February 19,2018
John Paquin
Ridgewood NJ,Separated at Birth? Well, actually, yeah. The Zabriskie-Schedler House is a text-book example of the inspiration behind one of the most enduring American Vernacular Architectural styles, born right here in Bergen County — The Dutch Colonial. An example that needs to be preserved so we can tell this story and all the others that go with it. Right now you’re looking at the house on the left, and saying, “I know that house. I think it’s on Spring….or maybe Pleasant, or was it up on Monroe? Trust me, folks in just about every town in the United States would say the same thing. The “Dutch Colonial” became an iconic style as part of the “Colonial Revival” that swept the country from the centennial well in to the 1930’s, when most of these were built, and endures even today. Most of us know the Dutch “stone” houses that dot the region. But it’s actually the frame examples like Zabriskie-Schedler that provided the true inspiration. And because they were not made of stone, far fewer endure today. The style is our gift to the nation; the Zabriskie-Schedler a monument to that style that needs to be preserved for the future