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.
Buying a home is likely one of the biggest financial decisions a person can make. Because of that, homebuyers often come into the buying process with a wish list of their most desired home features.
But, what was popular in the past might not be popular now, and homebuying trends have changed as we enter 2024. So, what popular home features might make a property a hot commodity? Here are a few:
Move-in ready homes
Before all else, more homebuyers are seeking properties that are move-in ready, rather than those that might require some updating.
“I think now people are getting a little bit more picky on what they want. They just want instant gratification,” said Max Stokes, a partner of the Fox & Stokes team at Compass Real Estate.
Stokes said buyers that are coming from luxury buildings in areas like Hoboken and Jersey City are used to having a fully finished living space. Because of this, he said more buyers are turning towards properties in less desirable locations as long as they’re move-in ready.
“When I bought my first house about 14 years ago, I just bought for the neighborhood and figured that everything else in the house I can fix over time,” he said. “I don’t hear that anymore. People would rather buy something in a location that might not be as desirable, but the home’s move-in ready.”
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Separated spaces over open-concept living
While the interest in open-concept layouts will likely never fully go away, Oakley said she’s seen more buyers interested in properties with designated spaces.
“Now I’m noticing that buyers want a little bit more separation and designation between the rooms and more closed spaces,” she said. “They still want a nice flow, of course, but just not that complete open box where you can see everything.”
Oakley said she’s seeing this trend in other areas of the home. For example, she said the trend of open shelving in kitchens is starting to go away, as more people are going back to wanting their items away and out of sight. Similarly, integrated appliances were predicted to be a popular interior design trend for 2024 specifically because they’re more hidden in our kitchen spaces, rather than being freestanding.
Multiple primary suites and first-floor bedrooms
Having a bedroom on the home’s first floor — a trend we saw driving up home prices in 2023 — and having multiple primary suites are increasingly popular features homebuyers are searching for in 2024.
Due to the relatively recent unpredictability of the real estate market across the nation, more homebuyers have been focused on finding a property that they’ll be able to spend the rest of their lives in. Having a first-floor bedroom will allow their properties to be more functional as they age. Additionally, more households have become multigenerational due to the costs of living, so younger generations are looking for spaces where they can accommodate elderly family members.
“I’m noticing with certain buyers that they’re looking for either a first-floor bedroom or the option of having a first-floor bedroom,” said Jamie Oakley, a realtor with Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty in Franklin Lakes. “Thinking into the future and functionality for them, whether it’s the buyers themselves as we get older or thinking about family members who may be coming to live with them at some point.”
Homes with multiple primary suites were also predicted to be a big trend in 2024 due to more couples choosing to sleep in separate spaces.
“I’m hearing a lot of trends of people wanting two primary suites, so like couples who want to sleep separately but still want to live together, which is interesting,” said HGTV personality Noel Gatts, founder and principal designer of Beam and Bloom based in Bloomfield.
Multiple home offices
While home office spaces grew increasingly popular during the time surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, many homebuyers have been searching for properties with multiple office to accomodate more people working from home.
This is not only due to many companies continuing to work remotely, but also because more companies have implemented hybrid work schedules, meaning more people may be working at home, even if only for a few days a week.
“The work from home trend is definitely continuing, so having multiple home office spaces is definitely something that tops a lot of people’s lists,” Stokes said. “It’s becoming more than one because one person would be working from home, but now it’s the real deal where people, whether it’s even going back to the office, they still have the opportunity to work from home a couple days a week.”
A finished basement, or the option for a finished basement
Homes with a finished basement — or a basement that has the ability to be finished and used for different purposes — is something many homebuyers are seeking.
Oakley said many families are looking to incorporate more hang out and entertainment spaces in their home, such as game rooms, media rooms and playrooms, which are often common uses of basement spaces. Finished basements are also often used as an in-law suite or as a distinct living space for kids or other family members that may visit.
In older homes, Oakley said basement heights tend to be shorter, meaning there isn’t enough room for these spaces to be used for anything other than storage.
“I was actually showing a property recently that was a beautiful new construction home on an existing foundation and everything my clients were looking for,” she said. “Then, we went into the basement and they could hardly stand up in it, which for them was just a complete turn off because it wasn’t a space that they could use.”
Self-care amenities and spaces
Homes with self-care amenities or spaces the buyers can use for self-care activities has become more popular, Oakley said.
“I saw a house recently that had a cold plunge installed in it and that completed wowed the buyers,” she said. “So, spaces for a gym or a spa. Even with staging, I’m noticing that they might have yoga mats set up with little weights and things like that just to show what the space could be used for.”
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.