ShopRite on site of former gladioli farm

The busy corner of Union Valley and Marshall Hill roads looked a lot different in the 1940s than it does today.

If we could step back in time, we would see Eddy Gola’s food market and Joe’s fish store where Walgreen’s is now located.

Mitchell’s Tavern was on the site currently occupied by Lakeland Bank, and the space now filled by ShopRite, neighboring stores and the parking lot was filled with glorious, colorful gladiolus throughout the growing season.

In the 1940s, George Manetas, of Greek descent, with his wife, whose ancestors were Dutch and Swiss, came to the township. One thing that people who knew them remembered was they were so proud to be Americans. They had tremendous love for this country and the opportunities it gave them.

Their late daughter Helen Manetas, who served as township nurse, said in 1989 that their ancestors dated back to the Mayflower.

The couple had two sons, James and Peter, and four daughters, Helen, Katherine, Ida and Jeanette. Katherine was the only daughter who married. Her husband was Edward J. Dycoff, and after their marriage they lived on Long Island N.Y.

Rows of flowers

At the Union Valley Road entrance to the current shopping center, a few decades ago there were row upon row of gladiolas in the summer and early fall and pussy willows in February.

The flowers were trucked to markets in New York City, Clifton, Passaic and other cities very early in the morning. The family and their workers were on the job long before dawn. The farmhouse was at the end of the property near where TJ Maxx is now.

George Manetas died in 1959. The West Milford property was sold in 1976 to Theodore Lappas. The new owner started to clear the property, but Bob Nicholson, one of the three men who started Lakeland Bank, couldn’t let the beautiful farmhouse be destroyed.

He was determined to save it and did so with the help of two friends: Bill Zester in real estate and Jules Carpignano, a lawyer. Both are now dead.

Zester found a vacant lot on nearby Adelaide Terrace, and with Carpignano’s legal help, Nicholson purchased the property and had the house moved there.

“We offered a proposal to the new owner of the Manetas property to remove the house at no cost to the developer,” he said, remembering. “We built a foundation on the new lot and then got a house mover to take it to its new location. The relocation took place without ever having to transport the building along the public road.”

A section of the farm near the house was used for growing vegetables, with corn, tomatoes, zucchini, string beans and other vegetables available for purchase by local residents. There were chickens on the farm and the family also sold eggs.

It was a time when summer vacation and second homes were popular, and population grew greatly throughout the township during the summer.

The Manetas family rented additional property from other area landowners to plant more flowers to meet market demands. A few years before his death, George Manetas started to rent farmland near Bridgeton in South Jersey, where the growing season was longer and the Philadelphia market was near.

The business is still thriving and is operated by new generations of the Manetas family. George’s sons continued raising gladioli after their father died. Still more farmland was bought in and around Fairmont. James died in 1986 and Peter died in 1996.

Their mother sold the West Milford farm in 1986 and moved to Chester, living there with her daughters Helen, Ida and Jeanette until she died in 1974.

ShopRite expansions

ShopRite and its satellite stores originally was in the Bearfort Shopping Center on Union Valley Road, later known as Belcher’s Run. It is now being redeveloped. Other stores there included Steinmetz’s shoe store.

The first section of the current ShopRite shopping center opened in 1968. Other businesses in the complex included Pinecliff Pharmacy (now RiteAid), which was a large double-sized store; Levine’s Men’s Clothing Store (also a double-sized store); Dennen of Radburn, a gift and card shop that moved there from Fair Lawn; Tell’s Coffee Shop; West Milford Bakery; Lazon Paint and Wallpaper, one of four satellite stores of Landzettel & Sons paint manufacturers of Fair Lawn; and West Milford Liquors. ShopRite occupied eight units. An Atlas Store was on the end with six units.

About 1970, an addition was built at the south end of the shopping center for the West Milford Post Office (now Frank’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant.)

Two years later, another building rose; Abby Quad Cinema was there. There were four small stores by the movie theater - two on each side. They were a music store that sold records, cassette tapes and audio systems; a leather shop; a Subway sandwich shop; and Tony Lembo’s florist shop. ShopRite took over spaces of some of the earlier stores.

More recently, ShopRite was renovated, with 1,500 square feet added. It reopened in summer 2018, with new features including a state-of-the-art kitchen, expanded produce department, health and wellness department, full-service fresh seafood department and a pharmacy.