been used as burial grounds for the family, and others.
Others: the word alone is bone chilling. Weil just laughs and shakes his head.
Weil explains that by the time the church got it, the land had been used for burials of three groups: the Wortendykes, Aftrican-Americans and Native Americans. Among the Wortendyke family plots, there are two legible stones dating back as far back as 1780, he says. The African-American plots have stones from 1834; buried here are members of the families of Bergen County ’s Free Blacks of the pre-Civil War periods as well as Civil War veterans who had served with a Connecticut regiment.
And the Native American graves?
“There’s no stones,” says Weil gently. “No records. It’s been passed down by word of mouth over the years.”
But no stories of Native American ghosts, he notes.
The closer Weil gets to the southern cemetery, the harder the rain falls. It would be far-fetched to call the spring shower ominous, let alone foreboding of the sighting of the ghost of Ada Victoria Bremhall, who died at 17, or that of her mother, who spent the remainder of her days sitting on a bench near a statue of her daughter.
But combined with the noise of passing traffic, the sound of rain hitting the pavement hard and fast makes it nearly impossible to make sense of what Weil is talking about. All is lost, but one story.
In 1854, Dr. John T. Demarest became the first full-time minister of the Pascack Reformed Church, Weil says, barely audible. And in 1856, Demarest came home to find his wife and nine children brutally murdered.
“They must have wrapped them in sheets and put them in the first row of the plot. It’s plot 18.”
Weil stops at the iron fence around the cemetery and points to a hillock at one end of the cemetery.
“You can see the ground is uneven there.”
The question of haunting doesn’t come up again, but Weil still smiles. Haunted or not, he knows his church has more to offer than meets the modern eye.
On Saturday, May 10, the Pascack Reformed Church, located at 65 Pascack Road in Park Ridge, will hold its 17th Annual Historic Day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guided tours of the church, Sunday School building and cemetery will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. with refreshments offered during and at the end of each tour. The rain date for the event is Saturday, May 17. For more information, contact Church Historian Carl Weil at 201-391-9259.
Tagged: Community Life, history, new jersey, park ridge, pascack valley