Photo by Eric Voremkamp
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Last night, grey clouds blushing pink from the city lights raced across a not quite full moon as my husband and I walked up Washington Spring Road in the dark, carrying a flashlight as our only protection against whatever might be out there. Sheila Asch had advised me when we first moved here to carry a flashlight because not every lane had streetlights. You could stumble or worse in the pitch black. Possibly even get lost! Possibly never to be seen again. We had moved to Brigadoon, so we had learned—it could happen.

The cemetery remains today as a silent tribute to many of the founding families of Palisades
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Today the future of the Palisades Cemetery is uncertain. The current owner of record does not participate in the property maintenance, financial or otherwise. In 1982, native Palisadian Helene Stansbury and others formed an ad hoc group called P.L.O.T. to clean up and maintain the neglected cemetery. The work has continued ever since.

Tony and Annie Gerard feeding Mrs. Smith's penguins
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It’s getting to be like Old MacDonald’s farm around here with goats and chickens springing up in a number of neighbors’ backyards. Creatures a bit more exotic have called Palisades home in the past; among them have been a peacock or two and a pair of penguins.

Closter Road homes bask in the sun of a treeless Triangle. 1900
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Those of us who live here in 10964 agree on one thing: we live in a remarkable place. There are many reasons why - the history, the people and the place itself. But unless it is documented in some way, the history can quickly vanish. With their outstanding books, Alice Gerard and her mother Alice Haagensen have done a wonderful job of recording Palisades’ history for future generations. But there are always gaps, recollections that enrich the story with their color and perspective. And that is why I’m writing this article about a part of Palisades where I’ve lived since 1968 - one block of Closter Road from Route 9W to Oak Tree Road.

This section of Closter Road, winding gently downhill from the corner by the Palisades Library to the New Jersey state line, has a long and fascinating history. It is one of the oldest roads in Palisades, having been laid out in 1745 over an earlier track that connected the tiny community here with the more thickly settled areas in northern Bergen County.

Two years ago Palisades historian Alice Gerard was contacted by the writer Steve Hauk, who had discovered an interesting bit of Palisades history and wanted more information. He had found an application for a pistol permit signed by the writer John Steinbeck in 1942. The following article is based on Hauk’s discovery.

To celebrate, the Historical Society of Rockland County has put together an exhibit entitled, Rockland History: Through Your Eyes, from September 26 to November 7.

10964 continues its series on the smaller enclaves which make up Palisades with this article on Carteret Rd. (Route 340) from Oak Tree Road to the New Jersey border.

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On Monday, May 31, Palisadians gathered at the flagpole on Closter Road and Route 9W to remember the young soldiers who gave their lives to protect this country. The event was celebrated by a parade, and with speeches by Murray Cohen and by Alice Gerard, chair of the Palisades HIstoric Committee. Alice Gerard's speech is reproduced below.

The Guttman house on Indian HIll Lane
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Indian Hill is a wooded enclave of thirteen modern houses located west of Closter Road just past the Palisades Parkway crossing. It was created in the early 1950s by a group of World War II veterans living in the converted army barracks of Camp Shanks, then being used by Columbia University as temporary housing for married students. Camp Shanks was expected to close in the next year or so and members of this group wanted to stay in the Palisades area. They looked everywhere in the hamlet and found that most land was too expensive for them, but then discovered a large piece of property along Closter Road, part of a former farm.

I was inspired to write the following piece after reading the wonderful article about HeyHoe Woods written by Greta Nettleton in the last issue of 10964. I hope this will add a bit more luster to the mystique of this wonderful HeyHoe Woods Road.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a young newly minted Columbia University PhD scientist from Kansas, moved with his wife and daughter to Heyhoe Woods, renting Sanderson Vanderbilt’s house towards the end of the road. They loved the privacy and mystery of this unique section of Palisades. The year was 1966. Soon enough the family expanded to include a second daughter and a beagle named Sadie. Life was fine for Dennis Hayes, his wife, Judy, and his two girls Jennifer and Katharine. Elizabeth, their youngest, had not yet been born.

In the late 1950s Palisades Gardens, located to the left of Oak Tree Road above Route 340, was built on 50 acres of land that had most recently belonged to Charles Nessler, the inventor of the permanent wave. Originally part of the old Mann farm, the land had been bought in the late 19th century by Floyd Bailey, who built an estate called Valley View. Early in the 20th century Bailey sold the property to the banker James Wallace, who founded the Sparkill Bank, and built an imposing stone wall along the road. Nessler bought the property in the 1920s.

Palisades and Its Communities

HeyHoe Woods is made up of approximately 24 acres and bordered by South Orangetown School District property, IBM, The Esplanade and Oak Tree Road.

Bill Ryan who will give a library talk on October 25
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Curious about what lies on the Hudson floor along the Palisades? You would be amazed. On Sunday October 25th, the Palisades Library will be sponsoring a talk at 3:00 pm at the Esplanade on Oak Tree Road given by Dr. William Ryan entitled, “Mapping Our River in the Footsteps of Henry Hudson.”

Sharpless House in Pearl River, 1948
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In 1734 a settler (believed to be a member of the Blauvelt family) broke ground for a frame house on the brow of a hill overlooking Nauraushaun. Records indicate that this may have been the first house in what later became Pearl River. The Dr. George Sharpless house, so named for its last owner, is a Dutch-American frame farmhouse. But wait a minute. What is a Dutch-American, exactly?

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If there could have been anything my father loved more than his family, it might have been his catboat Sea Duck, a Fred Goeller one-design of indeterminant age, most likely 1920 or thereabouts, which he sailed single-handedly along the great stretch of Nantucket Harbor, sometimes beaching on the smooth sands of Cotue to dig a few clams for his lunch or just scudding across the great expanse of water to be alone with the universe.

Long-time Palisadian Bill Knudson started working at Petersen’s Boatyard in the summer of 1941 as a carpenter. The boatyard, at the foot of Van Houten Street on the Hudson River in Upper Nyack, is one of the oldest on the Eastern seaboard dating back to 1787.

Every Sunday morning, fifteen minutes before services begin at the Palisades Presbyterian Church, the bronze bell in the tower rings out to the hamlet that it is time for anyone who is coming to church to get on their way. The bell has been rung every Sunday, every Maundy Thursday and every New Year since December 31st, 1863. During the last 145 years, there has been only one interruption, and that was for about four months in 2002, when the bell and its tower were refurbished.

In Alice Gerard’s new book, Palisades and Snedens Landing: The Twentieth Century, we are given a view of life in our small community over the past one hundred years. Using written memoirs, many present day interviews, and newspaper articles from the time, Alice gives us—decade by decade—the story of people, places, and events which have shaped Palisades’ past. Over 300 remarkable photographs illustrate the story, and Alice—wearing her historian’s hat and seeing with a ‘tender’ eye—has written a series of overviews describing life in Palisades, helping to recreate “how it was then.”

We know that the population of Palisades was 14 people in 1700. Today it is close to 1300. During the intervening years there is less certainty. In the 18th, 19th, and part of the 20th century, US census figures were obtained from a census taker who wrote down the results in his own handwriting. These census takers sometimes made mistakes. New York State also conducted a census, and occasionally, for a special reason like a petition for incorporation, the population was counted independently from the census. Below are the population figures that have come down to us, some obviously more reliable than others. During the missing years our population was either not sampled or it was done so poorly, as in 1900 and in 1920, that it cannot be determined.