Riley Building Revisited

BY KRISTIN BEUSCHER SPECIAL TO PASCACK PRESS HILLSDALE

ASCENECAPTURED in Hillsdale around 1908 shows the venerable Riley Building, at the corner of Broadway and Hillsdale Avenue, back when it was just a couple of years old.

At the time this main thoroughfare was not Broadway but rather Railroad Avenue, in the direction of Westwood and Summit Avenue in the direction of Woodcliff Lake, with downtown Hillsdale the dividing point between the two. Broadway came in 1923.

John H. Riley, a former freeholder and prominent Hillsdale citizen, had his namesake building constructed in 1906. A hotel and saloon, it was optimally positioned to receive travelers arriving at the railroad station across the street. The Riley Building also contained storefronts rented out for retail.

In July 1906 a terrible thunderstorm caused damage all over Bergen County, including in Hillsdale, where Rileyʼs building, then under construction, was struck by lightning. The resulting fire was a major setback, but construction proceeded during August and the building was finished at the end of the summer

Riley began advertising for tenants in the classifieds in August 1906: “TO LET— Two new stores at Hillsdale, opposite station: 26 feet front by 45 feet deep. Plate glass front. Five rooms upstairs.”

In March 1907 it seems there were still openings, with Riley advertising “FOR RENT—Gentlemenʼs furnishings store, drug store, barber shop and store for hardware

See BIT on page 6

Hillsdale’s DeMarco locks down biz-leadership honors

SCRANTON, PA

Joshua T. DeMarco of Hillsdale was among 17 members of The University of Scrantonʼs class of 2023 who graduated from its Robert L. McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program, which is one of Scranton's programs of excellence.

Students in this highly selective program explore the basic theories and concepts of leadership through special seminars and courses in management, ethics, strategy and analysis, in addition to field trips to learn from top executives and projects in leadership, service and mentoring.

DeMarco graduated summa cum laude as a business analytics major. He also was active with Beta Gamma Sigma, Beta Alpha Phi, junior year: officer of Operations & Analytics Club

Now he is a research analyst at Convergence Inc. in Norwalk, Conn.

Robert McKeage, Ph.D., associate professor of management, marketing and entrepreneurship, is director of the Universityʼs Business Leadership Honors Program.