Historic Sites
Information on this page current as of December 22, 2007The Palisades Interstate Park . . .
was created in 1900, in response to concern over the quarrying of the Palisades. Before the creation of the park, all of the Palisades had been in private hands, the lower portion, along the river, consisting mostly of riverfront villages, the cliff top mostly either wood lots or the site of large summer estates.
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The New Jersey Section maintains two dedicated Historic Sites:
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Many of our other Park areas and facilities also have rich historical connotations: |
Allison Park
Alpine Picnic Area & Boat Basin
Englewood Picnic Area & Boat Basin
Park Headquarters
Ross Dock
| For historic photos, see Album Four. |
Allison Park is named for William O. Allison (1849-1924), who at one time had an estate at this location. Allison had been born in the "Undercliff" Settlements, the son of fishermen and quarry workers. As a child he was made a ward of the Dana family, who owned a large estate on top of the cliffs. He succeeded in business and became one of the largest land-owners along the Palisades, and was the principal owner of the Palisades Mountain House, also at this site, when it burned down in 1884 (see "Fire on the Mountain").
He built his estate literally atop the ruins of the Mountain House and, ironically, it burned down as well, in 1903. He became the first mayor of Englewood Cliffs, and sold some riverfront property to the Carpenter Brothers for their quarry operation. This may have led, in part, to his becoming in his later years a staunch defender of the Palisades as a natural preserve, and his will left many acres of his holdingsincluding those at this sitein the public trust as parkland.
He also set out to chronicle the life of the "Undercliff" settlements, and his notes remain an invaluable research tool today.
This area was known throughout the nineteenth century as "Closter Landing," "Upper Closter Landing," "the Closter Dock," or simply "Under the Closter Mountain." It was part of the settlement of fishing villages known as "Undercliff." Of the dozen or more houses at Closter Landing, only the Kearney House remains.
In the early part of the twentieth century, the Palisades Interstate Park operated a bathing beach here, and the stone picnic pavilion, built in 1934 for the Civil Works Administration, used to have lockers on the lower floor. Most bathers came on the Yonkers Ferry, which landed at the south end of the Alpine Area. The ferry service was discontinued in 1957, after the completion of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
This site was part of the "Undercliff" settlements, and the northern part of the Englewood Picnic Area is still called "Bloomer's Beach," in recognition of the Bloomer family, who lived in the area throughout the nineteenth century.
The Dyckman Ferry used to land at the southern end of the area, until it was finally discontinued in 1942 due to competition from the George Washington Bridge (opened in 1931). A bathing beach that operated at the Bloomer's section was also closed around that time, due indirectly at least to the decline in the number of visitors brought about from the diminished ferry operations (see "The 'Mystery' of the Beaches"). The old stone bath house dates from 1934, and was used by bathers (it was built by the Civil Works Administration).
The ferry landing, in turn, was originally the site of a steamboat landing built by the owners of the Palisades Mountain House in the 1870s (see "Fire on the Mountain"). The spectacular Dyckman Hill Road is also a descendent of that venture, though it was greatly improved upon in the early twentieth century.
Built by the Henry Herbert Oltman family around 1928, the former estate known as "Penlyn" was taken over by the Park Commission in 1939. In 1956, our administrative offices were moved here, our former Administration Building having been demolished to make way for the Parkway.
| For more, see "Penlyn". |
This was just north of the site of the Carpenter Brothers' Quarry. The present-day picnic area is built on sunken barges and other landfill from the quarry period.
During the early twentieth century, Ross Dock was a summer camp for families from New York City (see "The 'Mystery' of the Beaches" for a description).
