Author Topic: Maplecrest Beach  (Read 32874 times)

Offline Editor

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Maplecrest Beach
« on: February 14, 2005, 05:56:17 PM »
Thanks to Barry for sending this:

In the 1950's, Maplecrest Beach was located in Hackensack, just north of Route 4 on Hackensack Avenue. It was not a "pool" but a spring surrounded by sand. It was chlorinated but the bottom was dirt and we referred to it as a mudhole. It was originally owned by the Whitehouses, a couple who lived in Teaneck. They sold it  in 1955 to a group from NYC, who ran it as a swimming hole for a few years then sold the land to developers.

Does anyone remember this?

(See pictures below)


« Last Edit: April 02, 2007, 10:58:43 PM by Editor »



Pattie

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2005, 03:32:32 PM »
Yes i do remember it and i have a pic of me and my mother there...it was so much fun and so clean.....it was wonderful!  ;D

KathGo

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2005, 12:34:00 AM »
 We used to go to MapleCrest Beach almost every Sunday in the summer time. It really was a great place for kids and grownups! We always met other kids we knew there and we would all play and swim together.Just a few months ago, I was talking to my aunt about Maple Crest and I found out that my grandfather, Frank Levitzki, a home builder from Hackensack, had built all the picnic tables and outbuildings on the property! I wish they could take away that Home Depot and the Pathmark etc. and rebuild another Maple Crest Beach. Oh! to be back in time!

Offline Editor

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2007, 10:57:20 PM »
(Scroll up to read about Maplecrest Beach)

Thanks to Barry for the pictures.




















« Last Edit: April 02, 2007, 11:02:19 PM by Editor »

Offline ra138

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2007, 11:22:41 AM »
Maplecrest was doomed by the polio scare of the early 1950s.  I grew up nearby, but my parents were very cautious about letting their kids in such public swimming places.  The belief was that polio was spread through them.

Offline ericmartindale

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2007, 11:57:59 AM »
My parents, who grew up in Bergenfield in the 1950's, remember this place. 

As late as the 1950's, the main road from Bergenfield to Hackensack went over the old wood-plank bridge at the Steuben House.  All the kids from Bergenfield (and other towns) would congregate on Main Street in Hackensack.  My understanding is that they would take a BUS to Hackensack, and often hitch-hike back to Bergenfield.  This sounds fairly absurd. Nowadays, kids do neither.

Maplecrest Beach can be seen on old USGS (US Geological Survey) maps. This was not a natural feature, but a hole excavated to a level below the water table, and lined with sand.  The water may have come from the ground, but to call it a a "spring" would not be accurate.  But I'm sure it made for a great marketing ploy by the management.

I believe the exact location ran from Hackensack Ave to the Staples store.  But check an old USGS map to be sure.

Offline midniteangel

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2007, 04:20:06 AM »
wow, those are really great pics...made me flashback..my pics are black and white...
Honesty is like a breath of fresh air!

Offline WarrenG

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #7 on: May 17, 2010, 08:28:16 PM »
This topic and the other color pic of the Maplecrest dock really jog my memory.  I went to CYO summer daycamp in Hasbrouck Heights for a few years, and we would be bussed to Maplecrest for swim mornings.  I do remember this 'mudhole' as not being a prime swim place (eg:  not like Arcola Pool in Paramus).  There was about 2 feet of mud on the bottom if you were unlucky enough to touch it! 
The pic of the dock reminded me -- I was on the dock with probably 20 others on a beautiful summer morning in 1961 when all of a sudden there was a big cracking noise and the entire dock started sinking!!!  I dove off the side to escape and went underwater a while, and when I re-surfaced and looked back the dock was empty and at a really odd angle as a bunch of the supporting posts had rotted enough to collapse!  What a hoot!  I think the CYO substituted a pool in Fairlawn the next summer.  Ah, memories...

Offline TurtleJoe

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2011, 07:28:06 PM »
Does anyone remember the building on Maplecrest Beach which housed a large TV Screen on which the Baseball Games were viewed? The screen must have been at least 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. The place was full of Cancer Surrogates....Cigarette Smokers which kept the smart kids out of there. I visited there around 1951.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2011, 08:59:53 PM by Editor »

Offline pete

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2012, 03:35:10 PM »
I can never forget Maple Crest beach.  I worked there briefly in the early 50s when I was a young teen living in Teaneck.  But the event that is forever in my memory is that on Sat. June 6, 1953, a friend and classmate of mine drowned there.  I was not with him, and learned of it at school on Monday morning. It was a life-changing event for me, and I recall it every year on D-Day.

Offline jeanne

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2012, 10:34:46 AM »
I Remember Maplecrest Beach as a teenager.... It was so exciting to plan our day ... that was in the 4o's...

Offline hhscomets_alum

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2012, 09:21:05 AM »
To "Pete"....I am not familiar with Maplecrest Beach but I just want to say I am sorry for your loss of a friend and classmate. These tragedies give us a perspective on life forevermore.

Offline kitchie

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #12 on: August 01, 2012, 05:44:30 PM »
It's so wonderful for me to see these posts on Maplecrest Beach.  I loved Maplecrest Beach...We went there every weekend driving from New York in our Studebaker and then in our 54 Orange & black Mercury....We had to go over the George Washington Bridge and we would play games all the way there....Games that kids today wouldn't even think were fun....Like picking out a car, and when one drove by us, the first one to scream out the name, got a point!  Or...the singing....like "A hundred bottles of beer on the wall"...hahahaha....The Whitehouses were so nice to us, and their son used to take my brother and I out in his rowboat into the backwoods...I still remember the snakes...hahaha....I was there the day that the kid drowned...he was caught under the float and I guess we figured he lost his breath...it was one of the saddest days that I remember...I had never experienced anyone dying & I remember crying for him. We used to pack our lunches and head out for a day in the sun playing & swimming.  Some of my fondest memories were there...I do have pictures somewhere and when I find them, I will certainly post a few....but, I have to admit, your pictures posted are wonderful and bring back so many memories....I'm so glad that I finally found out where Maplecrest Beach was....I thought it was Hackensack & now I know...Thanks

Offline Wayne

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #13 on: June 11, 2019, 11:40:31 AM »
Does anyone remember the kiddie amusement park just next door to the lake?
Was it part of the property?

Offline Editor

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Re: Maplecrest Beach
« Reply #14 on: June 11, 2019, 08:02:20 PM »