Years before he became one of the Empire State Building’s key financiers, an East Coast industrialist strategically positioned his home to overlook the evolving Manhattan skyline.
Listed this April for slightly less than $2.5 million by Christine Lane of Compass New Jersey, 10 Edgewood Terrace in Montclair was completed 115 years ago on what then was highly coveted real estate, according to an August 1907 report in The Montclair Times.
Known as the triangle, the property bound by Highland Avenue, Edgewood Road and Edgewood Terrace was “considered one of the finest residential sites on the mountainside, having a gentle slope and being prettily wooded with forest trees,” according to the report. The triangle later became known for shaping the fork in the road baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra famously told people “to take” to arrive at his Highland Avenue home.
Seeking to capitalize on the triangle’s strengths and lack of development in the early 1900s was Ellis P. Earle.
Earle, who in 1907 held the claims to one of Canada’s most productive silver mines, Ontario’s Nipissing Mine, bought the triangle that summer. Later that year, he revealed plans for the now eight-bedroom and nine-bathroom Tudor castle at 10 Edgewood Terrace.
The Montclair Times reported an estimated construction cost of $100,000. Add $50,000 for the property brokered by F. M. Crawley and Bros., who had their hands in much of Montclair’s posh mountainside development, it added.
The final cost of construction was closer to $91,000, the newspaper reported in 1909. Still, the cost for most new homes in town at the time was $6,000 or less, according to newspaper listings. The result of Earle’s lavish spending was featured in the December 1911 issue of Architecture.
Built from Germantown stone with terra cotta trimmings and a green slate roof, 10 Edgewood sits on 2.15 acres and contains roughly 12,000 square feet of living space. It boasts century-old touches, such as a library with custom built-ins, a first floor trimmed in oak and windows with leaded and stained glass. Still, it has been updated to feature a modern kitchen with top-tier stainless steel appliances, a massive center island and seating for more than a dozen.
Bedrooms are reserved for the second and third floors. Five, including the primary bedroom with its fireplace, skyline view and dual closets, are on the second floor. The first floor is built around a grand central hall.
The home was designed for Earle by architect Frank E. Wallis and his associate William J. Rogers, a duo best known for Georgian and Colonial homes, according to Montclair historical records. Wallis, who had trained in the office of Richard Morris Hunt, was “a noted authority on Colonial architecture,” according to his 1929 New York Times obituary. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was also highly active in Montclair.
Wallis designed St. John’s Church on Montclair Avenue, a cluster of typical Montclair homes at the south end of Highland Avenue, including the one once owned by Berra, and several larger-scale homes. They include 190 South Mountain Ave., 32 Llewellyn Rd. and 3 Eagle Rock Way, according to local historical records.
When Earle died in October 1945, 10 Edgewood held his funeral services. Then Gov. Charles Edison attended, as did former governors James Fielder, Morgan Larson and Arthur Harry Moore. Earle had for more than 20 years been chairman of the state’s former Board of Control of Institutions and Agencies, a board he helped create while overseeing charitable organizations on behalf of the state.
“So effectively and economically did the hospitals, prisons and other public institutions function under Mr. Earle’s leadership that every succeeding governor who was in office […] reappointed him regardless of political affiliation,” The Montclair Times wrote in his obituary.
A large donor to Princeton University and the old Montclair Community Chest, Earle was also well known locally as a philanthropist. In 1930, Earle helped finance a former boy’s camp in Jefferson Township, called Camp Ranger.
Earle was born in September 1860 in Brooklyn and educated in Elizabeth as a teenager, according to his Montclair Times obituary. A law clerk at 18, he began a transition into the mining and banking industries while securing materials for his father-in-law’s metallic paint business. He broke off from the family business in 1898 to concentrate on importing and exporting precious metals, according to The Montclair Times. Six years later, he co-founded the Nipissing Mining Company, formerly one of North America’s largest silver producers, and began to amass serious wealth.
In about 1930, a chunk of that wealth went to supplement the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s $27.5 million loan for the Empire State Building. Earle, along with Louis Kaufman, Thomas Coleman du Pont, Pierre S. du Pont and others, helped former New York State Governor Al Smith advance a project conceived by DuPont executive and former GM executive John Jakob Raskob to build a tower taller than the Chrysler Building. The project was ambitious but ultimately made easier by Coleman du Pont who owned the midtown site that had then held the original Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
Earle’s Montclair home was later owned by Bob Gaudio, the keyboardist and background singer for The Four Seasons. Born in the Bronx and raised in Bergenfield, Gaudio was a key songwriter for the group, penning “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like A Man” among other hits after convincing his parents to let him leave Bergenfield High School at 16 to pursue music.
Before dropping out, Gaudio co-wrote “Short Shorts” as a 15-year-old member of the Royal Teens. After, Gaudio rose to fame and wrote and produced for other artists, including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Neil Diamond. Gaudio moved out to California in the early 1970s and produced multiple full albums for Diamond. He earned a Grammy Award nomination in 1979 for producing the Barbra Streisand and Diamond duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”
Another prominent owner of 10 Edgewood was Joseph Aiello, the former owner of the Wedgewood Cafeteria and Boonton’s Knoll Golf Club. Born in Sorrento, Italy, Aiello came to America as a pre-teen in 1904 and within a few years helped his family open a grocery store network with locations in Lake Hopatcong, Newark and Montclair, according to his January 1964 obituary in the Paterson News.
The grocery store was dovetailed with a meat and produce supplier, Aiello Bros. Inc., that operated prominently in the area in the mid-1900s. Aiello later founded the popular Wedgewood Cafeteria eatery in town and co-owned Montclair’s first post-Prohibition liquor license with his brother Gabriel Aiello, who owned Gabe’s Galley.
Well-maintained, full of character and customizable in a location that blends urban and suburban living: That was the common status of two North Jersey homes that sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price within days of one another.
Located on opposite ends of historic Glen Ridge are 28 Oakwood Ave. and 15 Sommer Ave., both listed at the end of January by Amy Owens, realtor and team leader of the Amy Owens Real Estate Team at Keller Williams NJ Metro Group. The homes yielded selling prices of $999,999 and $852,500 — or $350,000 and $253,500 over asking — on April 1 and March 28, respectively.
“Just nothing had come on the market at the time, and I thought to put these two homes on the market on the same weekend,” Owens said. “One of the reasons that I put them both on the same weekend was because a lot of buyers won’t come out just to see one house. So, I explained to both of the owners that it’s good to have another house because you’ll get more buyers out and then they’ll decide which one is right for them.”
Each home did in fact attract more buyers, with the properties collecting a combined total of 64 offers during their time on the market.
Owens said this popularity is credited to the centralized location of each property, and that each home offered the opportunity for the next owners to make their own improvements and add personal touches.
“That’s something that all buyers should be looking for right now when they buy a house, especially since we’re in such a high market,” she said. “What’s the upside of the house? What can I do to add value to it?”
28 Oakwood Ave., Glen Ridge
28 Oakwood Ave, Glen Ridge, NJ 07028 | Zillow
Built in 1925, 28 Oakwood Ave. is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom side hall colonial-style home in the northernmost neighborhood of Glen Ridge. The property features a brick fireplace in the living room, a sunroom that can double as a home office or playroom, a finished basement, a fenced yard and a one-car garage. It is also located near Brookdale Park and the Glen Ridge Country Club.
Owens said that the previous owners of the home had opted to preserve some of the home’s character, rather than renovating the property to have a mainstream, modern look. She believes this played a big role in the demand for the home, as it felt warm and inviting to potential buyers.
“They didn’t bastardize the house,” she said. “There’s a beautiful marble used in the kitchen, which wasn’t pristine and perfect. You could tell it had been loved and used, but it was still really pretty.”
Cathy Miller, a realtor with Keller Williams NJ Metro Group who represented the buyers of the home, said her clients were relocating from Italy, having been transferred to New Jersey for work. They were specifically drawn to Glen Ridge because of its proximity to New York City for work, as well as for the area’s highly-rated school system.
“Interestingly, my clients were doing research and this area was coming up as the highest on their Internet searches, so that shows you also that there’s a lot of press about this area internationally,” she said.
Miller said her clients were ideally looking for a smaller home. She said that while the home on Oakwood Avenue was on the smaller side for Glen Ridge, it was a normal size property for her clients’ European standards.
Additionally, she said they were drawn to the property not only because it didn’t require a lot of money in repairs, but also because it had some features that reminded them of Italy.
“They told me they particularly felt at home in the house because it had some characteristics that reminded them of Italian properties, like the ribbon trim and the wood floors,” she said. “They also didn’t want an open layout. They wanted a kitchen that was more enclosed. Open layouts are a very American concept, and in European homes, that’s not really a concept that caught on. So, they liked the fact that the kitchen was a little more separate from the rest of the house.”
15 Sommer Ave., Glen Ridge
15 Sommer Ave, Glen Ridge, NJ 07028 | Zillow
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom colonial-style home at 15 Sommer Ave. is located at the southernmost end of Glen Ridge, near neighboring West Orange and East Orange. Built in 1937, the home offers a living room with a brick fireplace, a sunroom that opens to the backyard, a one-car attached garage and a spacious backyard with a patio.
“It has this great sunroom off of the back that looks over the yard, which is the perfect size,” Owens said. “It also has the opportunity for the new owners to make a true primary suite, and I think that’s something that appealed to a lot of people.”
Sara Whitley, a realtor on the Amy Owens Real Estate Team at Keller Williams NJ Metro Group, represented the buyers of the home. She said that the mix between suburban neighborhoods with large homes and spacious yards, as well as access to vibrant downtown areas, is what attracted her clients to Glen Ridge.
When looking at the property at 15 Sommer Ave., Whitley said her clients were attracted to the homes layout, as well as the fact that the property had not been overly updated. She said one of the biggest factors for them was that it was a clean slate for them to add in their own style.
“Part of what spoke to them was actually that the layout was almost identical to the home of their friends in Montclair. So, they felt kind of this kindred spirit with the home,” she said. “This home, while staged beautifully and maintained impeccably, certainly needed a bit more updating over time, and they were actually looking for something they could really put their mark on.”
During their home search, Whitley said her clients had put in offers on three other homes, including the property on Oakwood Avenue, but were not accepted. Because of this, Whitley said they had to regroup to determine what steps they needed to take to secure the home on Sommer Avenue.
“I think a lot of buyers get frustrated and feel like there’s some sort of bait-and-switch happening. I think that it’s important for them to understand that that’s not what’s happening. What’s happening is that the demand is simply extremely high and inventory is incredibly low,” Whitley said. “So, it’s really important to work with someone who can at least try and meet those expectations and guide you to what a winning number should be in a particular house.”
Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for NorthJersey.com and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay, on X @maddiemcgayy, and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@gannett.com.