August 20, 2024 - As the filming of "Friendly Tolerable Characters of Pompton" goes on we want to share with the community all of the aspects of the experience.
We wanted to film from the bank of Sunnybank in order to show the bridge into Pompton Lakes and the rest or the shoreline of Pompton Lakes behind actor Phil Barone. We also had photog, John John Agnello who documented the entire shoot. Some of the shots are at the end of the blog post.
The following is the history of Sunnybank, which is really officially named, "Terhune Memorial Park". But most know it simply as "Sunnybank", which was the home of Albert Payson Terhune and his wife Anise. What is important to understand is that although the residence was technically located in Wayne, N.J., "Bert" always considered himself to be a Pompton Lakes resident and spent a lot of his time in Pompton where he had many friends.
in 2019 Silk City Films released a film called, "Hills & Valleys A Journey Through Wayne". In the film Terhune and Sunnybank were covered. The following is the history of APT and Sunnybank compiled by director and historian Paul Bastante, who produced the piece for Silk City Films.
Albert Payson Terhune was born on December 21st, 1872. He was an American Author, dog breeder and journalist. He was most popular for his novels and stories relaying the adventures of his beloved Collie’s at his world-famous home, called Sunnybank, located in Wayne, N.J.
He was the son of Presbyterian minister, Edward Payson Terhune and Mary Virginia Terhune, who was a famous author in her own right, writing a variety of books under the pen name, Marion Harland.
She was a cross between Daniel Steel and Martha Stewart and she became THE go to for home advice and etiquette advice.
MVT or Marion Harland as she was very widely known, passed on her remarkable writing skills to her son. But he also seemed to inherit her absolutely legendary work ethic too. After all, what did he grow up surrounded by? His mother and his two sisters, who were both very much driven by an intense work ethic.
Albert Payson Terhune wrote over 30 books in his illustrious career. He was such a prolific writer that it is said that he wrote 11 hours per day, 6 days per week for over 30 years! His most famous book was called, “Lad A Dog”,
The World-famous book told the story of his legendary collie, Lad, and the other dogs that lived with him and his wife Anice on the East Shore of Pompton Lake in modern day Wayne, N.J.
It was a suggestion from his Red Book Magazine Editor, Ray Long that gave the author the idea to write stories that made him famous. One of Bert’s famous dogs was Lad, who was always a bit aloof towards strangers.
For some reason though, when Long came to visit APT, Lad became very affectionate towards him. It was during one of these visits, Long jokingly suggested to Bert that he write stories about the dogs on Sunnybank. The rest as they say, is history!
His books focused on LAD, who was a dog that would do anything for his people and family, which included the other animals, usually to his own detriment, throwing himself into life and death situations.
Not only was Terhune a world-renowned writer, but he was also a breeder of champion collies. Eventually, he turned the home where he grew up into a breeding kennel, and he called it, “Sunnybank”! It was also a frequent subject of his writing.
In fact, Sunnybank came to be known as the most famous collie kennel in the entire United States, made famous by the books and stories he wrote.
Sunnybank was a 40-acre piece of land that was originally a summer house for the Terhune family. It was just beautiful. You would enter through the gates and travel down a winding driveway, wooded areas to the left and the right with dog kennels, dogs barking to announce your arrival to the man and lady of the house. No doorbell was ever needed!
Throughout Sunnybank today lie the original burial spots of Terhune's favorite dogs and other animals. LAD’s grave is very prominent with a large stone and sign since he was the most famous and the one who started it all. If you search them out even today you will see the original faded concrete gravestones for “Bruce, The Dog Without a fault”, Bear, Wolf, Gip, Meg, Bauble, Big Boy and even “Sunnybank Jean".
People from all over the World wanted to come see Bruce and Grey Dawn and Wolf Jean and all of the dogs that they had read about in Terhune’s books. As a result, it became a very unique situation at Sunnybank.
The dogs would greet all of the visitors as they came onto the property. Sunnybank Jean was one of the greeter dogs. She ran out to greet a carload of visitors, they weren't paying attention, and they don’t see her. The car struck and killed her.
The news of Sunnybank Jean’s death travelled all around the World as everyone everywhere mourned her passing having known and read about her. It was tragic!
Terhune was devastated and vowed to never let it happen again. He installed gates at Sunnybank, and they were closed from then on.
Anyone possessing an imagination can stand in the park today, close their eyes and recreate the days of Sunnybank. The Mistress, Anice, always in white, pouring tea in the Summer out on the veranda as Lad, Fair Ellen the blind collie, King Cole and the rest of the Terhune collies frolicked and greeted each day. It was simply just a magical place on Earth!
When you came up to the house it was a large Victorian styled house, stucco with wisteria vines growing all the way up the sides, a big front porch. You could see Terhune sitting out on the rich green grass lawn with his collies, looking out over the beautiful lake. It was just a gorgeous, picturesque setting.
For those of us today born too late to own their very own Terhune Collie, the news isn’t ALL bad as Sunnybank Collies are still bred today across the country.
The Terhune Memorial Park is located on Route 202 in Wayne, N.J. on the bank of Pompton Lake.
Most days, when you visit the park people are there with their dogs, not just collies, where they can have lunch at the gazebo overlooking the lake and think back on a long-gone time in the history of Wayne and Pompton Lakes, N.J.
Every August Collie lovers, breeders, owners and enthusiasts make a pilgrimage to this Mecca of sorts to revel in the spirit of the park's past and the spirit of Albert Payson Terhune and all of the Terhune Collie graves.
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