Last year, an important local landmark in West Orange’s St. Cloud neighborhood went on the market and township officials began taking steps toward acquiring the property. However, just as the deal to buy the Empty Cloud Monastery seemed to be inching forward, the building’s owner had a change of heart and decided to keep it.
Mayor Susan McCartney said she feared what could happen if the picturesque estate at 29 Ridgeway Avenue fell into the wrong hands.
“When I found out it was for sale, I approached the Open Space Commission to see if they would preserve it and they voted yes,” the mayor said.
Last June, a Town Council-commissioned appraisal was published, valuing the property at $1.7 million. It would have been bought with Open Space Funds, a municipal account that is sustained with a small portion of property taxes. John Ditinyak, the township’s chief financial officer, told Essex Review that the Open Space Fund currently has $3,452,556 in its coffers.
The group of monks who own the property are incorporated as a nonprofit called Buddhist Insights Meditation, Inc. that is exempt from property taxes. Therefore, buying the property wouldn’t have contributed to a loss in township revenue, the mayor said.
Joe McCartney, chair of the Open Space Commission, said the fact that the township already owns the adjoining property, which was renamed Susan Borg Park last year after the late township planner, made acquiring the building “even more appealing.”
“We wanted to preserve it because it’s so unique and historic — it means a lot to the township and the neighborhood,” McCartney said. “Who knows what would happen if a developer comes?”
McCartney admits that the potential for it to be demolished, subdivided or become entangled in a builder’s remedy lawsuit was part of the motivation for moving forward with the appraisal. The property has no landmark designation that could prevent those scenarios from happening.
Before McCartney learned the deal was off, he was planning to host a community meeting at the monastery. “One of the things we were trying to figure out is what we could do with and what the neighborhood would tolerate,” he said.
One idea that came to mind was to use it as a new home for the West Orange Arts Council. Facing $170 million in municipal debt, the Town Council last year moved to terminate the arts organization’s lease at the township-owned property at 551 Valley Road in a cost-saving move.
Purchasing the property with Open Space Funds requires both a majority vote from the Open Space Commission and a bond ordinance from the Town Council. The largest property the township has acquired with Open Space Fund was the 94-acre Crestmont Country Club in 2021. The Essex County government also contributed to that deal.
Before Empty Cloud moved into the building, it was called the Monastery of St. Cloud, home of the Augustinian Recollects since the 1960s. The estate was not always used for religious purposes. It was originally built for Charles Schweinler, owner of Manhattan publishing firm Schweinler Press. It remained in the family until his son, Carl Schweinler, passed away in 1968. Although the home has no landmark designation, it was recommended for the National Register in historian Robert Guter’s architectural survey of the St. Cloud neighborhood published in 1992.
