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Health & Fitness

A Little Bit of Nyack History

My thoughts about the history of the Nyack area. I'm always seeking to learn more about what has made our community great.

What to blog about for openers of my new Nyack Patch History Blog?

I could begin with baseball; I’m sure my of love the game will enter here sometimes. Memorial Day is coming; I can blog about the many veterans who didn’t come home. Twenty-one men killed in the Civil War and twenty-nine in the Second World War; each with a story to tell. Maybe I will blog later in the month of their tales.

I would like to start out on a happy note. Okay, as our weather warms it’s time to thinking about heading to the ole’ swimming hole for some skinny-dipping. Oh wait a sec—I don’t think there’s any place left in our area that might be considered a swimming hole. Well, back a bunch of years ago, long before back yard pools and swim clubs, there were quite a few places kids or the family could go to cool off on a hot summer’s day.

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Nyack’s Ice Pond was once a local swimming hole. Along western High Avenue, on the north side of the pond, was an informal place to spread a blanket or a few lawn chairs and take a dip. Of course, swimmers had to be a bit on the brave side as the pond was home to snapping turtles, black water snakes and more than a few blood-sucking leaches. Headwaters of the Nyack Brook, the pond was a decent size and was located just about where the motel is now next to the Thruway. The pond was filled in to make the toll-road and Polhemus Street was constructed connecting Route 59 to the High Avenue exit.

For those with a quarter for admission, the best place for a dip was Nyack State Park Beach (Hook Mountain to the old timers) at the north end of Broadway. A pier extended out into the river and anchored the north end of a beach that was about twenty feet wide and maybe a hundred yards long. The wooden pier, dating back to the days of rock quarrying on Hook Mountain, was destroyed by a hurricane in 1955, and I guess soon after New York State decided it was no longer safe to swim in the waters of the Hudson. The beach is long gone, and only the large concrete steps leading down to the riverbank remain along with the dark refreshment stand and gymnasium as monuments to days long gone.

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For kids living around Nyack’s Veterans’ Memorial Park, the Hudson was a place to cool off. There was never a beach area and the shoreline is not conducive for swimming, but a little bit up the Nyack Brook many of the kids in my day managed to keep cool in the shallow pool just below Piermont Avenue. There were many times we scattered wearing little more than our birthday suits when one of “Nyack’s Finest” drove up in a patrol car.

The Nyack Brook also provided some relief from the heat to the neighborhood kids who used a small pool behind Easter’s Wood Yard located along Railroad Avenue just south of Depew Avenue.

The Hackensack River still provides us with drinking water and back in the 40s, 50s and 60s there were several swimming holes to seek relief from the summer’s heat. The first one was just south of the old Route 59 bridge, oh maybe 100 yards below were Nyack’s Water Plant sits today. Sheltered by large Maple and Oak trees it was one of the coolest spots in West Nyack. A bit further down the river, just south of where the Deer head inn held sway for decades, was another pool that kids could reach with a bike ride.  A bit of a car ride to the south in Blauvelt there were three more shady places around natural pools of the river where we could take a swim. The “Old Oak” was off Sunset Road, and along Fifth Avenue, the “Seven Foot” and “Forty Foot” holes almost always had kids swimming all summer.  Of course there were also turtles, snakes and leaches to contend with swimming in the Hackensack.

Nyackers often traveled over to Davies Lake on South Little Tor Road in New City.  The lake and beach was one of the largest in the area and included a casino and large family pavilion. There was a swimming area on the south side of Rockland Lake, but if my memory is correct, swimming at Rockland Lake was more for the “city-folks” and not the “locals,” although I’m sure the natives of Valley Cottage might disagree. I don’t recall making the trip over Baramore’s Hill very often to swim.  One of the earliest swim clubs was located on Route 303 to the north of the Nyack Drive In Theater.  Owned by Henry Wolfe, Lake Onteora was a membership club and had a premier beach and picnic area along with a great diving platform, one of the few around.

So happy blogging, and I hope you enjoy your summer and if you decide to go skinny-dipping, Nyack Brook is still pretty secluded, and Nyack’s Finest are long gone!

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