About Town: Share Your Fort Lee Story

What makes family reunions so special are the stories. Stories that make your family unique from every other family. Often, these stories provide a great deal of humor, explain some of the more evident family quirks, and help you better understand your own role within that small circle of society.

As reported in a recent Fort Lee Patch article, the Fort Lee Historical Society is looking for stories. Your story. Specifically, your recollection of Fort Lee.

As part of their “Living History Program,” the Fort Lee Historical Society wants to record and collect stories in order to create an oral history of Fort Lee that can be preserved and passed on so we never, as a community, forget the ties that bind us.

If you’re a member of the Facebook fan page I Grew Up in Fort Lee, you know what we mean. The stories exchanged on this page not only keep our town alive, but it connect us through the shared experience of having lived here.

What distinguishes Fort Lee from all the other towns in Bergen County has been the ability of its people to constantly redefine it throughout the decades. Fort Lee has gone from being defined as a film town, to the town that housed a renowned night club, to home of Murder Inc., to home of one of the world’s most famous amusement parks, to the town where builders tried to bribe our mayor.

Sure, everyone knows the greater stories that surround Fort Lee’s role in the nascent film industry; all the newsworthy stories about the Riviera and Palisade Amusement Park; and we all know how Mayor Burt Ross refused to allow our town, that once housed the greatest corruptors, to be corrupted. But within the framework of these stories dwell smaller, perhaps more significant, stories; the ones that remain consigned to memory and are only taken out and dusted off at reunions. These are the stories that the Fort Lee Historical Society wants to collect and preserve.

For instance, did you or a family member work in the film industry, or work for one of the film storage companies in town? Do you remember the old studios? Did you play among their ruins?

Do you have a special memory of Palisade Amusement Park such as a first date, a first kiss or a marriage proposal? Do you remember seeing one of the live performances? Did you and your friends know where the hole in the gate was that allowed for free access?

Do you have a story about the Riviera night club? Was your prom held there? Did you attend school at Holy Angels, Madonna or Holy Trinity? Do you have a particular memory of a priest, such as Father Morrissey who, we’re told, informed the congregation that he wanted a silent collection (no coins)? Or of Father Dembow who appeared on a game show?

Perhaps you have a memory of one of the many saloons, or of Atlas Five & Dime, or Schweitzer’s Department Store? Or Callahan’s, Hiram’s, Bagel Nosh?

Did you spend hours at the original Fort Lee Stationary Store on Main Street in the 1970s playing pinball or did hang out at the original Youth Center operated out of a house across from Jerry’s Pizzeria?

No matter what your story, the Fort Lee Historical Society wants to hear it because Fort Lee is more than just the last exit before Manhattan. It is more than just an anchor for the western legs of the George Washington Bridge. Fort Lee is not a silent place that you pass through on your way to somewhere else. It is, and has always been, a place filled with a vibrant energy and character unmatched by all but a few surrounding towns.

These are the stories that are vital to the history of Fort Lee, because when taken collectively, these stories are woven into the fabric of what defines us as a community and strengthens our connection to our past and future; most importantly, these stories are what connect us to each other.  

If you still live in Fort Lee or if Fort Lee still lives in you, tell your story to the Fort Lee Historical Society so that they can collect it and preserve it alongside all of the other stories. You can contact the Fort Lee Historical Society by visiting their website or by calling them at 201-592-3580.

Reach out to your parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, old friends, anyone who has a story, and ask them to preserve their experience of living in Fort Lee by sharing their story and providing future generations with a living history of their past.