About Town: This Weekend In Fort Lee

Hopefully the weather will comply for this, the first weekend of summer, and you can get out and have some fun in the sun. Plant, play, dance, buy farm-fresh food, take a free scenic tour or take in a museum or two. Here’s what’s going on in Fort Lee this weekend:

Begins Summer Sale

Always a highly anticipated annual event, Metropolitan Plant Exchange has kicked off its summer sale with 30 percent off everything in their garden center with a coupon. (Visit their website to print coupon.)

Shrubs, soil, perennials, annuals, roses, herbs, fertilizers, evergreens, flats, pots, urns, window boxes, patio furniture, garden tools, hanging baskets and so much more all 30% off!

Metropolitan Plant Exchange is located at 2125 Fletcher Ave., 201-944-1050.

Celebrates High School Graduates

All high school graduates who come into and show their diploma will get a free $10 pass! What a nice graduation present from local owners. This offer is valid until July 4.

Local Battles is located at 1207 Anderson Ave., 1-877-XBOXGAMER.

Fort Lee VFW Presents “The Greatest Generation 1940’s Veterans Dance”

The Fort Lee VFW is hosting a 1940’s Veterans Dance Saturday at the Recreation Center on Stillwell Ave., at 7:30 p.m. The price is $15 per ticket; there will be food, but bring your own beverages—ice will be supplied.  

The Silver Starlite Orchestra will be playing all the popular hits of the 1940s and will be wearing WWII uniforms.

Purchase tickets at the VFW Hall.

The Fort Lee VFW is located at the corner of Center Ave. and Main St.

Fort Lee Farmers’ Market Kicks Off Opening Day with Historic Jitney Tour of Fort Lee

Sunday marks the opening day of the . To celebrate, there will be an historic jitney tour of Fort Lee. Visit the sites where movies were made and see where the studios were located.

This tour is free to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Tour sign-ups will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Fort Lee Film Commission table at the Farmers Market. Jitney bus tours run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This tour is sponsored by the Fort Lee Film Commission, Fort Lee Historical Society and the Fort Lee Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs.

The Farmers’ Market takes place every Sunday through Oct. 30 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Having had the unique opportunity to speak with many of the organizers of Farmers' Markets in Bergen County while working on a Farmers’ Market article, we know that an incredible amount of effort goes into organizing this event, most significantly in encouraging vendors to participate. Our neighbors in Leonia have been trying to launch a Farmers Market for the last few years to no success.

Regarding Fort Lee’s Farmers’ Market, some residents have commented that there aren’t many vendors that participate, so why bother? Because the only way to increase the amount of vendors is to come out and support the market.

On Sundays, Fort Lee is competing with markets in Ridgewood, Tenafly and Emerson, where people come out en masse. The reality is that vendors are businesspeople who will go where the most people will come out and buy their goods. So let’s make a concerted effort to support the vendors who come each Sunday to Fort Lee’s Farmers’ Market. 

The Fort Lee Farmers’ Market takes place at the Fort Lee Community Center, 1355 Inwood Terrace.

This is a great weekend to visit our town museum and catch the Artist Guild’s exhibit before it leaves. The museum celebrates all of Fort Lee’s history—from the Revolution to their great collection of memorabilia from Palisade Amusement Park. There’s a room dedicated entirely to Fort Lee’s film days; there’s Fort Lee High School memorabilia including yearbooks and pictures; memorabilia from the Riviera night club; and more than a century of photos of Fort Lee. The museum is open Saturday and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.

The Fort Lee Museum is located at 1588 Palisade Ave., adjacent to Monument Park.

Not only do the grounds of Historic Park offer some of the most breathtaking views of the George Washington Bridge and Manhattan, but it also offers some of the finest walking paths in Fort Lee. Shaded and lush, the paths will take you past cannons and forts giving you a sense of our place in the Revolutionary War.

The museum has just been renovated and the displays updated. They have a great gift shop with reasonably priced items. The museum is open Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

If you’re lucky, you might catch a wedding party having their pictures taken since this is the #1 wedding photo destination for all area brides!

Fort Lee Historic Park and Museum is located off Hudson Terrace, just south of the George Washington Bridge.