When the U.S.S. Nautilus entered the New York Harbor for the first time in 1954, former Secaucus resident Bill Heiker and his family stood atop the Palisade hills in Weehawken, mesmerized by the record-breaking submarine that slinked through the Hudson.
But unlike other witnesses to the historic event, Heiker and clan didn’t have to head home after the viewing. Instead, they stepped next door to Heiker’s great-uncle’s house on King’s Bluff with its large riverfront windows.
King’s Bluff is a historic section of Weehawken whose large homes often boast ornate fixtures and Manhattan skyline views.
Though the home was a beacon of luxury atop the cliffs, Heiker’s great-uncle and great-aunt did not believe in showy displays of wealth, said Heiker. A childless couple, the great-uncle and great-aunt reveled in the company of Heiker and his family, and other acquaintances.
“That house has great memories for me going back as far and I can remember.” – Bill Heiker
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The house, then and now
An advertisement from a 1917 edition of Country Life Magazine describes 1 Bellevue Terrace as a Spanish Mission home, erected in 1907 in a neighborhood overlooking the Hudson. The house, it says, includes a dining room, a reception hall, a breakfast room, a den, a library, eight master bedrooms, two baths, a lavatory, and a backyard that faces the river.
The property now has six bedrooms, four full baths, three half baths, and its original elevator.
“When I go there today, it looks almost exactly the same,” Heiker said.
But the antiques and exotic furniture picked up in his great-uncle and great-aunt’s travels around the world are no longer there, nor are the big, heavy curtains that used to hang over the doors.
The garage is also a bit different. The back of the garage, when Heiker was there, used to have a door, allowing him to pull his car through. Now that door is bricked in.
But the front yard’s miniature castle is still there, and in its sustained presence lies a bit of family history.
The castle
When Joe Lopiano, the great-uncle, bought the house, it had a sunken garden, but not much of a yard. When the house next door went up for sale, he bought it too, then tore it down to expand the yard. In the middle of that secondary property, he commissioned Heiker’s great-grandfather, Otto Stoss, to construct a castle fit for a King’s Bluff property.
Aside from his castle-making hobby, Stoss claimed the title of first postmaster of Secaucus back in the 1800s and, according to Heiker, would be the first person he’d love to go back in time to meet.
When Heiker’s mother sold 1 Bellevue Terrace on behalf of her great-aunt in 1965, the asking price was $100,000.
Frugal times
Heiker’s great-uncle and great-aunt, Joseph and Bertha Lopiano, purchased the house around 1935 after Joseph got a raise from the razor blade company where he worked. In the midst of The Great Depression, the Lopianos didn’t take the grand house for granted.
Instead, they cut the house in half and rented out the northern half to an executive at a major airline. According to Heiker, Joseph believed in saving money and being frugal.
Heiker laughed as he recalled the extent of their frugality, recounting what happened after Joe died in 1963 and his family prepared the house for sale the next year.
“My mother found a big chest freezer in the basement, unplugged. It was filled with laundry soap. Apparently, every time it was on sale, Bertha would buy a bunch!” he said, chuckling.
Despite their means, Joe and Bertha knew full well the ravages of the Depression. Heiker’s mother’s family was living in great poverty at the time, and the Lopianos wanted to help. So they asked Heiker’s grandparents to let his mother live with them on the weekdays and attend the high school in Weehawken.
Every day, their chauffeur, Tommy Troyer, drove Heiker’s mother to school, which “embarrassed her to no end for a high school girl,” Heiker joked.
And when, one night, a burglar broke into their home and headed upstairs, where his mother slept, great-uncle Joe held the burglar at bay with an unloaded revolver until the police came.
A Weehawken family
With the Lopianos as close as grandparents, Heiker said he and his family, who lived in nearby Secaucus, “were always going up [to the mansion] for one thing or another,” whether for holidays or merely to marvel at the New York skyline.
The family went there for Thanksgivings, and Bertha would prepare a meal for 25 people without help every year.
Even the help was considered family, he said.
The Lopianos’ full-time gardener and cook were a German couple who were visiting their homeland when the border closed, leaving them trapped in East Germany. The Lopianos would send them staples like coffee that the Communist government could not provide.
“That house has great memories for me going back as far as I can remember,” Heiker said.
Though the house is no longer within the family, Heiker can still take a ride out to the Palisades, which, according to him, hasn’t changed a whole lot over the years, and reflect upon the warm memories of the past.
Deanna Cullen can be reached at dcullen@hudsonreporter.com