Long before Walgreens occupied the busy corner of Route 202 and North Finley Avenue, the property was home to one of Bernardsville’s more unusual redevelopment stories. What began as a large furniture showroom sat vacant for nearly a decade before becoming the Finley Manor Hotel. This project took years of hearings, zoning disputes, and renovations to complete. After finally opening during the mid-1980s, the hotel survived only a few years before the property returned to retail use.
The Huffman-Koos Furniture Store
Huffman-Koos, a well-known regional furniture company, originally occupied the building. Its large showroom stood on slightly less than one acre at the corner of Route 202 and North Finley Avenue.
In March 1972, the Bernardsville News reported that local businessman Frank L. Petrozzo had entered into a contract to purchase the property from City Products Corporation of Chicago for nearly $400,000. At the time, Petrozzo was considering several possible uses, including a restaurant, motel, office building, sports complex, apartments or even a shopping destination modeled after Peddler’s Village in Pennsylvania.
Huffman-Koos announced its Bernardsville closing that June and advertised one final liquidation sale before vacating the building. Its departure left behind a large commercial structure at one of the Borough’s most visible intersections.
For much of the 1970s, the former furniture store sat empty while officials discussed options. In 1974, Somerset County officials considered leasing approximately 1,500 square feet for a satellite human services center. County representatives liked the building’s location, available parking, and accessibility to the Somerset Hills. The owners were reportedly willing to renovate portions of the property for offices, but the newspaper does not indicate the proposal was ever completed.
By 1980, the building had been vacant for approximately seven years. Petrozzo then introduced his most ambitious plan yet: converting the old furniture showroom into an extended-stay hotel.
The Finley Hotel
Petrozzo formally applied to create a 47-unit hotel initially called the Finley Hotel. Unlike a conventional roadside motel, the proposed hotel was intended for corporate employees and other guests who needed longer-stay accommodations.
The rooms were designed as small efficiencies with galley kitchens, dining areas, and living spaces. Plans called for 23 first-floor rooms, many with loft-style bedrooms, and 24 smaller rooms on the second floor. Other proposed amenities included an indoor swimming pool, an exercise room, and 52 parking spaces. There would initially be no restaurant. Other than vending machines in the lobby, guests would prepare meals in their rooms or dine elsewhere.
Petrozzo believed the Somerset Hills’ growing corporate community created a market for this kind of lodging. He argued that the hotel would not directly compete with his Old Mill Inn because the two properties would serve different guests. The Old Mill Inn catered primarily to short visits, while the Finley Hotel would accommodate longer stays.
After Petrozzo filed his application in September 1980, Bernardsville amended its hotel regulations. The new standards prohibited two of the Finley proposal’s most important features: kitchen facilities and two-story units. The project consequently required six zoning variances. Petrozzo publicly accused the Borough Council of changing the regulations to stop his project. Nevertheless, he continued through months of testimony, hearings, and revisions.
By early 1982, he had finally obtained the necessary approvals to convert the old furniture store into a hotel. Contemporary articles described the approved project as containing 45 rooms, although later reports variously listed 47, 48, or 50 rooms. The changing numbers likely reflect revisions made as the project moved from planning into construction.
1985 – Finley Manor Finally Opens
The building was remodeled and furnished, and it opened in August 1985. By 1986, the Finley Manor Hotel was operating as a 48-room establishment at 123 Morristown Road. After years of trying to run a hotel without a restaurant, Petrozzo soon concluded that food and bar service were necessary to make it financially viable. He proposed a 60-seat restaurant and adjoining bar inside the hotel.
Parking again became the central issue. The hotel already had 54 spaces, enough for its guest rooms, but the restaurant would add about 20 more. Petrozzo arranged to lease evening and weekend parking from the nearby Morris County Savings Bank and proposed valet service to keep restaurant patrons from walking across Route 202.
Some Borough Council members strongly criticized the arrangement. Still, others acknowledged that the property had stood empty for years and that a restaurant might be necessary for the hotel to succeed. Christopher’s Restaurant secured its liquor license and moved into Finley Manor on November 12, 1986.
Advertisements promoted “fine food and spirits” in intimate surroundings, along with lodging, conferences, and banquets. Christopher’s served lunch and dinner, offered contemporary cuisine, and encouraged reservations. Christopher’s was the full-service dining and banquet operation the original hotel plan lacked.
1991 – Six Years after Opening, The Finley Manor Hotel Closes
For a six year period, that old Huffman-Koos showroom that transformed into a hotel, restaurant, and conference destination CLOSED. By 1994, newspapers described Finley Manor as a vacant hotel that had gone unused for about three years. That places its likely closing around 1991, giving the hotel an operating life of only about five or six years.
On December 14, 1996, Finley Manor’s contents were offered at a public liquidation auction. The auction sold furniture and fixtures from about 50 rooms, including beds, dressers, lamps, tables, televisions, mirrors, telephone equipment, and individual heating and air-conditioning units. The auction marked the practical end of Finley Manor as a hotel.
A few locals who remember the vacant hotel remember some scary times at the site. It seems to have become extremely “run-down” over the years, with water leaks and damage, vandalism, and plain deterioration. Most said there was no way to save the hotel’s original bones and that it would have to be demolished.
A prospective buyer proposed turning the building into storefronts with apartments above them. That proposal became part of a larger Borough debate over mixed-use development. Supporters believed stores and apartments could bring new life to vacant commercial properties, while opponents worried about parking and the additional demand placed on municipal services.
In 1997, the Bernardsville Planning Board approved a proposal to convert Finley Manor into a 24,000-square-foot mixed-use retail center. The proposed buyer, Raymond Chen, planned a 120-seat Chinese and Japanese restaurant, two retail stores, and two studio apartments upstairs. Sixty-nine parking spaces were proposed. Chen, who already operated restaurants in New Providence and Springfield, had not established a construction date when the approval was announced. It never materialized.
From Furniture to Drug Stores
It’s funny how you see Bernardsville’s Planning Board now struggling with redevelopment on another main Bernardsville corner. Walgreens now occupies the address once associated with Huffman-Koos and the Finley Manor Hotel. Few people stopping there today would realize that the corner once contained hotel rooms, loft apartments, an indoor swimming pool, and a restaurant called Christopher’s.
Finley Manor was never one of Bernardsville’s grand historic hotels. It was a late twentieth-century attempt to reuse an oversized commercial building at a time when corporations and office development were rapidly changing the Somerset Hills.
Its story is really one of continual reinvention. The property went from furniture sales to years of vacancy, from an extended-stay hotel to dining and banquets, and finally back to retail. The name Finley Manor lasted for only a short chapter, but its long and sometimes contentious journey reveals how difficult it can be to find a new purpose for a familiar local landmark. It became a Rite Aid, which Walgreens bought, and the store still stands there today.
Walgreens now. Before the hotel is was Huffman Koos and before that it was Cecil’s- C. Forsythe Construction Yard. There were 2 homes also on the site. The Rome family lived in the front house, and Hoyt Palmer lived in the back house. There were also a few Barns on the property