Our History

Here is a little history of the Ginsberg family and the beginning of the Boro Plaza. Anna and Harry Ginsberg moved to Wall Street in Rockaway in 1910 where they set up a small grocery store. While raising two sons, Charles born 1918, and Eugene born in 1921; Anna and Harry spent long hours, worked hard and eventually opened "Barnee Google's Shack" on West Main Street. This new sandwich shop and grocery store served the masses between 1922 and 1928. In 1928 the State of New Jersey opened the new Route 6 ( now Route 46) to help bring the summer vacationers from New York to Lake Hopatcong, a summer community. Barnee Google's moved to Route 6 and became The Roadside Grill serving bus loads of vacationers on their way to the lake. This bar and grill featured dancing and a rodeo where the trailer park is now located. In 1940 Barnee's Trailer Park was opened in the rear of the 16 acre parcel adjacent to the Ginsberg's home. The second generation then came of age.

Upon arriving home from the army in 1945, Charles, Eugene and their uncle Bernie Greenberg started an army surplus business in their parents basement. They eagerly peddled cork life rafts to residents living on the many lakes in New Jersey. They even shipped several rafts to the summer homes of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the state of Washington. The army surplus business outgrew their parents basement. In fact, the expanded army surplus and mail order store brought in so much mail that the U.S. Postal Service became a first-class post office in the Borough. Rockaway Sales flourished through the 50's, 60's and 70's when the third generation spread its wings. Hope and Eugenes' daughter Faith opened her first beauty salon, "Faiths House of Elegance" next to the house her father grew up in. Bobby, Stewart and David , Eugene , Charles and Bernies oldest sons took over the Rockaway Sales chain of home centers in the 1980s. Eugene's son Gregg opened a CB Radio store and laterBlue Horizon Water Co. Today it is known as Indian Spring Water. Alan, Charles and Irene's youngest son is a sales representative for many of the supply companies that Rockaway Sales buys from. Martin, after retiring from the electronics industry, took over the management of the Highway Enterprises ; owners of the Boro Plaza. The Boro Plaza is a shopping center in the building originally occupied by Rockaway Sales. It is the business you see today.