The rundown brick and cinder block building, back in the woods on Mt. Bethel Road, across the street and just east of Mt. Bethel Baptist Church, stood abandoned until two years ago when it was torn down to make way for a new office complex at the corner of Technology Dr. North. This was what remained of Becker’s Grove. a Depression‑era fixture that many an old‑timer still remembers with fondness. August Becker, born in Germany, immigrated to Paterson where for years he worked in the silk mills as a loom fixer. He married Lena, also a native of Germany, who worked as a weaver in the same Paterson mills. The Beckers always wanted a place in the country -‑ about 1927 or 1928, they took up the old Vance place, raising and selling English setters. Their daughter, Gertrude, remembers how she loved the puppies and the sadness she felt when they were sold. When the Depression struck, the Beckers like so many others were forced to supplement their income. They opened Becker's Grove, fixing up the building near the road and converting the barn in the rear (they installed a parquet floor) into a friendly place for Square dancing . Open Saturdays year round. Becker’s Grove was locally famous for its free spaghetti cooked by Lena. The Beckers sold apples, soda, cider and hot dogs from a food stand. The brick and block building, torn down a few years ago, was their home. Jack Farrell remembers that as a youth he hunted in the woods near Becker's Grove and one time being warned away by men with guns. Neighbors who detected a pungent odor "when the wind was right" had their suspicions confirmed after the war when State Police raided the place, breaking up a still located on the barn's second floor. Rumor was that 5 gallon cans of illicit whiskey had for years been shipped to New York City in a truck disguised as a vegetable delivery van. Frank Freehauf is another who remembers Becker's Grove. "The building with the dance floor was connected to the masonry residential building between it and the road," writes Freehauf. "The dance hall was named 'Gracie Allen's.' I remember a party there once when in a roorn over the dance floor we played a kissing game called 'Flashight.’ While I was in Japan, after the war, my mother wrote me that the Revenue Service had found a still operating in the barn and destroyed its contents. As was usual, no charges were made against the Beckers who only claimed to have rented the barri with no knowledge of what was being done inside. The liquor license was transferred to Forest Lodge after the fire." Merwin “Doc” Sage says he believes the explanation for the name “Gracie Allen’s” is that the enterprise was operated by Allen Grosch and his wife, Grace. Gracie Allen, of course, was comedian George Burns’ wife. Lena kept up the place for a few years after her husband died in October 1950 but closed it in the mid‑fifties. A fire damaged the dance hall during World War II but square dancing continued and business was good, recalls Gertrude Becker, right up until her father's death.
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