Reading · Radburn: The Town for the Motor Age

Left, John Reps (William Staffeld /AAP). Right, plaque and feather duster that Reps, noted for his sense of humor, provided for cleaning it in perpetuity. (Michael Tomlan).

John W. Reps (1921-2020), a Cornell professor known as “The father of American planning history,” established an archive of photographs of significant urban developments worldwide.

The Cornell Archives description of all the Reps images says they were created between 1958 and 1989. But after we found some shots of Radburn in the collection, we wanted to date them more specifically. So we submitted them to AI analysis, and Gemini Pro provided a specific answer: 1952.

Gemini cited “metadata” to support the claim, but could provide no details. We wondered: Was this another AI confabulation?

The Plaza Building paper trail

One of the Reps photos shows the Radburn Plaza Building. So we used the names of first floor business tenants visible in the photo to help date the photos.

We found that Petland of Radburn ran ads in newspapers from 1951 to 1959; that fit inside Cornell’s reported 1958 or later time span. But the Cottage Gift Shop ran newspaper ads from 1952 only until 1957 – a year before the first year of Cornell’s date for Reps’ photos.

But Bergton Real Estate, which in the Reps’ photo occupies the building’s southwestern corner storefront, turned out to be the smoking gun. From 1951 to 1952 Bergton ran frequent ads in newspapers listing its Plaza Building location. But starting in 1953, its newspaper ads list only Teaneck and Paramus offices. And Bergton is not in the 1958 Fair Lawn business directory.

Newspaper articles also indicate that the First Savings and Loan Association of Fair Lawn moved into the Plaza Building by 1953. Importantly, an undated 1950s photograph from our own archives (below) shows that the Savings and Loan replaced Bergton Real Estate in the southwestern storefront.

Plaza Building (on file) from the late 1950s showing the location of First Savings and Loan of Fair Lawn in the southwest corner.

The verdict? Gemini was correct. Only one date is consistent with the evidence: 1952 –six years earlier than Cornell claims the collection begins. But, perhaps not coincidentally, 1952 was the first year Reps taught at Cornell.

Since we know the year they were taken, Reps’ seven Radburn photographs take on new significance: They are the earliest documented color photographs of what is now a National Historic Landmark.

In the gallery below, we provide as much identifying information as possible on the Reps’ photographs, and also correct the orientation of one slide that had been reversed in the Cornell Archive.

If you know anyone in these photos; can provide other details; or have your own early Kodachrome photos of Radburn, please comment below.

Editors’ note: In addition to being the first confirmed set of color shots of Radburn, these are the earliest documented photographs in the Reps collection (John Reps Papers, #15-2-1101, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library).