My grandparents built their 3-bedroom, 1 1/2-bathroom home in Saddle River, NJ more than 50 years ago. When they built their house, Saddle River was a fairly rural area. In the time since, the area became one of the premier locations for New York's wealthy people to build large estates that were still close to New York City. So back a couple of years ago, they sold their modest home along with their next-door neighbor to a real estate developer, who tore down the two houses and built a ginormous mansion.
Guess who bought the house?
Mary J. Blige. Yep, she has the same exact address as my grandparents.
It was surreal to drive past her home a couple of months ago, knowing that in the same exact spot my grandparents' house once stood where my dad and my uncle grew up and where I spent many Christmases and vacations. (I refrained from pulling in the driveway and knocking on the door to ask if my grandparents where home.)
I was telling my friends at lunch today about the house, because Monte asked me the name of the town where my grandparents lived. He saw this article in USA Weekend about Mary J. Blige that mentions her new house (I had told him this story about her house before).
So that got me Googling when I got back to my desk to find the story. And then I found this. A slideshow of her house that shows both the inside and out. It's pretty cool. The builder decided not to reuse the shag carpet that once covered the house (actually, I think my grandparents got rid of that a while ago too). And way fancier than anything my grandparents would ever own. Definitely not the 1960's era furniture that they still have to this day.
I almost brought up the story about their house today in my workshop on AP Human Geography. We were having a discussion that related to neighborhoods. urbanization, and the value of land. Do you happen to have a picture of their old house? I might be able to use in my class sometime.
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