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The Workers

Mountainside Farm Ledger

Mountainside Farm Ledger, 1897

Mountainside Farm Boarding House

Mountainside Farm Boarding House, 1890s

Darlington Schoolhouse

Darlington Schoolhouse on Ramapo Valley Road, 1990s

Havemeyer Road Postcard

Postcard featuring Havemeyer Road (Ramapo Valley Road), 1890s-1900s

The Boarding House

Among the grandiose structures present on Mountainside Farm, another somewhat-overlooked building was the boarding house pictured here (see “Boarding House”).  The people that worked on the farm lived in several laborer’s cottages located on the premises and the surrounding area in Mahwah, but many lived in this building.  It stood three stories high, and contained seventeen bedrooms, unlike the laborer’s cottages which housed about six people.  It was designed by Dudley Newton, and is built in the same architectural style as the cow barns.  Ironically, the Boarding House did not receive nearly as much attention as the barns, even though they were said to be comparable to human living conditions. 

Who Worked at Mountainside?

It was said that Theodore Havemeyer decided to disregard the cost and hire workers of the best quality, the same approach he used towards most of his agricultural practices.  This is partly seen in his hiring of Dudley Newton, the famous architect from Newport.  Also, he hired John Mayer of Newport, a personal friend that he believed to be the best choice to manage the farm.  This proved to be a wise decision, because many of the reporters that came to visit Mountainside Farm found Mayer to be incredibly knowledgeable and friendly.  Mayer brought a total of forty workers with him, although this was merely the beginning.  In the years to come, Mountainside Farm would hire hundreds of workers that were supervised by John Mayer.  In terms of the types of people that worked on the farm, Havemeyer had a reputation of hiring immigrants fairly often.  Between 1889 and 1890, he hired about 250 Italians and 200 Hungarians.  In the ledger seen on the left, one can observe the names of just a few of the people that he had hired in September of 1897.

The Development of Mahwah

The workers mentioned above were not all simple farm hands, however.  Havemeyer was known for spending lavishly on public works projects in the Mahwah community, many of which are still relevant.  Although he was mostly concerned with improving his farm, Havemeyer’s public works projects put the town on the map and ultimately made it into the Mahwah of today.  For instance, he collaborated with Alfred B. Darling, his neighbor, to build the Darlington Schoolhouse.  He mainly saw a need for a new schoolhouse in the area due to the fact that many of his workers permanently settled in Mahwah, but the schoolhouse became a local landmark and was celebrated for its beauty.  Also, many of the workers he hired were paid to fight forest fires that occurred on occasion.  This was mostly for the benefit of Mountainside, but it protected the town from damage as well.  Most importantly, Havemeyer paid out-of-pocket to have Ramapo Valley Road paved.  He did this to allow for better access to the farm, but it was incredibly important for Mahwah as well.  It was one of the first paved roads in the country at the time, and it was so unusual for the area that Mahwah, particularly Ramapo Valley Road, became a sort of tourist attraction.  People would come from far and wide just to ride their bicycles or drive their automobiles on the macadamized surface.