BIT: Firehouse

FROM PAGE 4 especially from the towns of Hillsdale, Park Ridge and Westwood. Views of local shops, railroads, churches, houses, farms, waterways, parks, schools and more were immortalized on the little paper cards.

“During the heyday of the postcard craze people bought them for the simple pleasure of owning them,” writes Fred Bassett, senior librarian of manuscripts and special collections at the New York State Library.

People advertised in newspapers and magazines for pen pals with whom they could exchange postcards with interesting scenes. Clubs also formed for the same purpose.

“They preserved the cards carefully in albums or posted them to friends and relatives, with the expectation of receiving many in return. In essence, postcards served as an inexpensive form of entertainment in almost every American home, just as radio and television were in later eras,” according to Bassett.

Kristin Beuscher is president of Pascack Historical Society pascackhistoricalsociety.org