A number of Cranford’s grander houses, along Hampton Road, back up to the Rahway River. Some were built for wealthy New Yorkers during the town’s heyday as a summer resort.
By JILL P. CAPUZZO
Published: October 29, 2010
THIS is the kind of place that no one wants to leave. And those who do often find themselves angling to come back.
The Alexo family provides a good example. Ken Alexo Jr. grew up in Cranford but left after getting married: he and his wife, Alexandra, bought a house they could afford in Clark. Last October, eight years and three children later, they moved back to Cranford. Ms. Alexo said they had considered 30 or 40 houses, but only in Cranford. They “never looked anywhere else,” she said.
Ms. Alexo described her husband’s obsession as a “sickness” — but one she has come to empathize with. “It’s such a great place to grow up. You get attached; your roots are here. People just love it.”
Jessica Dreyer’s roots go even further back. She is a fourth-generation farmer, helping her father and uncle run Dreyer Farms, the last working vegetable farm in Union County, which sits smack in the middle of this otherwise fully developed community.
Since the seventh grade, Ms. Dreyer said, she has wanted to work on the family farm and produce market. After a stint as an estate gardener in the Hamptons, and a few years living in Morristown, where her husband runs a farm, she ended up back here.
“I never really got that small-town feeling anywhere else,” said Ms. Dreyer, now 34. “I know everyone here. And I wanted my children to have the opportunity to experience that.”
Janet Bauer, who grew up in Maine, and her husband, Matt, who grew up in North Jersey, had no ties to Cranford, so that when they bought their 1920s colonial five years ago, they viewed it as a short-term solution. “We thought we’d only be here for two years,” said Ms. Bauer, whose three children are now in school, “but it just sucks you in.”
One reason that people find Cranford so livable can perhaps be attributed to the foresight of town officials, who in the 1980s created what is said to be New Jersey’s first Special Improvement District, charging businesses a tax in exchange for downtown capital improvements and marketing support. That effort persists today, through Cranford’s Downtown Management Corporation, which boasts a low 4.5 percent commercial vacancy rate, in part due to its efforts soliciting new businesses and promoting established ones.
Largely made up of independently owned shops and restaurants rather than the chain outlets found in neighboring Westfield, the commercial district enhances Cranford’s small-town ambience. And that is palpable, even with nearly 23,000 residents and the busy campus of Union County College. There is the charm of the Rahway River, which meanders through the 4.8 square miles of town and is responsible for its improbable nickname, “the Venice of New Jersey.”
There are also the children playing in the streets, the people jogging with their dogs in the park, the scarecrows hanging from lampposts throughout town, and the wildlife cutting through backyards. Cindy Ballas, whose property abuts Nomahegan Park, has played host to deer and other animals.
“I had a fox preening itself under the basketball hoop for a half hour,” said Ms. Ballas, an analyst at Johnson & Johnson. “Then I had a family of deer in the backyard. The mother jumped the fence, but I had to let her baby out through the gate.”
WHAT YOU’LL FIND
Cranford was once a summer resort for New York City corporate chieftains. Many of its grander houses sit along the river; several even look more impressive from the back. Mayor Mark Smith described some backyards as “so peaceful and quiet you could be in the middle of West Virginia.”
That said, the housing is eclectic, including turn-of-the-last-century Victorians, 1950s ranches, split-levels and Cape Cods, and a four-year-old luxury apartment building in the town’s center just beside the commuter train station.
There is little new construction. Faith Maricic, a broker with Coldwell Banker, says this dismays clients who “want that new floor plan and mudroom.” Even so, Ms. Maricic said, most seem to get over it: many people come into her office specifically asking for Cranford.
“It’s very cozy and down-to-earth and people want that,” said Ms. Maricic, who is a Cranford resident.
Maria Tisdall, a chef and cookbook author, recently opened Cheese ... Please!, a gourmet shop on Eastman Street. She had praise for the development office, which she said had made starting a business easy. She also remarked on the camaraderie among fellow shopkeepers.
“Maybe people are friendlier because it’s a walking town,” Ms. Tisdall said, “but everyone’s been so supportive. And how perfect is it to be a cheese shop between a wine store and an artisanal bread shop?”
WHAT YOU’LL PAY
When Jennifer Rodriguez, an associate scientist at Merck, began house-hunting with her fiancé a couple of years ago, she thought they would be priced out of Cranford. But after looking at almost 100 homes, in places like Rahway and Linden, Cranford was where they ended up. Last fall they closed on a four-bedroom Cape Cod, for $330,000.
Around that same time, the Alexos closed on their three-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath split level with a fully finished basement, paying $563,000. Ms. Alexo said it was the recession-driven decline in prices that had made it possible for her family to buy in Cranford.
There are about 95 homes on the market, and prices have remained relatively stable in the last year.
The average price of the homes sold in Cranford from the start of this year through September was $433,731, versus an average of $426,905 over all for 2009, according to Garden State Multiple Listing Service data provided by Ms. Maricic.
Of the single-family houses on the market, the highest price is $899,000, for a five-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath center-hall colonial. On the low end is a three-bedroom two-bath Cape built in 1928 and listed at $314,900.
Condominiums in English Village are going for about $260,000 for a two-bedroom one-bath, while a one-bedroom condo in Parkway Village is listed at $199,900. The mixed-use Cranford Crossing complex near the station has 95 loft-style one- and two-bedrooms with rents of $1,700 to $2,700 a month, parking included.
WHAT TO DO
There are plenty of activities for children, but not to the exclusion of the adults. Many residents are involved in one or more of the numerous organizations, among them three garden clubs, a historical society, a women’s club and a nature conservancy.
At age 84, Elizabeth Youngs is a member of the Hanson Park Conservancy and is active in restoring the once-overgrown three-acre park on the Rahway River, which now includes a butterfly meadow and an open-air theater.
Nearby, the century-old Cranford Canoe Club rents canoes and kayaks for navigating local waterways. Nomahegan Park, a 100-acre county park on the northwest side of town, is circled by a heavily used two-mile jogging trail. Also, a 13.5-mile bike trail connects many of Cranford’s 415 acres of parkland with the town center.
Besides the mix of restaurants and shops, there’s a two-screen movie house as well as a coffee and music lounge. Then there’s Union County College, which serves 13,000 full- and part-time students. Residents can take in a performance by its theater company, or an exhibit at the Tomasulo Art Gallery; the college also has a fitness center and an observatory.
THE SCHOOLS
The Cranford Public School District has consistently ranked high in statewide polls. This year Cranford High School ranked 13th in the state, according to data analyzed by the Monmouth University Polling Institute. The high school has about 1,100 enrollees, and offers 26 advanced-placement courses. SAT averages in 2009 were 542 in math, 526 in reading and 531 in writing, versus 515, 494 and 494 statewide.
In addition to Hillside Avenue and Orange Avenue Schools, which cover both elementary and middle school, the town has four elementary schools: Bloomingdale Avenue, Brookside Place, Walnut Avenue and Livingston Avenue. Lincoln School provides alternative education programs. Saint Michael’s School is a private Catholic option, available through eighth grade.
THE COMMUTE
New Jersey Transit trains take about 48 minutes to get to Manhattan, but require a change at Pennsylvania Station in Newark. Buses, via New Jersey Transit’s 113N train from North Avenue, take about 45 minutes. Cranford is 23 miles from Midtown; driving can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour.
THE HISTORY
Drawing from parts of Clark, Linden, Springfield, Union and Westfield, Cranford was incorporated in 1871.
In the Revolutionary War, grist and saw mills in the area supplied Washington’s troops. Dating to 1740, Cranford’s Williams-Droescher Mill is the oldest continually operating commercial building in New Jersey, according to the Cranford Historical Society. Commercial activity grew in the mid- to late 1800s with the railroad and the Rahway River, also the site of pleasure boating and river carnivals.
Living in Cranford, N.J. - NYTimes.com
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