"This has been a happy home," says Pilar Hyman of her Warwick Avenue house. She, husband David, and three children have lived in Montrose for nearly four years, moving to South Orange from Maplewood. "We fell in love with the house," explains Hyman. "And it's a happy house for us too."

The Hyman family has showed their appreciation for their home by lavishing historical renovation on the structure. With that work now largely completed, the family agreed to include their house on the annual Montrose in May tour sponsored by the Montrose Park Historic District Association, which will take place on Sat., May 15, 2010 from 11:00 a.m. until 4 p.m.

To the family, the tour was both motivation and deadline to learn more of the history of their house. While renovation yielded many questions -- "What did use this for and when did this door become a window, sort of questions," explains Hyman -- they began the search with  few facts.

Hyman knew that much of Montrose was still being developed at the turn of the twentieth century, and she noted the resemblance that her home shares with several others on the same block. Indeed, still today, the rooflines of those homes are at the same height, a valuable clue that they were built together.

She posited that her house was built around 1900, and worked forward in time by consulting phone books and village directories in the South Orange Public Library's New Jersey Room. Such directories often index both by name and by street address.

"Bingo!" said Hyman, noting that by 1904, her house was listed in a directory. She continued her research using The Blue Book of the Oranges, which the library holds on microfilm, for the years 1908 and 1932.  Using West Orange library resources, as well, she discovered that her house was home to several different families.

"This house was almost a starter home," she explains, "probably for young families or people new to the area." At the same time, it was home to residents of local importance, including the president of the nearby Orange Lawn Tennis Club. Many of the home's residents found their doings recorded in the social notes of The New York Times. 

While researching from 1900 forward, Hyman also worked backwards from the present. She visited the Hall of Records in Newark to study the house's deeds. "It turned over several times," she reports, sometimes selling for as little as a dollar.

"One of the transactions was based in Florida," she says, which brought her New Jersey-based research to a standstill, leaving her mid-twentieth-century.

"Then an amazing thing happened," reports Hyman. Sharon, a neighbor in Maplewood, asked, four years ago, why the family was moving. In explanation, Hyman showed her a photo of the house, a picture that reminded the neighbor of her own family's past.

"It turned out that my neighbor's aunt lived in the house as a child," explains Hyman. "My neighbor had visited, and she and the aunt were able to answer a few questions." Hyman confirmed, for example, that the porch was a recent addition; she had seen a 1947 photo in the South Orange Public Library Realtor File that had suggested the same, so she was pleased to have her theory confirmed

Hyman still wonders who the architect of her home was. She believes that a large Victorian home across the street was the first house on the block. The early owners of that house may have once owned much of the neighborhood land until it was divided and developed around 1900. 

The next step for Hyman is a visit to the Newark Public Library's New Jersey Room, a repository of area real estate information. Still, she may never answer all of her questions about her Warwick Avenue home.

"That's okay," she says. "My daughter and I love to imagine how life was in South Orange and in this house at different times in the past." The stories that the Hyman family imagines -- and creates -- in their home may be as satisfying as those the house could tell.

Readers with information about Warwick Avenue/Mosswood Terrace homes are welcome to contact Patch by clicking "Email the Writer."

Ticket sales for the 2010 tour will begin on May 1, 2010 and may be purchased from local South Orange and Maplewood businesses or online. (Tickets are nonrefundable.)  Tickets can also be purchased on the day of the tour for $35.  All visitors must register at the historic Mountain Station train station to purchase and/or pick up their tickets, tour brochure and map.  

The rain-or-shine tour is self-guided.  The Village of South Orange will provide complimentary jitney shuttle bus service to transport visitors through the district.  Visitors are also invited to walk.