Now in his second home in the borough, the retired machinist lives on Legion Street in the center of town. Bordered by Van Avenue to the east, the Pequannock River to the west, and the railroad tracks to the north, the downtown neighborhood features some of the town's oldest homes. Its charm lies, in part, in the ease of getting around.
Neighbors can share conversation from their front porches.
Of course, the borough isn't as remote as it was when Corbett would drive to work in Harrison and go for long stretches on Route 23 without seeing another car. Pompton sits at the waist of Passaic County's hourglass, sandwiched between the developed suburbs and cities to the south and the more bucolic towns of the Highlands to the north. Settled by Dutch farmers, Pompton Lakes grew in prominence during the Revolutionary War, thanks to a forge near where the Hamburg Turnpike now runs. Cannonballs and other military supplies were produced and a network of roads to Hackensack, Bloomingdale, Morristown, and West Point, N.Y., made the town a center of commerce. Pompton Lakes became an independent borough in 1898, and remained a regional hub for years.