Guests explored the second-floor New Jersey Room, above, where uniforms produced by the Eisner factory were on display. (Photos by Stephanie Schroepfer. Click to enlarge)
By STEPHANIE SCHROEPFER
Seventy-five years after moving into his former digs, the Red Bank Public Library honored Sigmund Eisner with a house party Saturday.
Light guitar music and tables laden with food for 200 guests set a festive mood as guests meandered through onetime parlors, checking out vintage Army and Boy Scout uniforms produced by Eisner’s Red Bank factories,.
“When the Eisner’s lived here, it was a home. Now its a home for people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Mayor Pasquale Menna.
Menna said he found the history valuable, but not as valuable as the home this library now provides for the community.
Whether they come to do job-hunting research online, to socialize or even just to snooze in a comfy chair overlooking the Navesink River, “it’s all valid,” he said.
“ItÂ’s a home for people who live in the neighborhood. No one knows what the role of the library will be years from now, but everyone needs a home and this is one.”
Terry McCue, a 45-year borough resident whose drawings of the Eisner manse and other old homes are featured on notecards sold by the library, said visiting regularly “keeps me handy. Gives me a night” out.
Eisner great-granddaughter Deborah Rutter was among six descendants of the industrialist and philanthropist on hand, and said she learned a lot about family to make her trip down from Connecticut worth the effort.
“I’m overwhelmed by the history, photos and memorabilia,” said Rutter.
“My great-grandfather Sigmund thanks you; my grandfather Monroe thanks you; my father Robert thanks you; and I most certainly thank you,” said Sigmund’s granddaughter Jan Eisner.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the New Jersey History Room, with its special collections of Red Bank, Monmouth County and state history.
With new addition to the collections and the historical tradition of the home, library director Mary Faith Chmiel said she hopes for “another 75 years here, at least.”
