Sunnybank, home of Albert Payson Terhune (1872-1942), was featured in many of his Collie stories as "The Place," where the Master and the Mistress shared adventures with Lad, Wolf, Bruce, Gray Dawn, and others. Sunnybank House, built by Terhune's parents in 1861, was razed in 1969. The grounds are maintained today as Terhune Sunnybank Memorial Park.
Occupying a few acres between Pompton Lake and U.S. Route 202 in north Jersey, Sunnybank exists today as a public park maintained by Wayne Township. I had been there often as a child, transported by the semi-magical words of Albert Payson Terhune, and some twenty years later, in The Master of Sunnybank, Irving Litvag took me on a melancholy tour of "The Place" as it was in the late 1960's. This past March was the first time I actually walked that hallowed ground; Mr. Litvag's book was both inspiration and template for my pilgrimage, and he has kindly given permission for the quotes that appear below.
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