Beautify Sloatsburg is the official Facebook page for the Sloatsburg Revitalization Committee, chaired by Darrell Frasier.

The on-going renovation work at the old Blue Barn property in Sloatsburg got Edward Marse thinking about the history of that neighborhood along Route 17 in the village center.

View of what may have originally been four Waldron brother houses along Route 17 in Sloatsburg, NY — with the parcels given as gifts from Matthew Waldron.

A member of the Sloatsburg Revitalization Committee, Marse recalled operating an antique shop at the original Blue Barn as a teenager and many leisurely conversations with Mrs. Marie Waldron “around an ancient oak clawfoot table in her spacious, old-fashioned kitchen at the main house.”

At the time, the Waldron family still owned the Blue Barn property and Mrs. Waldron told Marse colorful tales of Sloatsburg’s bygone days, when there was a Waldron’s Row of stores and shops and residences along Route 17 in the village center.

Marse discussed his Waldron conversations with Village of Sloatsburg Historian Harrison Bush so he might separate fact from fiction. Bush’s observations lent clarity to things Marse remembered from his table talks with Mrs. Waldron, who was the wife of Carlton Waldron, grandson to Matthew Waldron known in some historical documents as “Mathew the blacksmith”, who was born in Johnsontown (now the Johnsontown Road area) in 1824.

One piece of history Mrs. Waldron passed along to Marse was the revelation that all four houses that front Route 17 across from the Sloatsburg Public Library were Waldron brother properties, given to them by their father Matthew Waldron.

Visit the new Beautify Sloatsburg to read more about Waldron Row in Sloatsburg. The official Facebook page for the Sloatsburg Revitalization Committee, Beautify Sloatsburg was set up to encourage “conversation about Sloatsburg today and tomorrow.”