A HISTORIC RED ROAD HOUSE EARNS A RECOGNITION PLAQUE
W
Contributed by Marianne Ivers, Chatham Historical Society ho wouldn’t sometimes wonder what took place in their house before they began calling that place home?
Intrigued by the past of her home and its residents, Christine Crowley of 52 Red Road began researching the history of her house. She started with the house’s ownership history by combing through deed records. She also used Ancestry. com and reviewed old issues of “The Chatham Press” predecessor to today’s “Chatham Courier”. Next, she studied the information that was available in the Chatham Historical Society records. The research took a couple of weeks and brought her 110 years back to the beginning of the story of her home. The house was built in 1909 by Gustaf and Hilda Pihlman who purchased the land in 1907. The Pihlmans, born in Finland, moved to Chatham from Jersey City.
The Crowley family (Courtesy of Chatham Historical Society)
The couple had four children: Fred, Edna, Ina, and Henry. Edna married Carleton Tuttle Lum. Ina attended Julliard and was a piano teacher in town. Fred was a graduate of Chatham High School, Class of 1911; the first graduating class of the school. He was captain of both the high school baseball and football teams. Upon his high school graduation, he attended Middlebury College and the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He was a research chemist with Westinghouse in Bloomfield, N.J. when he joined the Army. He was inducted at Morristown Feb. 26, 1918, and enrolled in the 309th Infantry – 78th Division. He was killed in action on Oct. 16, 1918, at the age of 28. Pihlman is remembered on Chatham’s WW I memorial. An Oak Tree is also planted in his honor at Chatham Borough Hall. The Pihlmans sold their home in 1919. In 1931, Gustaf divided the adjacent farmland into lots and sold them, thus creating the street Pihlman Place. Future residents of the original Pihlman home, Robert and Marion Waterfield, lost their home to foreclosure in 1931. They had one daughter named Margaret. George and Eleanor Blazier purchased the home in 1943 from the Chatham Trust/Chatham Building and Loan Association. The couple had three sons, George, Wallace, and Stephen. George was a dedicated police officer. The elder George sold the house to his son George and his wife Joan in 1998. The house was sold again in 2003 to Cameron and Anna Yuills who moved
Christine and Jack Crowley pictured next to the historic plaque at their home on Red Road. (Courtesy of Chatham Historical Society)
back to their home country Australia after selling the house to the Crowleys. Christine and Jack Crowley, who met at Providence College, purchased the house in Sept. 2005. The family includes the couple’s children Katherine, Jack and Kyra, all active in sports in town. The Chatham Historical Society’s House History Program provides guidance to residents who wish to learn how to research the history of their houses. More information about the program can be found at https:// www.chathamnjhistoricalsociety.org/ programs.html.
December 2020 | 13