By John Simko, Nutley Museum Director

Patrick F. Guthrie moved from New York City to Franklin, New Jersey, when he married his sweetheart. He opened his first store in the 1870s on Passaic Avenue near today’s Mudhole, then moved it around the corner to his own building on Highfield Lane.

He originally ran a dry goods store. But when the town’s mills began closing, he reinvented himself. Guthrie’s reopened as a grocery store and an ice cream parlor, introducing that summer delight to Nutley. If you wanted “iced cream” on a hot summer day, you had no choice—you went to Guthrie’s. Out-of-towners traveled miles to try some. Locals, like Annie Oakley, enjoyed it too!