Sneden-Happel House

[Home] [Up]

Sneden-Happel House
c. 1863 / 1921

Historic Site No. 20
24 Rockleigh Road

Links
Sneden Family
Happel Family

         In 1862, upon the death of Jacob Sneden, land came to his son, Robert Newton Sneden who built a house on the site c.1872. The house burned, likely not completely, in 1898.

“When Mr R. N. Sneden’s house was burned a month or so since, his mother, Mrs Jacob Sneden was carried from the second story by Miss Beasley & Miss Sloat. She heard the cries of the men putting ladders against the house, but did not know the reason for all the noise till hurried by the young ladies down the stairs. – Sat. Oct 9, 1898."*

* W.S. Gilman: Palisades Notes. p. 187.
m/s, Palisades Free Library, Palisades, NY

         The Happel House is a 1921 Vernacular Queen Anne 2½ story wood-frame gabled cottage with clapboard siding next to Borough Hall. The present house was built on the site of and incorporated portions (especially in the foundation) of the c.1872 structure of Robert Newton Sneden, Sr.
        Queen Anne styling is seen in the bay window on the south and west (front) sides, the addition of shingles, imbricated pattern, to rounded wall surfaces under bay windows and by a modest version of a wrap-around Queen Anne porch.
          A frame barn to the rear, probably older than the house, was replaced in 2002.

People Who Lived There

c.1869-1898
Robert Newton Sneden (1840-1899) & Catherine Jane Terhune-Sneden (1847-1914)

1897-1898 Robert Newton Sneden (1840-1899) & Catherine Jane Terhune-Sneden (1847-1914)
Cornelia Ann Rudd-Sneden (1805-1901)

1898-1899
Robert Newton Sneden (1840-1899) & Catherine Jane Terhune-Sneden (1847-1914)

1905- ?
Henry Happel & Amelia Happel

Herman Happel & Bessie Happel

      ? - 2001 Raymond Lynch & Flora Happel-Shaffer-Lynch

2002 -           Raymond Shaffer

Map References

Harrington Township (1876)
Newton Sneden

Beers (1891)
N. Sneden

References

Bergen County Historic Sites Survey, Borough of Rockleigh. 1981-1982.
Bergen County Office of Cultural and Historic Affairs, Hackensack, NJ