Those who live near Woodland Avenue in West Orange will tell you how special the stables are to them.
“It’s part of the neighborhood’s charm,” said Elizabeth Reeves. “It was really enjoyable to see the girls riding their horses.”
When the property went up for sale last year, locals like Reeves feared not only the loss of this beloved place but what might replace it.
“We were afraid it would be turned into housing – I know people in my neighborhood are worried about overdevelopment,” Reeves said. “The traffic situation is pretty bad right now.”
The neighborhood lucked out when an award-winning equestrian Brianne Goutal bought the stables and vowed to preserve them. But the whole ordeal woke up town officials to the possibility that some future owner of the property might not be so preservation-minded.
“The next time around that may not be the case,” said Brian Feeney, chair of the Historic Preservation Commission at their September meeting.
Feeney’s commission plans to vote on designating the stables a local historic landmark later this year, leaving the matter in the hands of the Planning Board and Town Council to approve. The way the designation works is that any future owner would require the HPC’s approval to demolish the stables, the riding hall, and the outdoor arena. If the landmarking process goes through, the property would become the sixth new local landmark created in the past two years.
Mayor Susan McCartney, credited for putting the plan into motion, originally wanted to acquire the stables with Open Space funds and lease it out to the Bergen Equestrian Center. However, there was one hitch. In order to buy the land, the commission needed the Town Council to approve the cost of an appraisal. Last year, in May, no one on the council made a motion to approve that resolution, so the motion failed, and the plan died.
It’s worth mentioning that, during that time, the council was facing the bleak options of raising taxes or laying off municipal employees. In the past five years, the township had already made two major land purchases – Rock Spring Golf Course in 2019 for $11 million and the downtown redevelopment zone in 2021 for $12.5 million – that made acquiring more land concerning to Councilwoman Tammy Williams, who cited “bad timing.”
“I am not in support of an appraisal of the equestrian center, given the increase in the municipal budget,” Williams said. “We have 13 parcels that we need to do something with. We are not in the business of keeping horses, selling horses, and real estate.”
Councilman Bill Rutherford agreed. “We are in no position to buy anything else until we offload some of the stuff that we already purchased,” he said.
McCartney argued that leasing out the facility would have recouped their investment. In the end, Goutal and her husband – real estate developer Romain Marteau – bought the property, settling the issue. “I was pleasantly surprised that the new owner wanted to preserve it,” McCartney said.
In the early 1900s, horse riding became all the rage among the growing middle class. West Orange became a major equestrian epicenter with two horse shows – one at the Armory on Pleasant Valley Way and the other at the stables on Woodland Avenue.
“It was the Far Hills before the Far Hills became the horse center of New Jersey,” said Marty Feitlowitz, the HPC’s vice chair.
The stables have gone by different names throughout the decades but it began as the Montclair Riding Club in 1927. The original venue burned down. The stables, the riding hall, and the outdoor arena were rebuilt in 1938. All still exist today. It was last the home of the Essex Equestrian Center. At one point it was called the largest indoor riding hall in New Jersey.
The stables are well-known locally for the mural on the riding hall. There are actually five artworks across the grounds all by British artist Gary Saville who, in 1991, used a carved stucco technique that is popular in England.
Patrick Harshbarger, the architectural historian who authored the designation report, believes the property could be eligible for the National Register. One reason is because of its association with Olympic gold medalist Frank Chapot, who used to train at these facilities. Another, Harshbarger said, is because equestrian sports was one of the first athletic fields where women could compete.
“This was one of the first sports in the United States that really opens up for young women who do compete equally,” said Harshberger, principal at Hunter Research, the firm that authored the landmark designation report.
The only thing that might prevent the property from reaching the National Register is, about two years, it underwent a renovation that significantly altered the original architecture.
“It’s changed a lot, but it can be brought back,” Harshbarger said. “That may be a goal.”
