"Rescuing an authentic piece of Saddle River's past from demolition and giving it new life opposite our landmark buildings in our Historic District." That is how Mayor Albert Kurpis described the plan in a statement reported by NorthJersey.com in November 2025. Eleven months later, the red barn stands at 66 East Allendale Road, where East Allendale meets West Saddle River Road.
Most people driving by take the barn for a nice touch at the village crossroads. The borough fought for years in court over this parcel, and the price was set by debating a building that never went up. The first structure the borough has placed there is a barn it moved for $19,000.
A gas station, then a bank that was never built
The corner has been commercial for a long time. According to the borough, the former Exxon station stood where Saddle River's blacksmith business once operated. The parcel covers 2.13 acres. A 2012 New Jersey Appellate Division opinion says a private owner bought it in December 2002, while Exxon Mobil still leased the site and sublet it to a station operator. Exxon removed the station, cleaned up contamination and left in 2005.
The lot is split-zoned. About 31,799 square feet sit in the O-1 office zone and about 60,984 square feet in the R-1 residential zone. In the office zone, improved lot coverage is capped at 30 percent. In October 2004, the owner applied for a permit to use the residential portion as parking for a proposed 10,000-square-foot bank. The permit was denied because the plan exceeded the 30 percent coverage cap. The owner then asked the zoning board for a use variance. Several people spoke against the building at the hearing, and the owner withdrew the application before the board acted.
On November 8, 2006, the borough filed to take the property by eminent domain for a public park.
What a building that never existed cost
The price became a fight over that withdrawn bank. A court-appointed panel of three commissioners appraised the property at $1,593,625. Both sides appealed and asked for a jury trial. At a ten-day trial in October and November 2010, the central question was whether a buyer would have seen a "reasonable probability" that the zoning board would grant relief from the 30 percent cap and allow the bank. If so, the land was worth considerably more. The trial judge let the jury weigh that probability. The final judgment was $5,250,000, and the Appellate Division affirmed it in 2012.
The numbers tied to this one corner, side by side:
| Figure | Amount | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Commissioners' appraisal | $1,593,625 | Condemnation proceeding, after the 2006 filing |
| Final condemnation judgment | $5,250,000 | Affirmed on appeal, 2012 |
| Early estimate to move the barn | Up to $130,000 | Borough, November 2025 |
| Revised estimate to move the barn | $58,000 | Borough, November 2025 |
| Borough's share of the move | $19,000 | Borough, November 2025 |
The difference between the first appraisal and the final judgment is about $3.66 million. Most of it traces to a jury's view of what the zoning board might have approved. For a borough where land-use decisions shape almost every property, that is an expensive lesson in how a single variance question can drive value.
The land then waited for a use. Mayor Kurpis told NorthJersey.com that a committee was formed in 2017 to decide what to do with the corner. The borough's 2010 master plan had earmarked part of the parcel for a Saddle River Crossing trail, running east through Rindlaub Park toward Borough Hall.
Where the barn came from
The barn was not built for this corner. It belonged to the Achenbach House at 184 Chestnut Ridge Road, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Its outbuildings included a Victorian barn north of the house. The borough's record shows a chain of land-use decisions that eventually freed the barn to move:
- 2002. The property was subdivided. A Planning Board soil-movement approval for the new lot at 4 Apple Ridge Road required moving the barn and the Achenbach driveway to the neighboring lot.
- 2004. A fire destroyed most of the Achenbach House, and it was never rebuilt. The barn stayed on Apple Ridge Road.
- 2023. The Apple Ridge Road property sold.
- March 2024. The Planning Board modified the barn condition but kept the driveway condition.
- November and December 2025. The owners agreed to donate the barn. After a unanimous vote on November 3, the board adopted Resolution 25-16 on December 2 and rescinded both old conditions.
- Late 2025. The barn was moved to 66 East Allendale Road.
NorthJersey.com described the deal in plain terms. The new owners let the borough take the barn for historic preservation, and in exchange the driveway-removal condition from the 2002 approval was declared "satisfied." Money held in escrow since the 2023 closing went to a family trust and helped pay for taking the barn apart and rebuilding it. A separate $19,000 personal contribution matched the borough's share. So a planning condition left open for more than twenty years ended up paying for a preservation project.
What actually arrived
The National Park Service documentation describes a clapboard barn with a peaked shingle roof, a hayloft, two box stalls and a one-car garage. It also lists a dovecote, a manure chute, large batten and sliding doors and an upper hay door. The cupola was added in 1963. The NPS gives the footprint as 24 by 32 feet. The borough's announcement gives 25 by 36. The borough calls it an 1800s barn, while the NPS file gives no construction year.
Borough bill lists from May through August 2026 trace the work since the move: exterior painting, replacement glass, an exterior door, a new electrical panel and lighting, utility trenching, a new well, and grading and seeding. In 2025, the mayor said the well and electrical connections would come from future budgets and that the barn's original doors and details would be restored. Those utilities show up in the 2026 records, so that part of the plan has been carried out.
The company it keeps
The barn fits the corner because the crossroads was a working village long before it was a postcard. The Saddle River Center Historic District joined the National Register in 1986. It runs along West Saddle River Road at the East Allendale Road junction. 66 East Allendale Road appears in the district's property survey. The neighbors named in the federal and borough historic records are mostly places where people worked:
- Saddle River Hotel, 69 East Allendale Road. Built in 1837 as a hotel.
- Woodruff-Packer Foundry, 70 East Allendale Road. A foundry from the late 1840s that made agricultural implements.
- DeBaun Grocery and Mowerson Store. Early 20th-century country stores.
- Barnstable Court. The William Packer House and its outbuildings, an industrial and residential complex later converted to new uses. The borough's 2010 master plan placed the restaurant at 2 Barnstable Court. Today the Saddle River Inn operates as a contemporary French fine-dining restaurant.
- Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, 96 East Allendale Road. Dated 1820-21 and still holding Sunday worship.
A few pieces of that village are gone. The nomination records that an 1815 schoolhouse at 88 to 90 East Allendale Road and an Ackerman mill no longer stand. The blacksmith's corner that became a gas station and nearly became a bank now holds a barn with two box stalls, a hayloft and a manure chute.
What is still open, and a walk for this month
The borough has not announced what the barn will be used for or when it will be dedicated. Its stated purpose is historic preservation, and the project page says nothing about opening it to visitors. For now it is a building to look at from the road. Questions about the project go to Borough Administrator Richard Molinari.
East of the barn, the borough is also working at Rindlaub Park. The park has ball fields, tennis courts, a Great Lawn and a bandshell. On August 17, 2026, Resolution 166-26 awarded Downes Tree Services Inc. a $108,285 contract for an artificial putting green of about 1,000 square feet, plus trees and gardens. The total is a $58,000 base bid plus three alternates. No completion has been reported, so expect work underway rather than a finished green.
The easiest way to see all of this together is on foot, the evening of Saturday, October 17. Zion Lutheran's Oktoberfest runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at 96 East Allendale Road, with German food, beer and live Oompah music. Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 for ages 12 to 20, and free for children under 12. From the church, it is a short walk west along East Allendale Road, past the hotel and foundry addresses, to the barn on the corner.
Corners like this one show how much Saddle River's look comes from zoning and planning decisions. Sheryl has spent eleven years on Upper Saddle River's Zoning Board of Adjustment and knows what those decisions mean for a property's value. If a condition, a variance or a landmark question affects a home you own or are considering, Sheryl Epstein-Romano welcomes you to request a confidential consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.