Manville, NJ ... Revolution on the Millstone

Manville Saw Mill Revisited

Michael Polnasek — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:51:23 +0000

The Manville Saw Mill • Photo by Neal Ranauro • Click To Enlarge

A few of these photos will look familiar to some of you. That’s because 3 of them have appeared on here before. The mystery of the Manville Saw Mill has just still not been solved. I decided to look back into Neal Ranauro’s archive and post all of the photos of here. The photo quality is also a little better this time. So let’s talk about this one more time… and please, if you know anything I need help on this one.

Here’s what we know based on Ranauro’s notes. These photos were taken in 1920. The Mill was allegedly located “between The Manville Elks and Christ the King School”. Here are a few more photos, you can click on them to expand them. They will expand twice.

It would make sense to me that a saw mill would exist behind the Manville Elks since there are woods back there, but I don’t recall in any of my 80s childhood adventures through those woods seeing a cleared out space of young trees. The readership on this site has exponentially grown, so I ask you once again…

Do any of you recall or know about The Manville Saw Mill?

Birdseye view off of the Manville water tower

Michael Polnasek — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:44:24 +0000

Photo by Neal Ranauro • Click to Enlarge

I have a few random photos, that are not necessarily about anything. They are just random views around town or what have you. I’ve posted a bunch of them up here over the years, and since this blog is becoming a little too large to scroll through every post on the main page I wanted somewhere to put them all… so I created a category called “scenic town photos”. Hopefully one day I’ll get around to linking all the random ones I already posted to this new category. So without further adue here are two photos from Neal Ranauro’s archive taken from atop the Manville water tower. They are both from the same angle, the one at the top focuses on Roosevelt School and Johns Manville, while the bottom photo is more of an areal style landscape photo . A lot of detail can be seen in both photos if you enlarge them (they will each enlarge twice). These are great.

Photo by Neal Ranauro • Click to Enlarge

Petey’s Films • Manville Businesses part 2

Michael Polnasek — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:45:03 +0000

Hey all just wanted to continue with the Businesses portion of the Petey’s Films. This one focuses more on the storefront aspect of local stores and such. This one is a great street level view of the young towns thriving shops. Most of you will have heard of some of these places. Enjoy.

Petey’s Films • Manville Businesses

Michael Polnasek — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:57:19 +0000

This next episode of Petey’s film’s really strikes a personal chord with me, and not just because it’s about Manville. You all know that I’ve been sharing the old Manville News issues on here thanks to the good graces and help of Kevin Shutack. Kevin’s family owned the local print shop, which produced the town’s first newspapers, which is why he had them laying around all this time. As a graphic designer, part time letterpress printer, and employee at a local newspaper, I was floored at the opening scene of this video being the old Manville News. Now that I’ve spent the year archiving these I get to actually watch them being produced! Not only that, but I get to watch them being printed on a letterpress machine, and using a Linotype machine, old printing methods which I also happen to be in the practice of doing myself as a hobby. Anyway, not to focus too much on one section, this video highlights a few other businesses in the Manville area, including London Fur Dyeing Company, (cigar maker?), liquor store, Lloyd Garment Company (21 South 3rd Ave). As always if anyone can elaborate on these films please leave a comment! Thanks again to Gary Carmon for digitally archiving and sharing these!

Petey’s Films • Random People

Michael Polnasek — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:02:26 +0000

This is another film clip from the legendary Petey Semenick film collection. This is another clip transferred off of a VHS tape to digital video by Gary Carmon. I believe a lot of people are familiar with these films, as there were shown frequently at Petey’s bar back in the day. Frankly a lot of these clips are a mystery to both myself and Gary, so if you recognize anyone in the films, please leave a comment. Gary has a lot more great Manville history on his website as well so if you can’t get enough of this head on over there. There will be plenty more of these to come, so stay tuned. And please if you are in or can identify anyone in the videos let us know!

Manville News, November 14, 1941

Michael Polnasek — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:42:49 +0000

Hey everyone. Squeezed out another issue of the old Manville News today! I know, right about now you’re saying “stop making us download and read stuff and just make with the movies already” but like I said before… I want to make sure these are archived for everyone’s use forever. I’ve been noticing a few downloads every time, so there are a few people that care. Anyway suffer through this one for now and I’ll get back to the eye cookies for a minute. For right now though here is a download LINK!

Manville News, November 7, 1941

Michael Polnasek — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:29:15 +0000

Alright, well I managed to get a second issue scanned today. Thanks goodness for slow work days! This issue is for November 7th, 1941. There’s a lot more local content in the issue than the last. Only 6 more issues until we finish out 1941… and while that feels like an epic milestone, there are still a lot of these issues left. This is a good one though. Heres a download LINK!

Manville News, October 31, 1941

Michael Polnasek — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:16:47 +0000

Alright, let us take a break from the movies for a minute to squeeze in an archived issue of the old Manville News. This issue is October 31st, 1941. The cover stories include the opening of the Manville Municipal Building, which is pretty cool. The is a lot of political info in this issue, and again these are now scanned with text recognition software, so they are searchable. Here is a download LINK.

Reflections of Manville

Michael Polnasek — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:08:29 +0000

Hey everyone, it’s been awhile since i’ve made a post on here. I want to continue with the great video clip segments, since folks seem to be enjoying them. I’ve mentioned in the previous posts that we owe a tremendous thanks to Gary Carmon for not only uncovering these, but spending his time and money to rescue them from obscurity. The following clips are from a program called “Reflections of Manville” It’s a show I’ve been hearing about for a few years now, but was unable to see it until today. This is an incredible & formerly lost history of Manville. Great, great stuff. As always I’d love to hear feedback/memories etc.

Vintage Manville Films • Garages

Michael Polnasek — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:07:29 +0000

Alright everyone, here is another great film from the collection of Gary Carmon, who has been digitizing and editing an old VHS handed down from Petey Semenick Jr. into these small clips. This one is pretty long in comparison to the previous ones, and it’s of the Manville auto garages. These films might be familiar, as I understand they used to be shown at Petey’s bar in Manville back in the day. There are more of these coming… stay tuned!