Memorabilia provides glimpse of old Freehold

Steinberg collection

includes bits & pieces

of community’s history

BY DICKMETZGAR

Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — One of the most unique and interesting memorabilia collections in the area is now in the possession of the Monmouth County Historical Association.

For more than 25 years, Carl N. Steinberg has collected hundreds of items, big and small, from the county seat’s past. Steinberg is a local real estate developer, a former furniture dealer and a former Freehold Borough councilman.

The items depict all facets of the Freehold area’s past, although the bulk of the more than 300 relics do much to chronicle the area’s businesses that flourished over the years.

Lee Ellen Griffith, director of the historical association, said the nonprofit organization has acquired Steinberg’s collection of memorabilia, parts of which will be placed on public display at the association’s Court Street museum from time to time.

PHOTOS BY FARRAH MAFFAI staff Clockwise from top left — Among the items acquired by the Monmouth County Historical Association from Carl Steinberg is the original glass door from the office of the Freehold Transcript. Memorabilia included in the collection includes signs from Freehold banks. Carl N. Steinberg looks at a picture of James J. Pettit. Pettit was the chief of the Freehold Fire Department from 1897-99. Items from the A&M Karagheusian rug mill.

The collection will officially be known as the Carl N. Steinberg Collection.

"The focus of Carl’s collection is on the business history of Freehold," Griffith said. "Not all of the collection will be on display at one time; many of the items will be displayed as part of various exhibitions as appropriate. For example, in the past Carl lent us items when we had a display about the A&M Karagheusian rug mill. When we have a Battle of Monmouth display we might use some of his items. Some of his items could be used in our ongoing displays depicting the area’s agricultural past. His collection covers many areas of Freehold’s past."

Steinberg, a resident of Freehold Township, was born and raised in the borough. He collected many items depicting the history of Freehold High School, including yearbooks, photos of athletic teams from the early years of the 20th century, and old records and report cards.

He even salvaged a plate-glass window from the front door of the former Freehold Transcript offices on South Street. He also recovered intact copies of the newspaper from its early days.

While there is something special about each of the items collected by Steinberg, here are some examples of what was included in the collection he turned over to the historical association:

A clipping about A.A. Zimmerman, the world-class bicycle racer from Freehold who dominated the sport in the late 1800s; the register from the American Hotel on East Main Street from 1918; a Freehold High School yearbook from 1939; a framed photo of Freehold Raceway in 1919; framed photos of the Freehold graduating classes of 1923 and 1939; a framed photo of the Freehold High School football team of 1920; a photo of Errickson’s livery stable from 1882; a framed photo of the West Freehold School from 1909; and copies of the Farmers Almanac from 1856 and 1857.

The collection also includes various items from the old rug mill, including a photo of one of its founders, Miran Karagheusian, talking to a crowd outside of the factory on Jackson Street in 1910.

For years Steinberg kept his memorabilia collection in his furniture store on Throckmorton Street between West Main and Broad streets, and also in the original firehouse building directly across the street from his main store. In 1984 Steinberg restored the old firehouse and used it as a store, where he had much of his collection on display.

Steinberg said he found the items at auctions, in attics and garages, and in other places where they had been forgotten for many years.

"Now that I have gone out of the furniture business, I need the space," he said. "I think the Monmouth County Historical Associa-tion will be a better place for the items to be on display. They will give people even more of a reason to visit the association."