75 YEAR OF ERSKINE LAKES - by Brad
Tuttle, 2003
In 1928, a small group of residents created a list
of guidelines for the Constitution of the Lake Erskine
County Club. Today, 75 years later, a couple of the
organization’s purposes seem odd, such as arranging
for mock trials and one-act plays. Overall, however,
the goals of this organization (a predecessor of the
Erskine Lakes Property Owners Association, or ELPOA)
are not much different than today, promoting clubs,
sports, dances, and “the social interests of the
residents and their guests.” Of course, much has
changed through the years. The 75-year history of
Erskine Lakes can be divided roughly into three eras:
the early days of the “Lake Erskine Country Club,” the
post-war boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s with many
“summer people,” and the modern community, in which
all but a few homes are year-round residences.
ERSKINE’S EARLY YEARS The name Erskine comes from
Robert Erskine, a Scottish mining engineer sent to
Ringwood and Greenwood Lake by the London-based
American Company in 1769. When the American Revolution
came about, Erskine cast his lot with the rebellious
colonists, serving as SurveyorGeneral to George
Washington during the war. The Ringwood Company,
formed in 1742 by David Ogden of Newark, owned much of
the land in the region, and used the area’s iron ore,
water, and woods for iron manufacturing. In 1927, the
Ringwood Company built a dam at the overflow at what
was then called Tice’s Pond, near the building known
as the Small Community House (now known as Little
Beach Club House). The dam created a lake measuring 90
acres, and its name was changed in honor of Erskine.
In 1932, two more dams created a 65-acre lake at
Cupsaw and the 33-acre Upper Lake, and all were
collectively known as Erskine Lakes. The population
was quite small in these early days. In 1930, Ringwood
was home to about 1,000 people, and there were a total
of just 13 bungalows built along the dirt roads in the
Erskine area. By 1933, the Erskine Lakes Country Club
boasted a membership of about 100. In general, members
were summer residents only, most consisting of fairly
privileged families who were wealthy enough to own two
homes during the Depression. The Ringwood Company
operated a sawmill at Erskine Lake, located between
what is now Mohawk Trail and Little Beach. Oxen hauled
the timber, and the wood was used to build many of the
original two-bedroom cabins. Each cabin was given an
inviting name such as “Cozy Nook,” “Sunset Lodge,” or
“Castle Rock.” Sports and social activities prevailed
during the summer season, with swimming, diving,
square dances, boxing, bingo, trapshooting, tennis,
ping-pong, sailing regattas, horseshoes, and card
games. Parker Fredericks, proprietor of the Main Beach
store and a pillar of the community, arranged for
World Horseshoe Champion Ted Allen and boxing great
Joe Louis to make appearances. Other celebrities,
including comedian Lou Costello and actresses Mae West
and Ethel Merman, vacationed at the lakes in the early
days. Up to 1935, there was a gateman present
restricting who could enter, and for a brief period
there was a sign reading “Restricted Christian
Community” at the entrance, revealing the anti-Semitic
sentiment during the decade leading up to World War
II. The sign was removed in 1939. In 1935, Erskine
Road, Lakeview Avenue, and Cupsaw Drive were taken
over by the Borough as “public thoroughfares” so that
they could be paved. The Borough slowly took over
other roads in the Erskine area, overseeing all
streets by 1947. Through the early 1930’s, the
Ringwood Company maintained the beaches and other lake
facilities, in return for half the annual receipts
collected by the Country Club. In 1938, an agreement
with the Ringwood Company was reached, in which a
newly formed organization of property owners, ELPOA,
would maintain all facilities and bear the cost of
upkeep, including taxes, insurance, lifeguards,
police, and utilities. Without subsidies from the
Ringwood Company, dues had to be raised from $3 to $5
per cottage annually. Men dressed in suits and ties,
and women attired in colorful summer dresses attended
the first annual ELPOA banquet and dance at the “New
Community House” (commonly called the Hilltop
Clubhouse) on July 27, 1940. POST-WAR GOLDEN YEARS The
war years were quiet and slow at the lake. With gas
rationing and young men and women off serving their
country, some families skipped the trip to their lake
home. The usual parties and dances were subdued and
sometimes grim. Six ELPOA members lost their lives in
the war. Still, important changes occurred at Erskine
Lakes in the 1940’s. Motorboats were banned in 1941,
in part because of a fatal boating accident in 1938.
In 1943, the Erskine Lakes Beach Club planned the
first systematized recreation and sports program for
children. The now-familiar circular ELPOA seal was
designed in 1945. Concrete docks replaced the wood
frame docks at the beaches in the mid-1940’s. The
Erskine Lakes Volunteer Fire Department formed in
1946. On July 11, 1948, the stone Memorial Tower
(a.k.a., the high-dive) was dedicated at Main Beach in
tribute to the veterans of World War II, replacing a
wooden diving tower. The most significant event of the
decade for Erskine occurred in April 1945, when a vast
majority of residents voted for a separation with
Cupsaw. The results of the split were that the Cupsaw
Lake Improvement Association (CLIA) was created, and a
rivalry was officially born. The 1950’s, a decade so
fondly remembered by most Americans, began with a
disaster at Erskine Lakes. The old stone and wood
Hilltop Clubhouse burned to ground on the night of
January 20, 1950. Flames from the raging fire were
reportedly seen as far away as Route 17. Less than ten
days later, on January 29, plans were made to build a
new clubhouse on the same site. The current Hilltop
Clubhouse, built for only $37,000 thanks to dozens of
volunteer laborers, was dedicated on June 30, 1951.
Changes and improvements to Erskine Lakes continued
into the 1950’s. A steep, grassy hill at Main Beach
was transformed into a stone amphitheater in 1953,
creating what would be the setting for many ELPOA Days
and Awards Nights to come. That same year, the T-docks
(which had earlier been home to tennis courts) were
torn down, the Upper Lake Pavilion was built, and a
second dock was constructed at Main Beach, parallel to
the diving tower to create swimming lanes. The average
ELPOA member slowly changed during the post-war years
as well. The United States economy was booming, and
Baby Boomer generation had become toddlers and young
adults. Jobs were plentiful, and middle-class families
found it possible to afford a small summer home at the
lake. Instead of being a fanciful escape for the
elite, Erskine Lakes was reshaping itself into a
summer paradise for families who had previously never
dreamed of owning a vacation home. The patriarchs of
these new arrivals were hard workers who had likely
served in World War II. They came not from Manhattan’s
Fifth Avenue, but from working-class neighborhoods in
Paterson, Hoboken, Hasbrouck Heights, Bergenfield, the
Bronx, and Brooklyn. Often, Dad lived at the
year-round home during the workweek, and came up to
the lake only on weekends. Many long-time ELPOA
members refer to the 1950’s and early 1960’s as the
idyllic heyday of Erskine Lakes. A mix of year-round
residents and “summer people” reunited each year when
the weather turned warm, and cried each year when
Labor Day came around. Weekly Saturday night dances at
the Hilltop began in 1948, each dance featuring a
particular theme, organized and decorated by
volunteers. The end-of-summer Farewell Dance was
always especially festive, ending each year with many
sad goodbyes. As unimaginable as it seems today,
teenagers and parents all put on their “glad rags”
(jacket and tie for guys, fancy dresses for gals) and
attended the same dances, everyone mingling and
carousing together comfortably. The hat was often
passed to pay the band to play for an extra hour.
Afterwards on especially hot nights, more than a few
went for a swim. Many admit to leaping into the water
without a shred of clothing on occasion. The summer’s
social calendar was filled every day. Children had
swimming lessons, sports, and games scheduled
throughout the day. Kids of all ages busied themselves
with ping-pong competitions at Parker Fredericks’ Main
Beach store, which was bought by the Thulin family in
1960 and is still called Thulin’s by old-timers to
this day. Teens could count on a social event almost
every night of the week – “Rendezvous” on Tuesdays at
Cupsaw, square dancing on Wednesday, “Casbah” on
Mondays and Thursdays, movies at the Hilltop on
Friday, periodic spaghetti dinners at St. Catherine’s
Church, and of course the big Saturday night dance.
Both kids and adults competed in sporting events
against other lakes (Lake Erskine and Upper Lake
played against each other), the women playing
volleyball, the men softball, and the children any
number of sports. ELPOA Day was always special, with
family swim races, egg tosses, bucket brigades, baby
pageants, toilet paper races, burgers and beers,
elaborately decorated floats (remember the dragon?),
and canoe jousting (before it was banned). Clubs
sprouted up each year, the Sailing Club in 1962, the
Upper Lake Men’s Club in 1966, the Erskine Lakes
Tennis Club, with its new courts on Lakeview Avenue,
in 1971. Some homes were overcrowded with kids, and
some didn’t have heat or even warm water, but no one
seemed to care. There was always a neighbor to lend a
hand or to borrow a cup of sugar from, always a spot
at the dinner table of a friend’s house. There was an
ice house on Ringwood Avenue near the reservoir to
keep the ice box cold. Sam Ball, the milkman, came by
in his red pickup truck with milk, eggs, and cream.
Mrs. Manning peddled fruits and vegetables from her
truck, while Bond Bread and Dugan’s competed for the
bread and dessert market. Casey was the mailman
depositing letters in a few log sheds called
“birdhouses” spread around the lake. As Baby Boomers
grew into adulthood, an obvious question was being
asked more often: Why not live at the lake year-round?
Ringwood’s school system had grown quickly, and people
began realizing that the area they loved for its
summer activities could also be a perfect place for
trickor-treating on Halloween and ice skating when the
lake froze. By the early 1970’s, the majority of ELPOA
members lived at the lake year-round. All but a few
homes had become year-round residences by the
mid-1980’s. ERSKINE AS WE KNOW IT TODAY In recent
years, Ringwood found itself on the list of most
desirable towns to live in New Jersey. Home prices
rose steeply, as they did over much of New Jersey.
This area of northern Jersey, once considered “the
country,” had suddenly become thought of as part of
suburbia, even as an extension of the greater
metropolitan area. Housing developments popped up here
and there in Ringwood and neighboring towns. Taxes
seemed to have doubled overnight. There were a limited
number of lots around the lakes, so the number of
homes could not grow. However, the homes themselves
could grow, and did. Old summer cottages were revamped
or torn down, replaced with larger, winterized homes.
Every year, a panoramic view of the lake seemed to
reveal a little more aluminum siding, a little less
green. Mother Nature seemed unpleased with the
changes, seen in the tornado that ripped across Lake
Erskine in 1989, knocking down trees and leaving the
area without power for a week. At the end of the 20th
century, an odd, unusually skinny and symmetrical tree
(actually a cell phone tower) appeared next to our
beloved Hilltop Clubhouse. Phone numbers were once
only three digits and a letter to call a neighbor at
the lake; now they require ten. The more things
changed, the more old-timers talked wistfully about
the “golden age” of Erskine in the 1950’s and 1960’s,
intimating that the community’s best days were in the
past. Children who lived year-round at the lake simply
could not appreciate how special the place was, they
thought, compared to someone who lived in a city and
visited each summer. The idea would have seemed
ridiculous a few decades prior, but families regularly
left the lake each summer to vacation at the Jersey
Shore or Myrtle Beach. Could the lake scene be getting
old and boring? Other lake communities that Erskine
had competed with in the past saw their summer
programs fade away or disappear entirely because of
lack of interest and politics. Could the same thing
happen to Erskine Lakes? Thankfully, it doesn’t seem
likely. At the dawn of the 21th century, things seem
to have come full circle. Many of the year-round kids
who grew up at Erskine in the 1970’s and 1980’s – the
“spoiled” ones who supposedly could not appreciated
how special the place was – returned to the lake to
raise families of their own, oftentimes with a spouse
they met years earlier at Erskine. Decade after
decade, the same journey to adulthood has been
witnessed at Erskine Lakes. A child grows up, takes
swimming lessons and participates in the sports and
social programs, attending “small fry” and “teen
night,” playing games like rag tag, shark and fish,
Marco Polo, and roofball. He looks forward to Fourth
of July barbecues by day and fireworks by night, and
all the fun and games at each year’s ELPOA Day and
Awards Night. There are milestones to reach – the
first bike ride around the lake, the first swim out to
the raft, the first frightening leap off the
high-dive, the first confrontation with Pinecliff.
There is usually some mischief too (getting “beached,”
skinny-dipping, “ring-and-running,” run-ins with
either Mr. Kunert, Alex, or Mr. Nick, etc.).
Eventually, he is old enough to become a lifeguard or
counselor, which tends to lead to different forms of
mischief (anyone who has ever attended the annual
lifeguard dinner at Mt. Fuji knows of which we speak).
Along the way, he makes friends casually, almost
unconsciously, only in retrospect realizing these
friendships will likely last a lifetime. He leaves for
college or to explore the world, and while the people
and places he finds elsewhere are enthralling, he
comes to realize how truly special Erskine Lakes is.
When he thinks about settling down with a family of
his own, there is only one place to look: Ringwood,
and specifically, Erskine Lakes. Just like generations
past, the young mothers and fathers of today’s Erskine
Lakes want their kids to experience the best of all
possible childhoods. As long as there are active,
involved, and respectful families willing to volunteer
their time and energy, the traditions, programs,
clubs, and friendships that we hold precious will
always be around. ELPOA Day continues to draw friends
together year after year, to go for a swim, enjoy a $1
beer from the keg, play beach volleyball, and compete
in the “taps” tournament (granting bragging rights to
the winners for a year). The Hilltop continues to
bring in the crowds for dances, weddings, and family
parties. Much has changed since the days of the
“Erskine Lakes Country Club,” but Erskine Lakes
continues to be a great place to grow up, raise a
family, and grow old. Just ask anyone with a badge.
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