This old house

Imagine the ELI building 50 years ago, with a pony in its backyard, a rose garden beautiful enough for a wedding reception and the UD president for a next-door neighbor!

Margery Foraker (second from left) returned to 189 West Main Street with her family to visit the house where she grew up.

These were some of the childhood memories of a surprise visitor from Colorado this summer. Mrs. Margery Dann Foraker stopped by the Institute while visiting Newark with her sons, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.

Foraker’s parents bought the house after the original owners — the Curtis family, whose factory gave its name to Paper Mill Road in Newark— left in 1945. Her parents’ room, now the office and classroom on the second floor used by ELI instructor Janet Louise, was the one Mrs. Foraker wanted to see first.

“This was the best room,” she said, recalling her mother’s dressing table all along the windows at the back.

The other second floor rooms were bedrooms for her and her siblings. Foraker recalled that on the third floor, where Susan Coakley now has her office and classroom, was the billiards room where the original owner and his men friends smoked cigars and played pool. No women allowed.

ELI director Dr. Stevens’ office on the first floor still contains the fireplace with marble around it that Foraker’s mother had ordered from Georgia, her home state.

The basement held the laundry, a toilet and a huge storage area. It also contained a gun closet for her father’s shotguns. One son remembered being scared in the basement, where his father and uncles would pretend to be ghosts. Bats appeared sometimes, too, and one was flushed down the toilet. He never used that bathroom again.

Foraker had always loved the beautiful staircase in the ELI lobby. In fact, she said, it made a wonderful backdrop for her wedding pictures. Her wedding was held in a nearby church, and the reception was in the backyard, with its row of roses and magnolia trees. A paddock and small barn with two horses and a pony could be found there, too.

“There have certainly been many changes to the house,” Foraker said, “but I am glad it is still being used and appreciated.”