WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MAY 23, 2019 27
A lost piece of M.V. colonial history
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Up until the 1980s, the Greater
Ridgewood area had two Colonialera
farmhouses that withstood
the test of time and the challenges of
development: the Onderdonk House in
Ridgewood and the Morrell House in
Middle Village.
Their importance had been ignored
for decades, but the preservation
movement across New York City that
began in the 1960s and continued on
in the years aft erward brought forth
a new appreciation for these historic
structures.
But in the end, only the Onderdonk
House — which was made a New York
City landmark in the 1970s — would be
preserved for the ages. The Morrell
house — which once housed one of the
area’s fi rst families — would meet the
wrecking ball before the end of the
1980s.
The Morrell house was erected when
Juniper Valley Road was just a dusty
dirt path cut through woods for horses
or narrow wagons, which Indians also
used, and was known as the road along
the Juniper Swamp.
The old farmhouse, a style known
as “salt box architecture,” was built by
Morrell in approximately 1719, a decade
before George Washington was born.
He was one of the fi rst settlers of this
area of Newtown now called Middle
Village.
Morrell came from the landed gentry
of England traveling to these shores in
1663 to seek his fortune in an English
settlement among the Dutch in New
Netherland.
Thomas Morrell and Hannah Glen,
his wife, founded the Morrell family in
America, where they lived in Queens
County with their off spring for more
than 12 generations. The Newtown
The Thomas Morrell house stood on Juniper Valley Road in Middle Village for more than three centuries. It was
razed in the 1980s. From “Our Community: Its History and People,” Greater Ridgewood Historical Society, 1976
records indicate that two roads were
cut through the woods to the south of
the town in 1668 in order to encourage
the development of that portion of its
jurisdiction.
One of these roads was called the
road by Juniper Swamp, which ran in
the general direction of 69th Street and
continues as Juniper Valley Road, and
75th Place and Furmanville Avenue,
and the other, Trotting Course Lane (or
road), which ran in the general direction
as the present Woodhaven Boulevard.
In order to further encourage
development, the Newtown Council
issued land grants of approximately 10
acres to its citizens. Excerpts from the
town records disclosed that T. Morrell
collected more than 100 acres of land in
the vicinity of Juniper Swamp by this
means and by purchasing these grants
from others.
The Morrell house, in spite of
centuries of use and weather, remained
in excellent condition through the 1970s.
Ecco Waltz purchased the home in 1919
and altered it to include many modern
conveniences such as central hot water
heating.
Nine generations of Morrells lived
in the house by the swamp road, and
the last male member of the Morrell
family to own and occupy the house was
Robert, the great-great-great-grandson
of Thomas and Hannah Morrell.
Robert married Sarah Van Houten
and was in the active service of our
country during the War of 1812. He died
in 1854, and the house and farm was
inherited by their daughter, Hannah
Eliza, who married Seaman Denton,
a descendant of one of the original
Newtown families. He was a prominent
real estate broker and auctioneer in the
Middle Village area.
The Morrell family had been
prominent entrepreneurs in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Thomas
Morrell, fifth in descent from the
founder, is credited for having
developed and opened Grand Street
in 1804. It later became the main
commercial street in Williamsburg.
The last owner of the Morrell House,
Ecco Waltz, lived there for more than
a half-century. He had been part of the
garment manufacturing business for
decades and was the organist at the
Community United Methodist Church
on Metropolitan Avenue for more than
50 years.
According to the Juniper Park Civic
Association, Waltz sold the home in 1984
and relocated to California following
the death of his wife. He donated much
of the dining room furniture, which
had remained in the home through
the decades, to the Greater Ridgewood
Historical Society, which used it at the
Onderdonk House.
In the years following Waltz’s
departure, the Morrell Home was
torn down for progress. Developer
Henry Fabian replaced the site with a
condominium.
Sources: Our Community: Its History
and People, Greater Ridgewood Historical
Society, 1977; and the Juniper Park Civic
Association.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or old
photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would like to
share with our readers, please write to
the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 38-
15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361, or send
an email to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.
com. Any print photographs mailed to
us will be carefully returned to you upon
request.
The condominiums at the former site of the Thomas Morrell House on Juniper Valley Road in Middle Village.
Photo by Christopher Bride/PropertyShark
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
