Teaneck estate that started holiday open house is just a memory. See what happened to it

As 1886 came to a close, Congressman William Walter Phelps did something that today would seem unfathomable.

Phelps threw open the doors of his beloved Teaneck estate, Teaneck Grange, to anyone and everyone. The sprawling mansion, known across Bergen County for its striking architecture and prized art collection, had just been completed after years of renovation.

To mark the occasion, Phelps, the son of a railroad baron, planned a holiday open house, inviting neighbors, friends and even distant acquaintances to experience the grandeur firsthand at Christmastime.

Teaneck Grange was no ordinary home. Originally a simple Dutch farmhouse, it had grown into a 350-foot-long estate, transformed by architects into a series of rooms that each showcased Phelps’ interests.

Every corner of the estate was filled with objects collected from his travels. There were rare tapestries, mosaics, European bronzes and carpets from distant markets.

The gallery, a newly completed space at the far end of the mansion, was built to display paintings by renowned artists of the day. It also doubled as a ballroom. Guests could dance or marvel at the walls lined with pieces, such as Frederic Edwin Church’s “Damascus” and a striking portrait of President James A. Garfield, which had been gifted to Phelps by Garfield’s widow.

The holiday open house was the talk of Bergen County. Hundreds attended, mingling in the large halls and reception rooms. They wandered through rooms lined with oak-panel bookshelves and stared up at vaulted ceilings as they warmed themselves near massive fireplaces that Phelps had installed to reflect the home’s rustic origins.

An eloquent statesman and world traveler, Phelps welcomed everyone personally, moving through the crowd with ease and making sure that each guest — from local farmers to business leaders from New York — felt at home.

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The success of the open house inspired Phelps to host a similar event the following year, specifically on New Year’s Day in 1888. As word spread, even more people attended — 500, according to The Montclair Times — crowding the hallways and filling every room. His daughter Marian hosted in his wife Eleanor’s place. Guests took in views of Teaneck’s rolling lawns, admired the library’s immense collection of books, and enjoyed refreshments served by the spacious dining room’s grand bay window.

The 1888 event was memorable not only for its scale but also for an L. (possibly Lewis L.) Fosdick poem published in the aftermath which captured the magic of the day that in part read:

“The yule log burned and threw back

The challenge to rays of sun—for hospitality.

The warm grasp, the kind words, the hearty welcome,

Were cheer enough from genial host

Held high in the esteem of a favored people.

May the New Year bring him his heart’s desire;

May it bless indeed his own;

May his cup o’erflow with health and honor;

And may the Grange ever stand

A fit setting for Bergen’s noblest son.”

The grandeur of Teaneck Grange, however, would be short-lived. Just months later, on the night of April 1, 1888, the expansive mansion was lost to fire.

While Phelps was in Washington, his staff at Teaneck detected a strong smell of gas coming from the art gallery. When a window was opened to ventilate the room, the gas ignited, causing an explosion that quickly spread through the gallery and into the rest of the house. By the time help arrived from nearby Hackensack and Englewood, the mansion had been reduced to ruins.

Phelps returned the next morning, finding only a few items salvaged from the fire by neighbors and his daughter who had helped during the blaze. The Garfield portrait, along with nearly all other paintings in the gallery, had been lost. Less than five months later, the remaining stables and outbuildings also burned. Phelps quipped that he had been pursued by the “fire fiend.”

Only the stone walls and a few tall chimneys remained. In the following years, they became a vine-covered curiosity that invited locals to reminisce or at least imagine. Phelps moved his family to an adjoining property, the Griggs House, from which he continued to sow the property with white pines, Norway spruce and American elms. But he never rebuilt Teaneck Grange, and the era of the open house ended.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Teaneck estate that started open house tradition had tragic ending

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