A haven for stately homes.

Westminster a magnate for rich and famous.

The neighborhood of Westminster in Hillside has always attracted people of means. Since the 1930’s, doctors, lawyers, business executives – even former New York Yankee Phil Rizzuto – have come to the area carved out by developer Edward Grassman.

            What was once an old fruit farm has been turned into a posh haven of stately Colonials and Tudors.The popularity of the neighborhood, on the southern tip of  Hillside, right on the Elizabeth border, has never waned, and is now the preferred location for Orthodox Jews.

            “It has just exploded,” said Eliyahu Teitz, rabbi and associate dean for the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth. “We have 41 families from Westminster who have enrolled their children in our schools. That is 89 kids, 10 percent of our school population. They add a new vibrancy,” said Teitz. “It’s and area that is really ripe for tremendous growth.”

Mainly because of the location, said Teitz. The neighborhood, with about a dozen streets, is walking distance to synagogues and Jewish schools. The homes are big enough to  accommodate large families, at least 3,000 square feet, and have about a half-acre of sweeping front and back yards.

            The neighborhood pulled in Teitz, too, who moved his wife and four children to the area 12 years ago. His Jewish Educational Center is two-thirds of a mile away in Elizabeth.

            “Westminster was our most affluent area,” said Helen Witting, treasurer of the Hillside Historical Society. “Still is.” When I was a kid, that was all woods and farm. There was a vegetable stand. As a kid, I would walk through the woods there. Witting’s family moved to the north side of Hillside – to Boston Avenue – in 1924. Westminster always stood apart, Witting said. “Those are the biggest and most exclusive home in Hillside. You had to be able to afford them.” In Witting’s neighborhood, immigrants moving into Hillside built their modest homes close to the road.

            Across town in Westminster, the roads were built wide and curvy with no sidewalks. The houses were set back from the street. Belgian block lined the edges of the yards. The homes featured elegant slate roofs. Real estate agent Glen Volturo said the homes in Westminster are so popular, they rarely hit the market. “They sell mostly by word-of-mouth,” said Volturo, who also lives in the neighborhood.

            When they sell, they go for more than twice the average price of other homes in Hillside. While the average three-bedroom in Hillside might sell for about $250,000, home in Westminster, even the  more modest split levels, start selling for $450,000 and up to $750,000. There are homes on Westminster Avenue and Nottingham Way valued at $700,000 to $1 million, Volturo said. “When people move in, they stay,” said Volturo. “It’s quiet, it’s peaceful. It’s close to everything.”

            The neighborhood is minutes form Newark’s Liberty International Airport and Manhattan. It is accessible to major highways like Route 22, Interstate 78, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.

            Jack Barsky bought a Tudor-style home on Westminster Avenue 45 years ago. “The houses are still beautiful,” Barsky said. “People take care of them and it’s peaceful.”

            The location lure Anitta Fox and her physician husband Sheldon to the neighborhood in 1967 and they have stayed despite real estate taxes that are $16,000 a year, she said.          “It’s a lovely area,” said Fox, who escaped the Nazis when she was 13 years old. “We love the area. We love our neighbors.”

Fox lives right next door to Rizzuto, whom she says she is very friendly with. Another of Fox’s neighbors is Bernard Zients, who used to be president of Gimbel Brothers. “It was most convenient to my place of business,” said Zients, now 91 years old.” It’s beautiful.”