Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards
General Category => Hackensack History => Topic started by: Editor on February 14, 2005, 05:56:17 PM
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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)
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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
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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!
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(Scroll up to read about Maplecrest Beach)
Thanks to Barry for the pictures.
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (1) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (2) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (3) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (4) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (5) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (6) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (7) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (8) (Small).JPG)
(http://www.hackensacknow.com/images/maplecrest (9) (Small).JPG)
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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.
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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.
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wow, those are really great pics...made me flashback..my pics are black and white...
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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...
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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.
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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.
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I Remember Maplecrest Beach as a teenager.... It was so exciting to plan our day ... that was in the 4o's...
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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.
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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
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Does anyone remember the kiddie amusement park just next door to the lake?
Was it part of the property?
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Kiddie Wonderlands: http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,3522.msg11882.html#msg11882