The original Travell School was built on North Van Dien Avenue and opened in September of 1951. I was in first grade and my teacher was Miss Moore. BF was built in the mid 50’s on the north end of Travell and I first attended BF in the 7th grade in 1957. The Stanhope’s house, which originally was on the corner of Glen Avenue and Van Dien, was moved down Van Dien to a property (where I think it stands) across the street from the then Kurth Cottage and Valley Hospital. Later, Travell Annex was demolished and new Travell School was built. The BF/Travell complex on Van Dien then became all BF.
Ira W. Travell was born in Troy, NY on January 17, 1868, to Ira Rose Travell and Elvira Amelia Pierce Travell. The second of four boys, he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, MA, and married Margaret Belle Ansley in Geneva, NY, on August 22, 1894. He had two children, Winthrop Atwater Travel and Margaret Travell Bennett. Mr. Travell died on June 2, 1946, in the Hackensack Hospital.
Mr. Travell did post graduate work at Cornell, Amherst, Harvard, New York University and Columbia. He was the vice principal of the high school in Malone, New York. He then became the principal of the high school at Plainfield, New Jersey and later at Morristown. In 1912 he became the superintendent in Ridgewood and served in that position until 1930. He was a member of Westside Presbyterian Church and lived on Highwood Avenue. He was said to be a man “of broad education, the superior executive ability and high character.”