There were 10 or 12 self-sufficient original communities in West Milford between the 1800s and 1950s.
Along the way, the strong winds of changing times prevailed and these communities became known only as part of the township.
Each of these communities usually had a school, church and general store, where the residents could buy anything they needed. There was no reason for them to go very far from their homes.
In the mid-1940s, the last of the rural schoolhouses was closed and all students from kindergarten through eighth grade were bused to the newly built “modern” Hillcrest School on Macopin Road.
New families, moving in from the cities and suburbs, expected to have the services and facilities they had in their previous towns. The changes they wanted came about.
The old rural school buildings were put up for sale by the Board of Education soon after each one of about nine that were left in the late 1940s closed.
The Echo Lake building, a one-room school when it was built, had a second room added somewhere along the way.
Probably the last of the rural school buildings remaining, the building on Germantown Road next to St. Joseph Church, was put up for auction after it closed about 1946.
Floyd Struble, a church trustee, represented the church and was the only bidder. The building and property were sold to the church for $1,000.
Nothing was the same in West Milford (established in 1934 when parts of Pompton Township were split up) after the end of World War II.
People who built homes in summer vacation communities, first established in the 1920s, were turning them into year-round dwellings.
Some Catholics wanted a parochial education for their children, and young couples whose parents and grandparents had gone to Echo Lake public school - a new local generation – also wanted to have a parochial school in their community.
A fund drive to build one on the old Echo Lake School site began in 1955 and $50,000 was raised, with a ground-breaking for a parochial school happening soon after the money was raised.
When the building was completed Sept. 23, 1956, the Most Rev. James A. McNulty, Bishop of the Paterson Catholic Diocese, officiated when the cornerstone was dedicated.
The Rev. Cornelius Kelly, OFM, survived the big challenge facing him when he arrived to became parish pastor, filling the position held for 28 years by the Rev. Berard Vogt, OFM.
Throughout his time at St. Joseph Parish, Father Berard lived at the Butler monastery, where he was also a philosophy teacher for men studying for the priesthood.
Parents who wanted their children to have a parochial school education had to send them to St. Anthony Parochial School in Butler before St. Joseph School was built. In those days, the children had a long cold, bus ride in the early winter morning darkness.
When the new school opened, only three classrooms were completed.
Three representatives of the Sisters of Charity religious order arrived to teach in the school. There was no residence available for them - just a promise of a future convent. Initially, they lived at the convent at St. Anthony Parish in Butler.
Unfinished schoolrooms that would be their temporary home were still without facilities, including water and light.
Before the end of the year, the sisters were able to move into a temporary convent: four rooms in the new building designated as their living space. A convent building was built in 1963 on the former Otto Hill property, next door to the school.
Bishop James Navagh, McNulty’s successor, blessed the sisters’ new home when he was at the parish to administer the sacrament of confirmation that year. By then, the school was operating with eight full classrooms.
In the beginning, Sister Helen Aloysius left after two weeks, uncomfortable with the rural lifestyle. Also leaving soon afterward was Sister Catherine Winifred, who was there from 1956 to 1962.
Other early teachers were third/fourth grade teacher Sister Maria Margaret (1956-61) and first/second grade teacher, Sister Mary James (1956-61).
A later extension to the school building included an auditorium with a full stage and two side rooms plus another classroom.
George Bauman, father of Elinor Bauman Monahan, lived next door to the church property. He was a retired Hoboken police communications expert and, although not a member of the church, he was a good neighbor who volunteered to install a state-of-the-art sound system at the school.
In May 1964, a production of “Around the World in 80 Days” was done on the stage by the students with the help if Bauman’s communication system.
After the Sisters of Charity left the Echo Lake community, two Presentation Order Sisters arrived to serve the St. Joseph Parish. Until this year, Sister Janet Brisky was pastoral associate and Sister Geraldine Corio was director of faith information. Currently, no nuns are assigned to the parish.
Members of the first eighth-grade graduation class of St. Joseph Parochial School in 1959 were Susan Allen, Michele Collinge, Karen Ladika, Patricia Lenahan, Jane Romain, Karen Struble, Patricia Ann Whritenour, Paul Amico, Richard Bartley, Louis Blanke, Leonard Dockrill, James Carroll Gillen, Thomas Glueck, James Marion, Robert Pecci and Arthur Thompson.
Highest class honors went to Lenahan and Thompson. The Rev. Cornelius Kelly conferred the diplomas. Rt. Rev. Joseph H. Brady addressed the graduates and spoke about the history of the Catholic Church.
A school reunion in 2016 was attended by about 120 people in the school’s all-purpose room. Among them were 13 members of the Kitchell family. Edward and Katherine Kitchell sent all 10 children to the school. The Kitchell grandchildren also were students at the school.
Five people who were teachers at the school were present at the reunion. They included Judy Genthon (1965-86); Sister Maureen Dunne (principal 1970-77); Sister Elizabeth Davies (grade one, 1975-82); Linda Kostenko (grade 7 and 8, 1980-2001) and Barbara Bardine (grade 5, 1987-2006).
For a time, some church services were held in the school building, then needed because of the large number of people attending Masses in the small country church. Services now are held only in the church.
Franciscan Friars no longer staff the parish. The Rev. Jakub Crzybowski, a native of Poland, is the current church administrator.