The name “Palisadian Inn” didn’t ring any bells with me, but the picture definitely was the restaurant that used to be next door, minus the gas pumps. I grew up in an old Dutch farmhouse south of the restaurant (now part of the HNA Conference Center) and north of 9W Golf (now Kopac Lane). My family always referred to the place as “The Tavern.” The restaurant is gone, now an empty field with the same fire hydrant.

Intrigued, I went looking for answers, putting my genealogical research skills and my love of Palisades history to work. The car in the postcard dates the picture to the early 1930’s, several decades before my time. In 1948, my parents, Jim and Margaret Anderson, found a tumbled–down house on an overgrown 30–acre farm, which included a tavern. Long ago, my mother told me the story of two Italian immigrants who owned the property for twenty years before my parents bought it. The men hoped to farm after retirement but were never able to realize their goal.

When my parents were finalizing the sale, my grandmother Tressie (a follower of Mary Baker Eddy) who was helping finance my parents’ adventure into the post–World War II homeownership boom, did not approve of my mother owning a tavern. So, the 30–acre farm was split down the middle from east to west, my parents buying the southern half of the farm in January 1949, William and Elisabeth Starink the northern half with the tavern in April.

The farm had been in the family of Anna Van Dien Tallman since the late 1700’s, handed down through daughters. Anna, who had no children of her own, left the farm to a young man she had informally adopted, but he passed away before the property transferred to him. His siblings disputed ownership for six years before it was sold in 1925. Subsequently, the property was turned over several times until would–be farmers, Dominick Pratto and John Rivara, purchased it in 1927.

Sadly, Mr. Rivara died in 1934, at age 54. The two men never moved to Palisades, renting out the farmhouse instead. Is it possible these men built the tavern? Two years after her father’s death, Virginia Rivara, a waitress, married Patrick Dempsey, a railroad crane worker. In January 1938, they acquired a business certificate for Dempsey’s Palisadian Inn.

A lively spot with dining and dancing, it sat on Route 9W, the longest river highway on the East Coast. The recently renovated highway with its mostly three–track concrete pavement ran from the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City to Albany. An article in The Oneonta Star on August 4, 1930 reported, “It is good news for tourists and for Hudson River residents as well that Route 9–W is in the best of condition because this is one of the most popular highways in the world.” This popularity would explain why in the 1930s there were at least three gas stations in Palisades on 9W and more on Carteret Road (Route 340).

Harold Post, a fifth generation Palisadian, had gas pumps north of the Methodist Church (Yonderhill). Henry Kennell, the son of a German immigrant, had one across from the Rockland Country Club (later moved to where The 9W Market is today). A Russian immigrant, Joseph Pollock, operated one on the east side of 9W opposite the tavern. Alice Gerard wrote in Palisades and Snedens Landing: The Twentieth Century, "Mr. Pollock had two gas stations on Route 9W south of Kennell’s first 9W station and would run back and forth across the road to serve customers as needed.” Apparently, the Gulf gas pumps shown in the postcard were Mr. Pollock’s.

Both the Pollocks and the Dempseys resided on their premises. When Patrick Dempsey registered with the selective service in October 1940, his address was Route 9W Palisades and he was self–employed at Dempsey’s Bar and Restaurant. Upon being deployed in June 1943, he closed the tavern. Virginia left Palisades. In the winter of 1945, two young boys set fire to the building damaging one end. The Dempseys never returned.

In March 1946, Peter Pasqualone, the proprietor of Old Vienna and Pete’s Bar & Grill on Route 9W in Alpine, filed a business certificate for Pete’s Palisadian Inn, but by the fall of 1948, the 30–acre property was up for sale, advertised as a Business Opportunity in The [Bergen] Record.

The Starinks, new owners of the northern half with the tavern, were issued a liquor license for The Palisadian Inn in April 1949. Unfortunately, Mr. Starink died 10 months late; Elisabeth sold off the tavern on about an acre of land to Albert and Methy Schoetensack, retaining ownership of the remaining acreage until 1965.

Al Schoetensack, who operated the Old ’76 House restaurant in Tappan from 1937 to around 1945, ran the Palisadian Inn from 1951 until his death in 1956. His wife Methy sold the tavern to Felix Lombardo, his son John and John’s fiancée Irene Szwartz. In 1957 they filed a partnership certificate under the name of Palisadian Inn.

After buying out his father, John and Irene made considerable changes to the tavern, adding a one–story residential dwelling to the restaurant in 1958. They created a “small intimate place” and renamed it Lombardo’s Restaurant in 1960. The Lombardos hosted many local organizations and celebrations throughout the decade. I remember the Lombardos fondly – whenever the power went out my older brother Bret and I were welcomed to their kitchen to help eat up melting ice cream.

By the summer of 1968, the Lombardos transferred ownership of the restaurant to their newly created corporation, Lightning Realty Corp, selling the property to LKC Holding Corporation in late 1969. A notice appeared in the Journal News the following April: “Poy Y Lau, formerly a manager of a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn, is the new owner of Lombardo’s, Route 9W, Palisades. He’s changed the name to the China Fountain and specializes in both Chinese and American dishes.” China Fountain operated for only a year and then reopened as Bruce Ho’s Chateau Gourmet. But just 18 months later, on November 24, 1972, the restaurant was gutted by a fire. Lightning Realty foreclosed on the mortgage it held, and the burned–out shell remained an eyesore for several years.

John Lombardo passed away while on a trip to California in 1977. He was 48. His widow Irene transferred the tavern property to contractor Charles Raimondo four years later. He purchased the remainder of the northern half of the old farm and within three years sold his acreage to International Business Machine Corporation. The IBM Palisades Executive Conference Center opened in 1989. [See 10964 article “Welcome IBM” November 1989, No. 115.]

Next time you drive by that grassy field on Route 9W try to give a nod to all the people that worked hard to provide a welcoming place in Palisades: Dempsey, Pasqualone, Schoetensack, Starink, Lombardo, Lau and Ho. Thank you Carol for providing me with the opportunity to discover more about Palisades and its fascinating history.