Senior center photo exhibit
shows a Monroe of long ago
By sandi carpello
Staff Writer
VERONICA YANKOWSKI This 1908 photo of the students in front of the Pleasant Hill School is among the shots displayed as part of a township historical exhibit at the Monroe Township Senior Center.
MONROE — Mary DiMaggio-Crap-parotta will never forget the 1946 Welcome Home Day Parade at Jamesburg’s Triangle Park.
The day, which honored 400 men in the armed services and was the same day she met her husband of over 50 years, Leonard Crapparotta, has been memorialized in one of 28 historical photographs on display at the township’s Senior Center and Office on Aging conference room.
The Friends of the Senior Center, a volunteer outreach program, sponsored the display through the Friends’ refurbishing fund in the amount of $4,000.
Mayor Richard Pucci, Township Historian John Katerba and Township Council members Gerald Tamburro and Irwin Nalitt cut the ribbon to the conference room entrance this week, giving township residents an opportunity to take a journey through Monroe’s evocative history.
VERONICA YANKOWSKI Nila Boyko, president of the Friends of the Senior Center in Monroe, enjoys a look at one of the pictures on exhibit at the Senior Center.
"[The photographs] really show the history of an agricultural community," said Township Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton.
Katerba said the photographs and two historic maps on display are only a small sampling of the hundreds of photographs he has collected from longtime Monroe residents. Many of the photographs can be found in his book on Monroe Township and Jamesburg in the series Images of America.
Leonard Crapparotta pointed to the picture of Forsgate Farms in 1940, remembering the days when he could purchase a half-gallon of day-old ice cream for 25 cents.
Some other photographs depict the blizzard of 1917 and the old Upper Train Station, which in 1875 was located on the property behind the Busco Brother’s Oil and Heating Co.
A photograph from 1915 shows a four-room schoolhouse that was located on Half Acre Road. In 1907, Perrine and Buckelew of Jamesburg built the schoolhouse at a cost of $10,000.
"Everything has changed so much," said Connie Borsuck, a longtime Monroe resident, as she looked over the photo exhibit.
Don O’Brien, owner of Monroe Photo, restored and framed each photograph and donated a piece of his own artwork in honor of 9/11 to the conference room.

