HILLSDALE—This week we go back to the 1960s with vintage snapshots of Stonybrook Swim Club in Hillsdale. Back then, it was a private swim club complete with cabanas and a ballroom.
The grounds at Piermont Avenue and Cedar Lane had been a swimming spot for decades. The Pascack Pool, a man-made lake with a sand bottom that created a beach-like atmosphere right in Hillsdale, had been a summertime favorite from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Caesar DeFlora purchased the Pascack Pool in 1959 and had an ambitious vision for the property. After the first swim season concluded, he began to transform it, creating Stonybrook Field Club south of the old lake.
By 1962, there was a new two-story modernistic clubhouse with a restaurant and cocktail lounge. Large glass windows set in redwood gave guests a wide view of the grounds.
In addition to two children’s pools, there was a 50-meter Olympic-size pool—a rarity in the area at the time. Around the pool there were more than 350 cabanas, picnic tables, and rows of colorful chaises and umbrellas. There were tennis courts and a separate teen clubhouse.
Weekly luaus were held inside the clubhouse and private parties and weddings were catered throughout the year. There was often live entertainment. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons played there.
The Stonybrook Day Camp was also founded under the auspices of the swim club. It operated on the grounds north of the club, where the old Pascack Pool had been located. At the camp, children of members enjoyed swimming lessons, arts and crafts, and rehearsed to put on performances for their parents.
There were occasional pony rides offered on grounds to the west, which would later become part of Hillsdale’s Stonybrook Manor condominiums. Also on that part of the land was a nine-hole chip and putt golf course.
DeFlora sold the swim club to Hillsdale in 1976, and the borough has operated it ever since. The purchase price for what was then a 20-acre property was $735,000.
At 12 acres, the Stonybrook property is smaller than it was in DeFlora’s day. The western portion was sold to a developer and the Stonybrook Manor condos were built there. The northern portion (formerly Pascack Pool) was turned into a soccer field.