Closter: A New Home and a Business

Three months later, in October, Mr. Asmus wrote to my husband. He wrote, “I'm getting too old to keep up this hard work. My wife recently died and I only have a daughter who is about 40 and unmarried. We want to settle in a much smaller place. I will let you have the business for $35,000 less. I wanted you to be the first one to know. My wife expressed to me that you looked like nice, hardworking people, that you would enjoy living here and keeping the place up to par.” Mrs. Asmus had passed away with a heart condition right after our first encounter with her.

My husband sold our house in Madison, took money from the Building Loan and money we had in the bank. We also borrowed from Tony's sister Lunette, my brother and a few friends. We had no silent partner. Mr. Asmus gave us the mortgage. We bought the 57 acres of land with a brook, three large greenhouses and one small one, a huge packing shed with an ice box and an office. The ice box was as big as two rooms put together. The ice man would come every day to fill the ice box with ice. There was a barn large enough to hold three cars. There were also animal stalls, a chicken house and a gasoline tank! All the tractors and equipment, 35,000 rose bushes under glass, carnations, chrysanthemums, stephanotis also came with the purchase.

We also got a beautiful old Colonial home. It was 150 years old according to the record we got, but it was built before that. The house had Dutch doors, a large entry hall, a living room, dining room, a very large kitchen, four bedrooms, a bathroom and a storage room all on the first floor. The rest of the bedrooms and other rooms were on the second floor. The house was on one acre of land with a tennis court.

Our business was one of the three largest businesses in Closter in 1947. My husband was soon called the Rose King of Bergen County. They used to put rose symbols on the high school rings.