Author Archives: John Sluder

Kip’s Castle of Verona and Montclair, N.J

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In 1902 construction began on a castle on a hill with a view of the skyline of New York City and the villages of Verona and Montclair. For three years, work continued on what would become Kypsburg, the home of Frederick Ellsworth Kip and his wife, Charlotte Bishop Williams Kip. Mr. Kip was a wealthy textile inventor and industrialist who published several books on U.S. tariff laws.

The Kip’s Castle Estate located on the ridge of First Mountain, which is shared by Verona and Montclair, is said to have been designed by Mrs. Kip and features 30 distinctive rooms in the castle, many with vaulted ceilings and fireplaces with handcrafted tiles. In addition, there is a two-story, 6,000 square-foot carriage house on the property. A showpiece of the property was a renowned octagonal rose garden.

Over the years, the estate remained in private hands. In 2000, the law firm that owned the castle began a long fight to develop the property with condos, townhouses and single-family homes. For seven years the historic gem was threatened with continued plans of development. Neighbors and others fought to save the beautiful 9,000-square-foot castle, its carriage house, serpentine drive and grounds. As in stories of old, everyone hoped for a knight on a steed to save the property from ruin, but the chances looked bleak.

In March 2007, the County of Essex, under the leadership of Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr., stepped in to save the property, purchasing it with generous grants from the NJ Green Acres Program and the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund.

The purchase added a gem to the historic Essex County Park System and paved the way for a “happy ever after” life for Kip’s Castle.

My first solo show

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so what can your picture say about you? How much can you communicate about yourself in a second? Are first impressions really lasting impressions? Come and judge for yourself.

Locally acclaimed photographer, John Sluder, will unveil a series of compelling portraits in his first solo show at Off Center Art Center.

Some faces may be familiar. Perhaps a few new faces. The one thing these very personal images all have in common: the capture of human essence, by an intuitive artist who is one with his lens.

OS X Mountain lion install…

I have upgraded to the latest Macintosh operating system Mountain Lion. I’m using the dictation capability that is built in to the operating system. Hopefully with this technology I will be able to keep my blog more up-to-date and have more how to posts.

One the projects I’m currently working on is developing a how-to to show people how to digitizer slides with the DSLR slide copier and or macro lens. Using DSLR is much faster and much better way of digitizing slides than using traditional flatbed scanner.

 

palm trees

palm trees