Zelie's Little House of Interior Decorations

Hiram and Zelie moved their young family to Hiram's hometown of Rutherford, New Jersey, after Hiram retired from the Army in 1928 and took a position working at Bell Laboratories at the beginning of 1929.

In Rutherford, Zelie opened her shop, The Little House of Interior Decorations, where she offered her services as an interior decorator and sold decorative accessories and gifts. The shop, located at 57 Park Avenue, was in a tiny, triangular-shaped building on a sharp corner, and was just a 5-minute walk from her elegant Victorian home in Ridge Road.

Newspaper ad in The Bergen Evening Record, (Hackensack, NJ) Monday, November 27, 1933, page 4.
(This is the only newspaper ad for Zelie's shop that I have been able to find.)

Zelie probably ran this business for only a few years as after her youngest child, Hi Jr, graduated from Rutherford High School in June 1937 and then attended Columbia University in New York City, the family left Rutherford. They bought a farm 3 miles outside of Flemington, New Jersey, but for several years also rented an apartment in Greenwich Village. It was at the Flemington farm where Zelie would later become a renowned breeder of dachshunds.

1932, Zelie's teenaged daughter, Hope, outside Zelie's shop

Zelie featured in newspaper ad for the Bamberger's department store in Newark, New Jersey,
The Bergen Evening Record (Hackensack, NJ), Monday, December 4, 1933, page 9.

Close-up of section featuring Zelie

Published 29 December 2024.