This is Rita's story...

After the war, Tommy and I were married and lived with my mother on Market Street. For years we had admired the desolate, burned out brownstone on the corner of Burhans Avenue and West Broadway, but the price tag, $10,000, was beyond our reach.

But then one day I was reading the classifieds and there it was, reduced to $5,000. Part of the property had been sold for development, and the big old house with the foot thick walls would have cost a fortune to tear down, so they cut the price and hoped someone would buy it. With money borrowed from my uncle, we did just that.

The house sat alone on a large, rolling meadow. We entertained visions of renovating the house and living like landed gentry. But there was the problem of money. We didn't have any, so we decided to live upstairs and devote the downstairs to gainful pursuit. We built a long bar with plenty of barstools and a couple of tables. A little more than a year after buying it, we moved in and opened the Brownstone House for business.

The original house was built in the early 1800's, and we wanted to recreate an authentic colonial atmosphere. We preserved the hand hewn beams and open fireplaces, and filled the nooks and crannies with antique crocks, shaving mugs and anything else we could find. In the 1940s and 50’s, "good junk" was easy and cheap to come by. In fact, people often brought their castoffs right to our door. All of it was welcome, and much of it I still have and treasure.

As our reputation for drinks and grilled cheese sandwiches grew, customers began to ask for party facilities. At the time, banquet houses were a new idea and somewhat hard to find. To fill the need, we built a new room. We roasted chickens and beef, we mixed drinks, and we served cake. We hired some friends, and put family to work. A banquet house was born.

Brownstone House

351 W Broadway

Paterson, NJ 07522

(973) 595-8582

thebrownstone.com