A Journey of Synchronicity
I left Warwick with Ross behind me in his car as our newly formed support vehilce on Friday, traveling southwest on Rt. 94 in New Jersey.
Rt.94 is a winding road, peppered with small villages and town ships with names like Vernon, Hamburg, Lafeyette, Hampton and Newton in Sussex County, and Blairstown and Knowlton in Warren County. There were small villages with nineteenth century buildings laid close to the streets providing for a sense of intimacy, a bonding where residents lived close to the local business district. On this day I rode in the rain until I reached the township of Newton. The clouds began to break up offering some blue sky and shards of sunshine as I entered the town ship of Knowlton in Warren County. Knowlton County has just under 3000 residents according to the 2000 census. It was established by a Royal Charter in 1763 and is divided up into three postal areas, Columbia, Blairstown, and Delaware, and it has several small hamlets including Hainesburg. I passed the Hainesburg Cemetary on the north side of the road and only a few minutes later on my left, I approached a tall Victorian style mansion distinguished with a porch that wrapped around the front side, and two distict two cupolas to add to its height. A wooden sign with routered gold lettering in front, just off the street read, ”Animal Mansion Veterinary Hospital, Dr Jon P Bertoldo, DVM.” It was grand, it was distinct, it was welcoming. I had to learn more.
We stopped across the street and entered the mansion through a door on the left side of the porch. We were warmly greeted by the staff in a large room with stained glass on the windows. As ceiling fan whirled above our heads as we introduced ourselves. I asked if we could interview someone, for An American Motorcycle Diary about the mansion. We were generously offered up information about the mansion and led to Dr. Jon Bertoldo, the town veterinarian and refurbisher of the Victorian edifice. Dr. Bertoldo stood a litte over six feet in height. He was dressed relaxed with a polo style shirt. His posture was straight, he was lean but not thin, and he had an ageless face making it difficult to assess his age. He could have been twenty nine, he could have been forty. Only the scattered wisps of gray in his dark hair could give away his age. He had bright blue eyes filled with a youthful enthusiasm and that rare capacity that effectively demonstrated he was listening as you spoke.
Between appointments, and dealing with his daily chores as a veterinarian, he graciously shared ahistory of the building and how it came to be a veterinary hospital. Dr Jon, as we shall refer to him, is originally from Staten Isalnd. He graduated from the Cornell University Veterinary School in 1994 and started a practice with another in Warren County. He and his wife, a native of the area, purchased the mansion in 2006 . After a good deal of personal time and money, he opened his own veterinary practice in the mansion one year ago. It has been a work of passion, as after years of neglect, and being abandoned the the mansion was in a state of disrepair. The original portion of the structure was built in 1828 by the Anders Family, and remained with the family through the late 1800’s. It later became a restaurant, an antique store and even what could be described as a seedy bar with nefarious activity within its walls.
Despite the neglect, it was solid within it’s 8500 square feet of living space and hemlock floor joists. With an educated caution, and encouragement from his wife, they made the decision to start a veterinary hospital there. This despite rumors of a ghost of a nine year old boy haunting the mansion, and a turkey vulture that perched itself on one of the cupolas just before the mansion entered their hands. Dr. Jon recognizes that it will be a long arduous process to rehabilitate the structure, but as the process moves along, his decision to take on this project shows his commitment to his patients. In the end it will prove to be a means of returning an iconic structure to the community as a place of health.