Calendar of Events…

May–June 2016

Cliff NotesVisitor letter for the Palisades Interstate Park

in New Jersey

Copyright © 2016 Palisades Interstate Park Commission

CWA workers building the second floor of Alpine Bathhouse in February 1934. See our online version

of this article at njpalisades.org for more images.

New

Jersey Offices

P.O. B

ox 155A

lpine, NJ 07620

Palisades In

terstate

Park C

om

mis s ion

Palisades Interstate Park in New JerseyCalendar of Events • May–June 2016

For a complete calendar of events, directions, and more: njpalisades.org/calendarUnless noted, all programs are free and open to all, and advance registration is NOT required.

Sunday, May 1“Palisades Meet-Up Clean-Up”  • Monthly volunteer cleanup with the Appalachian Mountain Club  •  10 AM – 1 PM

at Allison Park in Englewood Cliffs. (Note change of meeting place this month for “Rock the River” races.) We provide trash bags, litter sticks, rubber gloves, and treats. For more information: 201-615-9226.

Saturday, May 7“Hooked on the Hudson”  •  Fishing contest, exhibits, and more with the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association  •  All

the fun is at Ross Dock Picnic Area in Fort Lee! Fishing contest: 8 AM – 2 PM. Equipment and bait provided – free! Casting contest: 2 – 3 PM. Awards ceremony at 3 PM. Exhibits: 9 AM – 3 PM. For more information: hrfanj.org.

Sunday, May 8“Mother’s Day Hike to the Women’s Monument”  •  Guided hike with Eric Nelsen  • Meet 11 AM at Park

Headquarters in Alpine. About 4 mi., 2 hrs., easy. For more information: 201-768-1360 ext. 108.Saturday, May 14

“The Giant Stairs”  •  Guided hike and rock scramble with Christina Fehre  • Meet 10 AM at State Line Lookout in Alpine. About 4 mi., 4 hrs., challenging. Experienced hikers only. Bring lunch. For more information: 201-615-9226.

Saturday, May 21“Music on the Rocks”  •  An evening of jazz with The Steve Kaiser Quartet •  7 – 10 PM at State Line Lookout in

Alpine. $5 admission. Lookout Inn open for food & snacks, or bring your own picnic! BYOB. For more information: 201-750-0465. Rain Date: May 28.

Sunday, May 22“Hudson River Barn Dance”  •  Barn dance with Dave Harvey & The Backyard Boys  •  2 – 4 PM at Alpine Pavilion at

the north end of Alpine Picnic Area & Boat Basin. $1 hot dogs for sale! For more information: 201 768-1360 ext. 108.“Flower Moon Bonfire”  •  Beach bonfire with park staff  •  8 – 10:30 PM at the beach at the north end of Alpine

Picnic Area & Boat Basin. Bring a blanket or chair. For more information: 201-768-1360 ext. 108.Saturday, June 4

“National Trails Day”  •  Guided hikes + hiking information and volunteer opportunities with the Trail Crew •  10 AM – 4 PM at State Line Lookout in Alpine and at Ross Dock Picnic Area in Fort Lee ($10 parking at Ross Dock). For more information: 201-615-9226.

“Music on the Rocks”  •  An evening of classic rock with Kid Thadillac •  7 – 10 PM at State Line Lookout in Alpine. $5 admission. Lookout Inn open for food & snacks, or bring your own picnic! BYOB. For more information: 201-750-0465. Rain Date: June 11.

Sunday, June 5“Palisades Meet-Up Clean-Up”  • Monthly volunteer cleanup with the Appalachian Mountain Club  •  10 AM – 1 PM

at Ross Dock Picnic Area in Fort Lee. We provide trash bags, litter sticks, rubber gloves, and treats. For more information: 201-615-9226.

Saturday, June 11“Scavenger Hunt”  •  Children’s program with Danny Hoey •  10 AM – 12 PM at Allison Park in Englewood Cliffs. For

all ages. Bring a camera/phone. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information: 201-615-9226.“Trash Trek”  • Guided 2-mile hike and trail clean-up with Danny Hoey •  1 – 4 PM, meeting at Allison Park in Englewood

Cliffs. We provide gloves, trash bags, and litter sticks. Groups of 5 or more please call in advance: 201-615-9226.Monday, June 20

“Solstice Hike”  •  Guided hike with Eric Nelsen  • Meet 6:30 PM at the Kearney House at Alpine Picnic Area & Boat Basin. About 5 mi., 2 hrs., moderate. Bring a flashlight. For more information: 201-768-1360 ext. 108.

Saturday, June 25“Kids’ Photo Hike and Contest”  •  Children’s program with John Adriance •  3 – 5 PM at State Line Lookout in

Alpine. For all ages. Bring a camera/phone. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information: 201-615-9226.

thurSday, June 30 (alSo on July 14 & 21)“Behind the Times” at Mrs. Kearney’s tavern  •  Historic open-house programs  •  7 – 9 PM at the Kearney House

at Alpine Picnic Area & Boat Basin. With music, light refreshments, games, storytelling, and reading aloud. For more information: 201-768-1360 ext. 108.

“Features of Unusual Beauty

and Utility”Restoring Alpine Pavilion

in 2016

All through the “hard win-ter” of 1934, in the depths of the Great Depression, the building took shape. Men—most of them would

be unemployed, were it not for feder-ally funded work programs like this—struggled to stay warm as they broke the frozen ground and dug the foundation and the septic field.

They built the first floor out of diabase stones gathered from the talus slope, from where they had fallen from the ancient face of the Palisades. The men hauled the stones to the work site and turned them and chipped at them and fit-ted them one to another to form the ex-terior walls. The structure that emerged from all that backbreaking labor was massy yet graceful. The masons who supervised the work had the men lay the largest stones on the lowest courses, with the stones of each successive course a little smaller, so that the struc-ture rose from the ground with a gentle taper, like a wine glass.

Within the walls carpenters built lock-ers and restrooms, so the building could serve its primary purpose: to be a bath-house for the riverfront bathing beach it overlooked. Access to the interior would be through a wide stone archway that placed all that weight upon a keystone ten feet above the ground.

The second floor would be covered but left open to the air. From each corner a stone column helped support the slate roof, but otherwise it was all built on the timbers of chestnut trees that had been harvested from the standing dead of the Palisades forest—victims of a blight that

swept the continent a generation before. Visitors would gain access to the second floor by a pair of broad stairways, one at either end of the building, built on a scale that could bring a medieval castle to mind. A Douglas fir floor was laid from end to end, and a rusticated railing, also made from chestnut timbers, was constructed around it, interspersed with stone segments that further augmented the castle-like feel of the structure. This would be a space for picnickers to relax and enjoy a meal after splashing in the river—or where an old-fashioned barn dance could be held.

Through four major blizzards and temperatures that bottomed out to be the lowest ever recorded for the area—still!—the men worked on. Fed-eral funding for the program—the Civil Works Administration, or CWA—expired at the end of March, but the State of New Jersey made up the difference. The building, along with a nearby refresh-ment stand built at the same time and in the same style, opened on schedule for Memorial Day weekend that year.

In the Commissioners’ 1934 An-nual Report, they wrote, “At Alpine a new bath house, 32 x 87 [feet] … was constructed and provided with all mod-ern facilities. … [R]ustic in design and veneered with great boulders, it has architectural features of unusual beauty and utility.” Yet after just ten seasons, the original “utility” of the still-new build-ing would be rendered moot: in their 1944 Report, the Commissioners wrote, “The Alpine bathing area was closed for bathing for the duration, because of river pollution caused by war conditions.”

In the decades since, the build-ing—now called Alpine Pavilion—while no longer used as a bathhouse, has remained one of the park’s most popu-lar amenities. Special events are held there, and it is reserved most weekends in the season for functions that range from meetings to group picnics to wed-dings. Early in this century, improved and accessible restrooms were added, to greatly enhance the facility’s appeal, and this year it has received some ad-ditional restoration, including a complete replacement of the original upstairs floor.

Being open-air, eight decades of moisture and snowfall took a toll on the old floor. Operations supervisor Anthony Taranto was tasked to supervise the re-placement, including the selection of the appropriate materials. Modern materials such as composites were considered—these are often now recommended for outdoor applications like this—but were dismissed, given the historic character of the structure. Red cedar was considered an appropriate match for the original flooring, but was deemed too soft for the amount of foot traffic and weathering it would be subjected too. A hardwood was preferred, both for its more attrac-tive grain structure and its fire retardant properties. The next balance was to find the most ecologically-harvested hard-wood he could, and Anthony eventually chose West African mahogany.

Christopher Ciongoli, Inc., of Mahwah was given the contract. (Originally from Dumont, he has memories of coming to the site with his father to go fish-ing—when the building already seemed ancient.) Nine floor joists had to be re-

placed, and almost five hundred square feet of new sub floor was needed, using three-quarter-inch marine grade ply-wood. One of the most time-consuming tasks was to remove the original cut nails that secured the old flooring: each nail had to be individually cut with a grinder. When all that was done, the new mahogany flooring, tongue-and-grove planks four inches wide and three-quar-ters of an inch thick, was laid. A particu-lar challenge was to create an effective seal between the new wooden floor and the original stone walls. Anthony’s research led him to spec out a caulking process for that. When all was complete, the contractors oiled the new floor.

The cost for the new floor was twenty-three thousand dollars for materials, and thirteen thousand dollars for labor.

A separate project to replace three sections of the original railings around the upstairs of the Pavilion was done by Yankee Construction (the same folks who so expertly rebuilt the stone wall toppled by Hurricane Sandy at the nearby Kearney House). Our own main-tenance crew, meanwhile, has replaced the ceiling and the lighting downstairs, at the entrance to the restrooms.

It is gratifying to be able to honor this structure with some needed mainte-nance and restoration. We plan to cel-ebrate the occasion with a barn dance on Sunday afternoon, May 22. Later that evening, we’ll also host a public bonfire on the old bathing beach. (We even saved a few pieces of the old flooring to add to the fire—call it a ceremonial touch, a way to acknowledge the legacy we have been charged to keep.)