Mark one Saturday and one Friday and keep an eye out for a third date the Historical Society hasn't posted yet. Upper Saddle River's entire fall social season runs through Lions Park twice in less than two weeks, then finishes with an afternoon at the oldest house in town. That is not a slow rollout of separate happenings. It is one compressed stretch where the same volunteers, the same park, and one 287-year-old farmhouse carry the whole season.
USR Day lands on Saturday, September 26, from noon to 5 p.m. at Lions Park. Thirteen days later, on Friday, October 9, the same park hosts Oktoberfest, again run jointly by the Borough and USR Cares, from noon to 6 p.m. Then, sometime after that, on a Sunday the Historical Society sets later in October, the calendar shifts entirely: from a public park with a DJ and a beer garden to a Dutch sandstone farmhouse built in 1739, where the entertainment is a bluegrass band and a working cider press.
Here is the sequence as it currently stands:
| Date | Event | Where | Run By |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Sept 26 | USR Day | Lions Park | Borough of Upper Saddle River & USR Cares |
| Fri, Oct 9 | Oktoberfest | Lions Park | Borough of Upper Saddle River & USR Cares |
| A Sunday later in October, date set annually | Harvest Festival | Hopper-Goetschius House Museum | USR Historical Society |
Three events, two venues, one volunteer bench doing most of the lifting.
What Actually Happens at Lions Park Twice
USR Day is the borough's biggest single gathering. Last year's Borough Bulletin described it as an annual tradition that brings more than 3,000 residents together for an afternoon of music, food, and community organizations. The lineup this year follows the same shape it has in recent seasons: a DJ, food trucks, a dining tent, a beer garden, inflatable rides, hayrides, and a Family Fun Tent. The USR Police Benevolent Association runs an obstacle course. A Seniors Tent offers lunch and hourly activities built specifically for older residents. More than 40 community organizations and local vendors set up tables to meet people face to face, and every dollar raised goes to USR Cares, the nonprofit that funds crisis support and senior programs in town.
The same weekend carries a second, quieter tradition that a lot of newer residents never hear about until someone mentions it. The Woman's Club of USR runs a borough-wide tag sale timed to USR Day. Registration is $40 per address, and it buys a spot on a printed town map that gets distributed to everyone who signs up, so shoppers can plan a route driveway to driveway instead of guessing. Proceeds fund scholarships and community grants. It is the kind of event that only shows up if you are already plugged into the calendar, which is exactly the point of paying attention to it.
Thirteen days later, Lions Park hosts a different kind of gathering. Oktoberfest, billed by the Borough and USR Cares as a celebration of international culture and cuisine, brings a German biergarten and food vendors representing multiple cuisines, a silent auction, live music, a hayride, a bounce house, and the same Family Fun and Seniors setup that anchors USR Day. It runs noon to 6 p.m., an hour longer than USR Day, and it functions as USR Cares' second major fundraiser of the fall rather than a repeat of the first.
Two fundraisers, same nonprofit, same park, less than two weeks apart. That pacing is not an accident of scheduling. It reflects how a town without a commercial main street builds its public life: not around storefronts, but around a handful of volunteer-run dates that everyone in town already knows to circle.
Then the Calendar Moves to a Farmhouse
After Oktoberfest, the tone changes completely. The Historical Society's Harvest Festival takes place at the Hopper-Goetschius House, a Dutch sandstone home built by the Hopper family in 1739 and the oldest remaining structure in Upper Saddle River. The Society has managed the property since 1985, and the Harvest Festival is its signature fall event, distinct from the museum's Summer Sundays program and its December Holiday Open House.
The festival itself trades DJs and biergartens for cider pressing in the property's wooden barn, a working blacksmith demonstration, open-hearth cooking, craft demonstrations, and lessons in the one-room schoolhouse on the grounds. A bluegrass band called Growing Old Disgracefully provides the music. Admission runs five dollars for adults, with children under 12 and Historical Society members admitted free. Last year, Mayor Arman Fardanesh singled out longtime volunteer Kay Yeomans and the rest of the Historical Society for running the event, and used the same bulletin to thank the Borough's Department of Public Works, led by Director Robert Fleshman, for handling setup at USR Day. Louisa Quarto and Daria Fox were credited with coordinating that event on the USR Cares side. These are not abstract committees. They are specific people who show up every fall and make the same three events happen again.
The Historical Society sets the Harvest Festival's exact date each year rather than fixing it to a set weekend, so the surest way to catch it is to check usrhistoricalsociety.org closer to the date. Based on how the Society has sequenced its own event page, it consistently falls after Oktoberfest, which puts it somewhere in the back half of October.
The Recreation Department's Other Big Move
While the civic calendar runs through Lions Park and the Hopper-Goetschius grounds, the Borough has also been building out a second major recreation site at 1 Lake Street. The Recreation Department added four pickleball courts and a perimeter walking path there, alongside a lighted turf field intended for youth sports leagues. Last spring, the Borough was already soliciting sponsors for scoreboard advertising at the site, a sign the final phase, which includes a field house and press box, was well underway.
That investment matters for the same reason the fall calendar does. Upper Saddle River doesn't have a retail corridor competing for foot traffic the way some neighboring towns do. What it has instead is public land, and the Borough keeps adding to it. A turf field with lighting and a pickleball setup is not a small outlay for a town this size, and it tells you where the municipal priorities sit: recreation and shared space, not storefronts.
What the Sequence Actually Tells You
Put the three fall events next to the 1 Lake Street investment and a pattern comes into focus. Upper Saddle River doesn't organize its year around a commercial center, because it doesn't have one to organize around. Instead, the same volunteer network runs the same handful of dates through the same handful of public spaces, and the Borough backs it up by continuing to invest in the land those events depend on. USR Day and Oktoberfest happen at Lions Park because Lions Park is built for it. The Harvest Festival happens at the Hopper-Goetschius House because the Historical Society has been running it there since 1985. Neither event location is an accident, and neither is going anywhere.
For anyone who has lived here a while, that consistency is probably not news. What might be worth noticing this particular fall is how tight the sequence has become, thirteen days between the two Lions Park events, and how directly the same names keep showing up behind them. That is not a town waiting for a downtown to fill in. It is a town that has already decided what its public life looks like, and keeps building the infrastructure to support it.
If you are curious about how Upper Saddle River's property values reflect that kind of civic investment and community continuity, or if you are weighing a move and want a market read grounded in the same local detail, Amy Bourque can walk you through what's happening street by street. Request your complimentary home valuation and tailored marketing plan whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
