The Lodge was on Ramapo Lake Paul Neuman December 26, 2014 These photos are of what remains of the house that stood on the island in Ramapo Lake. I haven’t been out there in a few years. You need a good cold snap before venturing over to it. Does anybody have a photo of the house when it was standing? Was it part of the Van Slyke estate? When was it destroyed? I assume it was burned. I seem to remember reading something years ago that the house was built as a safe haven, maybe from the flu pandemic of 1918 or a later public health crisis (TB, polio?). Of…
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Ed & Elaine Zindel Remember Old Oakland
Ed & Elaine Zindel Remember Old Oakland Pleasureland and the surrounding area was a kid’s playground like few others. The primary recreational features were the yet unspoiled Ramapo River and Pompton Lake which provided quality fishing, swimming, boating, and ice skating. We also fished Muller’s Brook, Mitchell’s Pond and Delmar’s Pond for the beautiful wild trout which flourished there. Potash’s Island, which we accessed from Island Terrace, was a great place to explore and had some of the best waterfowling and woodcock flights that I have ever seen. Rotten Pond, which was a poacher’s paradise, was a stiff walk from Pool Hollow, but we fished it relentlessly; by day and…
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History of Crystal Lake
History of Crystal Lake This picture is from the 1950’s. I recall the brook running down into the Lake behind Rockaway under the bridge that goes over Lakeside Dr; along with the Large body of water known as the Ramapo River running from Mahwah and Upstate NY. creeks and small ponds around Oakland So I called in someone elder than us, as per my 90 year old grandmother, the inception of the lake was in the 50’s at that time the bodies of waters were known as creeks and small ponds around Oakland and the adjacent towns. She further professed the Damn was built in the 60’s a few years…
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History of Sandy Beach and the Brick Factory
History of Sandy Beach and the Brick Factory Yes this is Sandy Beach, or what would have become Sandy Beach. My grandfather, Bill Ebert, and his partner Frank Stutz, built the park by hand, wheelbarrow and vintage pickup trucks from the old brush factory. The lake was formed by diverting a part of the Ramapo River near where “the Colony” was located at that time, off West Oakland Ave. The brush factory building became a beer garden, in the old German style, and the concrete picnic tables were all built one by one, by hand by my grandfather and his partner. I remember on hot summer weekend days in the…
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Connie Monks Discusses Former Stores
Former Oakland Stores in Town Center Connie Monks Discusses Former 4 Stores on RVR Note: Until the mid 1950s, there were 4 stores on RVR directly across from the Coppertree Mall. The Oakland Military Academy was located on the site of the Coppertree Mall until 1963 when it was demolished. Those stores were moved to what is now Elm Street in the 1950s. Constance Williams Monks Oh boy you bring the memories flowing. To the left was Mr. Proskey’s antique store. Next was Vic the barber and the Green Spot luncheonette. The one farthest to the right was a bunch of things. In the forties my brother Bert had a…
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Charles Kohler Residence
Charles Kohler Just south of Darlington the 235-acre estate and farm of the bankrupt Countess Seckendorff was bought by Charles Kohler in April 1909. He was a native of New Jersey, having been born in Newark in 1868. Kohler attended Princeton, and after marriage to Veronica Byrnes of New Rochelle, learned about the piano business from his wife’s brother. In 1896, he formed, with a partner, the Kohler and Campbell Piano Company in New York City. An original $6,000 investment was worth $4000,000 by 1904. He then formed a network of piano, auto piano, and musical instrument sales companies. Despite his active business life, Charles Kohler was able to become…
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Vernam Spring
Vernam Spring Just read your postings on the Vernam Spring. A great piece of Town History! Quite a few things even I didn’t know about the place!. As a child growing up in Oakland I remember the Spring house very well. It was my favorite place to hang out, especially in the hot summertime- it was always a bit cooler up there next to that cold Spring water. Mrs. Vernam was long gone by the time I was a youngster, but my father remembered her very well. When I was growing up, the Spring and nearby ponds were used as a Goldfish Hatchery. But the water proved too cold for…
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Cal Bickford -Growing up in Oakland
Growing up in Oakland: 1948 – circa. 1960 THE MOVE TO OAKLAND My family moved into town during the fall of 1948. Up to that time we had lived in a new home that our parents built in a new development during 1940 in suburban Fair Lawn. My parents needed room. Both of them were avid gardeners as you will see below. Also, the houses were so close together that you could talk to your next-door neighbor through the bedroom windows. We had looked for homes in the western part of Bergen County, primarily Mahwah, Oakland and Franklin Lakes, settling on an old 1800’s farmhouse that was to become a…
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Bob Spear Home
Borough referred to as Nielsen Avenue Our old home on what the Boro referred to as Nielsen Avenue which in fact was a dirt road we called Spear Lane. The “proposed” Avenue was to connect Long Hill road to Grove Street for a main entry to develop the entire area. It was particularly a “sore spot” one day to us when a Survey crew hired by the Boro came through without asking permission and staked out a broad “right of way” right across our property, across our pond, up our driveway and down across our field, pounding rib boned survey stakes in the ground! We quickly went behind them and…
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Bob Spear on his Ancestral Bush Residence
Bob Spear on his Ancestral Home-The Bush Residence 7/10/2013 “My great grandfather’s home circa 1870 on Valley Road- later the home of David C. Bush & Anna F. Spear and much later the Oakland Jewish Center. Henry I. Speer’s farm was next door opposite Ponds Church burying ground. The kitchen area on the right, huge barn in rear where my brother played as a child,” Bob, Thanks for adding additional info on this building. Please post your your comment as I think that it would be good for everyone to know and appreciate both your and Oakland’s heritage. At the bottom of the pic is a hand written notation, “The…
